fords new account

Ford’s wild new campaign for Focus



Click to play ad (8.9 MB)

Turns out Lion Man is driving the new Ford Focus.

A teaser ad running since mid-October featuring a wild man raised by lions in remote Tanzania is for the redesigned 2008 Focus, Ford Canada revealed this week in new TV spots.

The teaser showed the Lion Man’s capture and attempts to communicate with him and a scientist claiming, “he will never fit into contemporary society.” In the last few seconds of the ad the Lion Man ran toward a car as a voiceover intoned, “Strangely enough, it was a car that changed the Lion Man’s life forever.” The spot ended abruptly with no indication it was from Ford.

“We decided to go with a teaser because we knew we had to grab people’s attention,” says Chris McGroarty, creative director at Ford’s agency, Y&R in Toronto. The unusual campaign also demonstrates Ford’s intent to break from its traditional marketing and advertising practices, he adds. “They want people to feel that Ford is changing.”

Lion Man was created to help Ford illustrate the “personality” of the Focus, says Dean Stoneley, Ford Canada’s director of marketing communications in Oakville, Ont.

Ford’s research showed consumers associate the Focus with the kind of person you’d always invite to a party because they’re very friendly and well-connected.


Click to play ad (5.1 MB)

“But we couldn’t say ‘Buy this car and you will have more friends,’ ” says Stoneley. “So we made it so exaggerated and so ridiculous. [We thought] what if we expose the car to someone who has no social skills?”

The rest of the campaign will show how the Focus helps Lion Man gain new friends and join modern society. One of the reveals shows Lion Man a week after his escape, cleaned up and driving the Focus with a car full of friends. “Lion Man had gone from animal to social animal,” says the scientist from the teaser. The spot ends with the tag line, “The new redesigned 2008 Ford Focus is a real social life accelerator.”

Aside from TV, the campaign includes print, outdoor, restaurant and bar, and online efforts. The latter includes a soon-to-launch website, socialaccelerator.ca, where visitors can play a game and enter a contest asking users to help Lion Man adjust to society more quickly. Lion Man will also be making some live appearances.