FCA Crushed a Real 1963 Jeep Gladiator for its Super Bowl Ad

Super Bowl LIII is just days away, and that means you can expect many companies to debut multi-million-dollar commercials during the big game. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will be one of those companies, and it’ll run five ads for an audience of 100 million-plus viewers. But why wait until Sunday to watch them? Check out all five TV spots below.

Jeep “Crusher”

This ad for the 2020 Jeep Gladiator evokes mixed feelings. We get to see the new JL Wrangler-based Jeep Gladiator pickup truck on television, but not before we see an original Gladiator partially crushed. Just when it looks like the 1960s-era truck is going to be completely flattened, one of the headlights flickers on and the body panels begin reinflating and transforming into those of the new Gladiator, resisting the jaws of the crusher and eventually breaking its hydraulics. It’s a cool effect, but the sacrifice of an early Jeep truck is hard to watch. The crushing sequence looks pretty real, and that’s because it is. When asked for comment about the vintage truck in the ad, an FCA spokeswoman said, “The inoperable 1963 Jeep Gladiator depicted was sourced via an online scrap sales site. We wish we could have driven it while it was still alive!”

The drivetrain may have been shot, but that body looked pretty straight to us…

Dodge “Georgia”

The big game commercial for the Dodge brand follows roughly the same formula as past ads narrated by Vin Diesel, but this time it’s more tailored for the Super Bowl’s host city and state, and there’s no Dominic Toretto. A cover of the classic country song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” serves as the soundtrack, and is appropriate considering two of the three cars featured are Hellcat models. The third vehicle is the Durango SRT. Between shots of the V-8-powered Dodges racing past various Atlanta landmarks, we see a marching band performing on a football field, presumably in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the Super Bowl takes place this year.

Ram “Can’t Remember”

This super-meta TV spot features two cowboys reminiscing about past Super Bowl commercials, and both remark that they can never remember what their favorite ads were advertising. The spot ends with one of the cowboys saying “they need to just show you what they’re selling,” followed by 10 seconds of uninterrupted slow-panning footage of the new 2019 Ram HD.

Ram “Make Sure of It” and Jeep “More Than Just Words”

Contradicting the idea proposed in the last ad, these two commercials barely include any vehicles at all. Ram’s “Make Sure of It” ad features Jeremy Renner talking about gender equality issues and parental responsibilities, while Jeep’s 2-minute “More Than Just Words” spot is a montage of American life and achievements cut to a mostly-instrumental cover of “The Star Spangled Banner” by OneRepublic. U-S-A! And by association, J-E-E-P?

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