Bruce Springsteen isn’t known for doing commercials, but for this year’s Super Bowl, the rock legend made an exception, with a spot for Jeep about common ground, connection and crossing the divide between red and blue.
A month after a mob, driven by debunked election claims, stormed the U.S. Capitol, Springsteen wants us to find “the middle.”
“It’s no secret the middle has been a hard place to get to lately,” he explains, his voice narrating as he travels through a lonely landscape. “We need the middle. We just have to remember the very soil we stand on is common ground so we can get there.”
A message of healing. A balm for a divided country. A poetic appeal for us, as Americans, to remember how our freedom connects us.
There’s no flashy new Gladiator, Grand Cherokee or Wagoneer.
Just The Boss, in a battle gray 1980 Jeep CJ-5, traveling with the top off to the center of the country.
It’s a real place and a metaphor.
In a whirlwind production over a matter of days, Springsteen and a production crew traveled to Lebanon, Kansas, to reach the tiny U.S. Center Chapel, in the geographical heart of the United States.
“There’s a chapel in Kansas standing on the exact center of the Lower 48. It never closes. All are more than welcome to come meet here in the middle,” Springsteen explains.
He ends the piece with a message of hope, before the words “to the ReUnited States of America” appear on the screen:
“We can make it to the mountaintop, through the desert, and we will cross this divide.
Our light has always found its way through the darkness. And there’s hope on the road up ahead.”
The 2-minute spot is designed to air on television just once, although it is also being posted on YouTube. The piece was expected to be broadcast on Sunday during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LV, featuring the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Kansas City Chiefs.
It’s kin to the most memorable of Fiat Chrysler’s Super Bowl ads, those that strive for art and uplift. Ten years ago, an earlier Super Bowl audience watched Eminem step out of a Chrysler 200 in front of the Fox Theatre as part of the Imported from Detroit campaign, which highlighted the Motor City fighting its way back after hard times. Clint Eastwood, Bob Dylan and the voices of Paul Harvey and Martin Luther King Jr. have all also carried their own messages during the company’s Super Bowl ads.
Fiat Chrysler, now Stellantis since its merger with Peugeot-maker PSA Group, has provided humorous Super Bowl moments, too, as when Bill Murray updated his role last year as TV weatherman Phil Connors from “Groundhog Day,” relishing the day’s repetition behind the wheel of a Gladiator. The company will join General Motors in representing the Detroit Three with national ad spots during this year’s game. Companies spend big when they advertise during the Super Bowl, but the audience is huge.
Olivier Francois, global chief marketing officer for Stellantis who held a similar post in FCA, said convincing Springsteen to do this spot was a dream come true, although he said the convincing part was not so hard this time.
“He has been my dream, the dream endorser for Jeep,” Francois said, noting that he and Mike Manley, who had been FCA’s CEO and head of Jeep and is now head of the Americas for Stellantis, had long discussed a connection with Springsteen and the Jeep brand, describing them both as iconic, authentic, rugged and American.
Francois is friends with Jon Landau, who’s worked with Springsteen for many years. Landau liked the healing message in the script for the commercial and passed it along to Springsteen, Francois said.
“Olivier Francois and I have been discussing ideas for the last 10 years, and when he showed us the outline for ‘The Middle,’ our immediate reaction was, ‘Let’s do it.’ Our goal was to do something surprising, relevant, immediate and artful. I believe that’s just what Bruce has done with ‘The Middle,’” Landau said in a news release.
This all happened in January, showing how quickly these endeavors sometimes come together.
The agreement was approved during the shoot, similar to when the contract with Eminem was signed, Francois said.
“Magic has its own time, and there’s nothing you can do to control it,” Francois said of the tight time frame. “It’s clearly not for the faint of heart. I think it’s worth it because clearly that’s how you make history.”
The idea for the project came from the Detroit-area’s Doner agency.
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“These guy are as crazy as I am,” Francois said, noting that he didn’t ask anyone to create a script for Springsteen, but they did. “It’s really the triumph of perseverance.”
Once Springsteen committed to the project, he was “all in.” Francois said Springsteen could have stayed home in New Jersey and been filmed in his living room, but that’s not how the legend operates.
“There is no compromise with Bruce. There is no fake. There are no such things as fake chapels,” Francois said. “He really is all in, and he gives it everything he has.”
Springsteen took the script he was given and made it his own.
“The concept is the same, but the wording is his,” Francois said, as was the music, which he wrote and produced with frequent collaborator Ron Aniello.
Francois said he can’t disclose the financial terms.
“It is obviously not done for the money,” Francois said. “He doesn’t need my money. It is really done for the greater good.”
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence. Become a subscriber.
The Middle
Transcribed from the Bruce Springsteen Jeep commercial.