BizJournals Portfolio

The Hard Sell

Nov 19 2008
Mock-up billboard ads
Hummer sideview
Hummer checklist
Truckbed view
Jerry Della Femina
1 of 12
4X4 Marketing
Between January and September, Hummer sales plunged 47 percent, as consumers abandoned the icon of excess for more-fuel-efficient vehicles. Yet the ad campaign for the H3T, a giant Hummer pick-up truck, has only reinforced Hummer’s reputation for selling oversize adventure-sports vehicles. Can someone save Hummer’s battered brand identity? Condé Nast Portfolio invited four agencies to give it a shot.—Willow Duttge
The Hard Sell
Illustration by McKibillo
DDB New York turned negatives into positives. “Sometimes you have to win people over with the fact and with the attitude,” says chairman and chief creative officer Lee Garfinkel.
Clients: Hertz, Johnson & Johnson
Naked Communications
Illustration by McKibillo
Naked Communications co-founder Paul Woolmington thinks the brand faces an
identity crisis, caught between luxury and utility. His team redesigned the interior, stripping away the bling to uncover Hummer’s utilitarian roots.
Clients: Coca-Cola, Nokia
McGarry Bowen
Illustration by McKibillo
McGarry Bowen positioned the H3T as a green purchase by devising a program for Hummer to reforest a plot of land for each H3T sold.
Clients: Chevron, J.P. Morgan
Jerry Della Femina
Illustration by McKibillo
Jerry Della Femina, C.E.O. of the agency that bears his name, doesn’t think it’s a hard sell. “It’s why people who drive a Rolls-Royce buy the overpriced car,” he says.
Clients: Sirius Satellite Radio, Standard & Poor’s

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