Iococca vs. Dr. Z? My Guy Wins Every Time.

The Journal just ran an article on the possible end of the Chrysler Dr. Z campaign. Facing a painful fiscal quarter, the domestic automaker is reassessing the strength of their current advertising strategy and its possible deleterious effects on their bottom line.

Interestingly, studies show that the ads are memorable and effective in getting the core message across. The spots have 43% higher brand recall - and a staggering 63% higher message recall than other Chrysler ads. But is that enough?

In the mid-eighties, Lee Iococca rescued Chrysler from a near failure and brought the automaker back to life. Lee was my first idolized corporate mogul. In junior high I read his autobiography like it were a roadmap to success. He's a remarkable guy with chutzpah, gravitas and unwavering vision.

When a personality like Lee's takes over as corporate spokesman, we already have a history with him. A familiarity. It was admirable for the head of a floundering company to stand before the crowds and ask consumers to give the brand another chance. His trademark line was "If you can find a better car, buy it." And it worked. He even returned in the 2005 ad campaign alongside Snoop Dogg and Jason Alexander to push the "Employee Pricing Plus" promotion.

But the Dr. Z campaign is different. Billed as CEO Dieter Zetsche's "alter-ego" - Dr. Z is pitched as a nutty professor of sorts. He isn't acting as a spokesman, he is playing the role of a fictional character that tested well in focus groups. It's a risky approach, to be sure. Most viewers aren't even sure it is the CEO.

In the end, I'm not sure consumers want CEO's to be pitching major brands at all. It rarely works as well as it did for Dave Thomas of Wendy's or Iococca back in the day. It makes us nervous when the top guy seems to have enough time on his hands to make a series of flashy TV commercials. Unless a company is doing damage control in a Martha Stewart-esque way, I'd just assume not see the CEO in the place of an actor on the small screen. Just my two cents, but Richard Edelman seems to agree. In the same article, he had this to say:

"Dr. Z was a crazy move. We are not in an era where CEO's are seen as rock stars."

As for Chrysler, they've not announced plans to pull the campaign yet. But for now the broadcast and print spots have been suspended while the company focuses their ad dollars on fall clearance and new model announcements. A spokesman says they are mixing it up so as not to seem "boring." Hmm... I'm skeptical of their committment to the chief and the campaign itself. Sounds like it's time to get Iococca off the golf course and back in front of the camera.