Jeep’s Super Bowl Crowd Pleaser Nearly Didn’t Air

Bill Murray agreed to do the spot two weeks before Groundhog Day

Jeep’s Groundhog Day spot with Bill Murray was undoubtedly one of the best ads of Super Bowl 54, topping both Adweek’s list of the 10 Best Super Bowl Ads of 2020 and USA Today’s annual Ad Meter.

But the last-minute production could easily have never aired as Fox sold out of ad inventory in November and the brand began shooting ten days before the game without a media buy.

All the steps had to fall into place for it to work.

Divine intervention?

Back in October 2019, Olivier Francois, chief marketing officer of Jeep parent Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), said FCA was thinking about the Super Bowl, but was on the fence because it didn’t have a car launch to promote this year.

It

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