My Name Is Ram, and I Have a Bad Commercial

Chrysler, and its Italian owners, have come up with new idea to save the company: make the Dodge Ram pickup truck its own brand.

So it's not called the "Dodge Ram" anymore, it's just "Ram."

I don't know why they've done this. While the Dodge name is a bit tarnished right now, in terms of public perception, people still think that Dodges are tough, rugged and powerful cars.

So why do they want to take that image away from the Ram? I don't understand. While people will know that Dodge makes this new Ram, it just doesn't sound right.

Whether the name change makes a difference or not remains to be seen. The bigger problem is the new commercial Chrysler and Fiat came up.

Here it is:



First thing first: it's boring. No one is going to sit and watch a minute long slideshow with a man reading a script.

Second, what does this say about Dodge and Chrysler as a larger company? They say they're ready, that they are built to outlast.

But platitudes and empty marketing slogans don't work. Show this new Ram pulling a 747 behind it. Have it crash through a brick wall. Show other pickup trucks cowering in fear of its massive chrome grill.

While I'm not sold on the idea of the Ram being its own brand, I wish Chrysler the best of luck. As I've said, I want them to make it.

But they need better marketing than this to survive. They need to go on the offensive, especially since they don't have many new products in the pipeline.