Jeep’s parent company had tried for more than a decade to persuade Bruce Springsteen to star in one of its commercials. Then this year, it finally landed the rock legend for the highest-profile of appearances: a two-minute ad during the Super Bowl.
It backfired quickly.
Just days after the commercial aired, the company removed it from YouTube and other platforms following reports that Mr. Springsteen had been charged with driving while intoxicated last November.
Allen Adamson, co-founder of Metaforce, a branding firm, said he had never seen a setback of this magnitude involving a Super Bowl ad. “The combination of Springsteen and breakthrough Super Bowl visibility makes this a one-of-a-kind black eye,” he said.
The commercial, in which Mr. Springsteen narrated a somber plea for people to come together in the U.S., generated significant buzz before and after it aired during the game, which was watched by 96.4 million people. The spot was featured in many news articles including The Wall Street Journal, and several TV programs aired portions of the ad, likely generating tens of millions of dollars in free publicity for Jeep.
