A new 60-second commercial for the '12 Chrysler 300 featuring Lions DT Ndamukong Suh "is scheduled to debut during" Thursday's Packers-Lions game, according to Bill Shea of CRAINS' DETROIT BUSINESS. The spot includes Suh and "metro Detroit neighborhoods and people, similar to the 'Imported from Detroit' spots unveiled during the Super Bowl in February." It also features the 1917 Edgar Guest poem "See It Through" with music from "late iconic bluesman Muddy Waters singing 'Mannish Boy.'" Guest grew up in Detroit and was a reporter for the Detroit Free Press (CRAINSDETROIT.com, 11/21). The commercial's visual background is "a rolling montage of urban, and a few modest suburban, scenes, faces carefully balanced between black and white, young and old." The tagline "Imported from Detroit" is shown at the end (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 11/22). ADWEEK.com's Noreen O'Leary noted the ad, which is from Wieden + Kennedy and was named Adweek's "Ad of the Day" Tuesday, shows Suh "standing in front of his Chrysler 300." The ad debuting during the Packers-Lions game is a "fitting context in which to run a message about Detroit's determination to beat the odds, as the Packers are currently a perfect 10-0" (ADWEEK.com, 11/22). This marks Suh's second ad for Chrysler, as he starred in one that began running this spring (THE DAILY).
SPLIT PERSONALITIES: SPORTING NEWS' Matt Crossman reported there is "naturally a disconnect between how Suh and the Lions view him and how the rest of the NFL views him." Lions coach Jim Schwartz said, "He’s an outstanding person, and we’re happy to have him represent us." Crossman noted the corporate world "feels the same." Suh is the "most visible Lion since Barry Sanders, with endorsement deals with Subway, Nike, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Chrysler." One of Suh’s commercials for Dick’s "features him hunting quarterbacks." All of this "reveals the contrast between his on-field and off-field personas" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 11/22).
