Perplexing. Mysterious. But most of all, masculine. If Matthew McConaughey wasn’t already human, he’d be a cologne.
Everyone’s favorite slow-talking actor is back, and he’s ready for more puzzling and cerebral Lincoln ads. What unfathomable essence lurks within the heart of this man, you ask.
The three commercials just released by Lincoln Motor Company (thankfully) feature a lot less talking — none, in fact — and plenty of Sergio Leone-style shots of McConaughey’s weathered face and twinkling, mischievous eyes. This time, his lifestyle adventures are designed to get you behind the wheel of the redesigned 2017 Lincoln MKZ.
Well, “redesigned” is a strong word. The front clip, now with Continental-esque grille, is a big — and arguably better — departure from the former Baleen whale mouth. The rest of the body remains relatively unchanged, though Lincoln adds a 400-horsepower, twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6 to the powertrain menu.
The automaker reaped a lot of publicity out of its earlier McConaughey ads, even if some of it was ridicule, so why not squeeze some more marketing juice out of the guy?
Now, watch as McConaughey has his manly stubble scraped off his face like redwood stumps from the rich, red California earth.
Don’t forget that he was the “Lincoln Lawyer.”
You might as well add the Jim Carey SNL ad parody’s to the clips above – they were so spot on.
Agree – pretty much the funniest skits he did last time he hosted.
Nothing has made me want to buy a Lincoln less than he and his douchey ads. Hilarious watching him put on a watch in his commercials that cost more than the vehicle he is driving in the commercials. Is there even one paparazzi shot with him driving a Lincoln? Any photo I have ever seen him in that has a car in it, it has never been a Lincoln, think the last one I saw he had a Tahoe. It’s like the Cadillac commercial that has Steve Wozniak in it and then you go to his Twitter account and about 75% of his tweets are about his Teslas, not a single mention of Cadillac, ever.
To me, the McConaughey ads are more weird than douchey.
The Lexus “December to Remember” ads and almost anything Mercedes puts on screen are about equally pretentious. The Dennis Leary F-series commercials are also very douchey: “we’re talkin’ military-grade aluminium alloy body panels here, pal”
Once Tesla starts TV ads we’ll probably reach peak insufferability.
I feel like anything Tesla could do with a tv commercial was already done by Maserati for their Ghibli Super Bowl spot.
I’m going to let you in on a secret:
Celebrities/psuedo-celebrities don’t use the products they advertise on tv/print ads/instagram/whatever, or at least not exclusively. They are promoting them because the company behind the product is paying them to. Those celebrities who are “above” commercials often famously advertise products in places like Japan, where they know 90% of the American public will never see the ad but they can still collect extra cash.
I’ll give you some time to recollect yourself after this shocking revelation.
The Boss Coffee ads with Tommy Lee Jones are possibly the greatest thing Japan has ever produced.
Go to jail, illegal Tommy Lee Jones doctor!
That’s not true, some do use the products they sell and if you are paying someone millions of dollars to promote a product part of the deal should be to make sure the public sees said celebrity uses that product. For example, they had a video the other day of LeBron being videotaped by his teammate who was joking around and kind of making fun of him for actually driving a KIA. Whenever you see those athletes that are sponsored by Beats headphones wearing headphones to games, they are always wearing Beats, and quite visibly.I would think a halfway decent marketing department with a struggling luxury division should figure out that maybe your celebrity endorser should be seen in the vehicles you are paying him to promote in everyday driving, maybe that might resonate well with the public and more convince them to buy your product. I would think a middle aged couple flipping through People magazine and seeing McConaughey and his family getting out of an MKX would probably convince them to go look at a Lincoln than him putting on a tux in a mansion on a paid TV commercial.
Steve Wozniak is very active on Twitter, don’t you think GM should have stipulated when they paid him all that money to make frequent tweets about driving a Cadillac? I mean he makes Tesla tweets all the time and I am pretty sure they don’t pay him a single dime.
Have you ever driven a Lincoln? That might make you want to buy one even less than these silly ads.
It’s our own damned fault for not appreciating Jill Wagner.
Yes yes! I wonder if she applied for the ‘Jan’ job over at Toyota? If so, she probably got rejected due to being typecast as a Mercury girl.
Maybe they should offer AT&T’s Lilly the job.
I’d buy any car that hot Wendy’s girl promoted. She’s my kryptonite. The dream I had where she and I were in an ’80s McDonald’s play ground…. I didn’t know where to go to lunch the next day.
Is his smirking visage set to take over for Christopher Walken when he retires?
Well. Now. You know. That Mr. Walken. Can’t be beat.
I already knew. Chris Walken; was the best; and. Couldn’t be beaten. In any stretch of the imagination.
Would you like some, shampanyah?
Walken represents the clientele Lincoln already has… McConaughey the clientele Lincoln wishes to have.
In reality, they need to make Lincoln somehow hip to get the clientele they want and these ads are nowhere close to hip.
Lincoln, and especially Cadillac, are in no position to choose their clientele. They should feel lucky if they have a model or two that appeals to people who have the money to buy their cars. They can build a fake image later.
McConaughey, by Lincoln. The new parfume available in our new beatnick coffee house in SoHo.
Wait…
Beatnik coffee house? You’re thinking of Cadillac. As for the “parfume”, I can see it being infused into the Lincoln Leather of the McConaughey Signature Series, and it’ll be applied as you drive.
Correct, that’s what the “wait…” was about (meaning to stop in mid thought and realize something ironic).
Nice idea about the parfume.
…whose kids are these, and how did they get in my Lincoln?
I don’t get all the consternation over these ads. Sure, they’re a bit goofy, but I’ll take this over any of the other pretentious pursuit of perfection, douchey Mercedes announcer (or worse, Santa), or whatever cliche the others are throwing at us now.
Santa is a such a whore, he endorses everything.
That douchey Merc guy is none other than Jon Hamm, AKA Don Draper. Very meta…except he drove Cadillacs once he started making serious coin.
That might make it less douchey to me because I didn’t know it was him and I like him, but had it always been him? I feel like they’ve had it for a long time. Either way, the execution is very dull, especially when they’re telling me how they sweated the details in the new Infiniti-merc that’s been getting panned pretty hard in most reviews/ enthusiast opinion.
The wife asked me just the other night whether he has improved Cadillac sales.
Well, according to Cadillac’s sales figures he definitely hasn’t.
Was your wife thinking of luxury buyers who HAVE to buy American when she said that? Cause, I’m not sure there’s a whole lot of those left. Even my grandparents who I’ve heard used to give my mom and he siblings tons of crud for buying foreign recently bought a Sonata to replace thier Caddy.
I think the wife saw “American luxury car ad” and assumed Cadillac. Doesn’t bode well for The Lincoln Motor Company.
I’d have assumed it was an Avalon advertisement.
You heard wrong. Dodge is the fastest growing American* luxury brand.
*American in the sense that Budweiser is American, which is to say from a marketing perspective, not in any way approaching reality.
You know what they say, that Dart is Rallye luxurious.
Ralleye is the new Brougham.
200 is the new 300.
It says ‘America’ on the can now, does that not mean anything to you?!?
BTSR would confirm the rumor Dodge is both the fastest growing luxury and performance brand in America. Because reasons.
How do I get black people to perform inside my car while I look smug and also shave me while I look smug?!
Chlorine will ruin that suit. And you don’t have a towel so you’re going to get your nice floors all wet in your LA Hills modern.
I guess I’m in the minority but I like MCConaughey’s Lincoln ads, even though I’m not a huge fan his acting. The ads are creative, there’s a good blend between celebrity and vehicle. There’s the feeling of the sly wink of an in joke. I can’t even recall any other contemporary carmakers’ ad that is half as memorable.
Include me in the minority as well. I think they are some of the better car commercials. Never owned a Lincoln or a Ford product but I’ll admit I do like the styling on some of the new Lincolns
I’m OK with the ads too, but it might be because I’m comparing them to ads for every other auto brand on TV. The bar was set pretty low.
Add me to the liking crowd. Both of the ads and the car itself.
If I could afford that kind of money, I’d be looking at a Lincoln long before something German. It’s nice not to see yourself coming every other block.
McConaughey’s single most notable achievement and biggest contribution to humanity is that everybody can never just say alright by itself. Now it’s “alright, alright, alright” and usually in thier best Matthew McConaughey voice or as best they can muster.
Legends were built on less I suppose?
Who’s that annoying chick doing the voiceover in the Cadillac ads, anyway? They’re headed over the cliff.
He’s really crazy about Airstream trailers:
http://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/matthew-mcconaughey-airstream-slideshow/all
I’ve even seen him go on about them on late night TV talk shows. I wonder if he tows his with a Navigator L?
Seeing as this is the latest photo of him with a vehicle taken this year which clearly seems to be a GMC yukon, I am guessing that no, he does not tow his Airstream trailers with a Navigator or any other Ford product. Money well spent Ford/Lincoln.
http://www.justjared.com/photo-gallery/3580998/matthew-mcconaughey-venice-car-03/
They should do a commercial where he wrestles the steering wheel of a FWD 2.7TT MKZ from a stoplight launch.
Or he could walk all slow-like up to a new Evoque, and show it a Ford key.
Evoque responds with a “BLECH!” and throws up its engine.
And the transmission falls out, causing a chunk to break off of the case. Where have I heard that before?
Now to the important stuff: Will the Continental grille on the MKZ punch up the Z sales, or blunt the Continental’s? I preferred the 1960s Continental grille on the old MKZs before the whale teeth came in, and the whole front end is starting to look a bit too much like the Fusion.
In one of the ads, he is putting in his contact lenses…who the hell wants to see that?!?
There’s NOTHING that would draw me into a Lincoln showroom…Cadillac either, for that matter.