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Chrysler aims to inspire Italy out of financial crisis with Fiat Panda commercial

Chrysler Group is aiming to inspire Italy to work its way out of its current financial crisis with a new television commercial for the 2012 Fiat Panda.


The advertisement follows the formula used to effect for the launch of the Jeep Grand Cherokee in the US in 2010, and more famously the Chrysler 200 ‘Imported from Detroit’ ad, which aired during the 2011 Super Bowl and has been viewed more than 14 million times on YouTube.

The ad borrows the tagline from the Jeep ad, asserting “The things we make, make us”, and insists Italy needs to start anew the only way it knows how: “through hard work, and by proving ourselves”.

“We can choose which Italy we want to be,” the narrator says. “Now is the time to decide. Whether to be ourselves or to accept the views imposed on us. Now is the moment to start anew.”

The message in some ways echoes that of Australia's manufacturing minister Kim Carr, who yesterday said if Australia was serious about pulling through the current tough economic times it needed to "go at it hard".

The ad features Fiat’s Pomigliano factory near Naples, Italy, which has just taken over production of the Panda from the company’s Poland facility.

Fiat plans to spend 20 billion euros ($24.8 billion) modernising its Italian factories on the condition that its employees agree to work arrangements that are more productivity focused, including stricter rules on overtime, sick leave and even coffee breaks.

Italy is struggling through the financial crisis gripping much of Europe. Unemployment has risen to 8.6 per cent, and has soared to more than 40 per cent among young workers. The number of jobs in Italy has decreased by 680,000 since April 2008.

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