Over archival footage of a 1960s-era civil rights demonstration, the narrator says bluntly, “We are a nation divided.”
“We had to get the elephant out of the room,” Uwe Ellinghaus, Cadillac’s chief marketing officer, told me this
week when I visited Cadillac’s sleek headquarters in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood for a preview of the ads.
Like most major national ads, work on Cadillac’s Oscars campaign began nearly a year ago, when Mr. Ellinghaus had dinner with Arthur Sadoun, chief executive of the advertising agency Publicis Communications (and now chairman
and chief executive of Publicis Groupe), to discuss this year’s campaign.
Cadillac Ad Tries to Bridge Nation’s Chasm, Without Falling In -
Can a luxury auto ad help bridge the deep political chasm in America — and, while it’s at it, sell cars?
Perhaps Cadillac’s ad could remind Americans of the nation’s resilience
and inherent optimism, and “celebrate what America is capable of,” Mr. Ellinghaus said.
We wanted to transcend it.”
Perhaps it took two non-Americans — Mr. Sadoun is French, Mr. Ellinghaus is German — to suggest
that by acknowledging the divide, an ad campaign might actually help heal it.
The president and his wife, Melania, arrived at the inauguration in a heavily armored custom Cadillac known as the “Beast,”
and the Cadillac brand is indelibly linked to the White House.