I’ve said it before that clients who run Super Bowl spots are the ones who really pay close attention to how the spots rate in contests like the USA Today Ad Meter. Now AutoBlog is suggesting that Cadillac’s poorly received Super Bowl spot, done by Leo Burnett’s Detroit office, may have been the catalyst for Modernista’s new assignment.
Cadillac’s Liz Vanzura was reportedly disgusted with the brand’s Super Bowl spot that depicted the new 2007 Escalade in a fashion show. The ad apparently flopped in all the meters measuring how much the audience liked the commercial. In response to Cadillac’s flailing marketing effort she has transferred the marketing duties for some of the brand’s models away from Leo Burnett, the agency responsible for the Super Bowl fumble, to an agency called Modernista.
Of course, it helps that Vanzura had previously worked for VW whose agency, Arnold, had Lance Jensen on board. Jensen was one of Modernista’s founders.
While I love Lance’s and Modernista’s work a lot, I have to wonder about Ms. Vanzura. She was disgusted at Burnett’s Super Bowl spot? Hmmm, wonder who approved that commercial? Wonder who killed all the great concepts presented before it?
Clients get the work they deserve.