Let's Not Forget Matthew McConaughey's Lincoln Commercials
Matthew McConaughey did a memorable turn as the celebrity spokesman for Lincoln. What did he accomplish for the brand?
Written by Alex Reale
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
Selling a car is a complex process. Automakers’ marketing teams are forever revising their strategies, trying to figure out that magic recipe that will get consumers to walk into a dealership. One classic move is to nail down a celebrity endorsement.
Let’s rewind to 2014, when
Matthew McConaughey
made some memorable commercials for the Lincoln Motor Company.Courting the leading man
It was 2014, and Lincoln was looking for a way to improve on a 32-year sales low from the previous year, reports
Galpin Lincoln
. The top brass at the company were ready to bet the farm on a celebrity endorsement, but not from just anybody. They were looking for someone who they felt aligned with Lincoln’s values of “being warm, inviting, and authentic,” according to Lincoln’s former global director Matt VanDyke.
Enter Matthew McConaughey, evergreen rom com leading man and newly crowned Oscar winner for Dallas Buyers Club.
McConaughey filmed a series of commercials for the company. In most of them, he sits behind the wheel of a Lincoln, talking idly to himself in his signature light Texas drawl over an ambient score. In one, the sum total of his dialogue is “here we go,” spoken affectionately to his moonroof as it opens. In another, he considers the dichotomy between “hugging trees” and “being wasteful,” and lands on moderation as the answer.
None of the commercials have any real plot, or any explicit call to action. And yet, watching Matthew McConaughey consider the weight of a bull on an empty desert road, saying nothing whatsoever about APR financing or miles to the gallon, is oddly hypnotic. It’s like autofiction for capitalists.
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Parodying the leading man
Of course, the comedians of the world knew a winner when they saw one.
Saturday Night Live made a perfect parody of the Lincoln spots, with Jim Carrey imitating the brooding expression and swirling fingers of McConaughey as he wondered aloud about why an Oscar winner would do a car commercial, and was surprised by the presence of two small children in the backseat.
Ellen DeGeneres made her own parody of the commercials as well, this time inserting herself into the backseat as McConaughey mused.
This was welcome news for Lincoln, whose website traffic had already increased threefold since the real spots had aired. With the parodies came even more traffic, this time from people who had seen the SNL skit and wanted to know more about the car itself. Lincoln had secured the correct celebrity endorsement.
MORE: Exciting Changes to the 2022 Lincoln Navigator
Remembering the leading man
Despite the surge of interest in those heady times, Lincoln still struggled getting its foothold back in the market. These days, the firm has cut its losses and pivoted to an all-SUV lineup, a smart choice for a brand that makes really great SUVs. But perhaps Lincoln was wise to ride the Oscar-winning coattails of the “McConaissance” of the mid-2010s. There’s nothing like a leading man to keep a flame alive.
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