Cadillac: Not just for rappers

When you hear "Cadillac," your brain probably conjures an image of a rapper dripping with bling, crouching low in front of an Escalade's metallic grill, giving a nice toothy smile to show of his own custom dental grill. Then the shot pans to the side where we see the rims, replete with sparkling chrome, carelessly rotating inside stationary tires. Thankfully, the rappers feel no need to juxtapose their own rims with the car's for this shot.

A car brand, so glorified by pop culture, has all the free advertising it could ask for; endorsements on MTV cribs, shots in music videos, complete lyrical stanzas - you name it! Cadillac has achieved a degree of brand saturation that companies like Coke and Pepsi pay out the rim for.

Yet, I turn on the tv and see more Cadillac advertising! This time, though, GM is making it official.

Yes, Cadillac is trying to reach my peer group; elite, educated, 20-somethings who spend our highly sought after 'disposable income' on branding ourselves in a never ending battle for status supremacy. (Admittedly, we try to be somewhat discrete about this)

So how do you sell a car to my demographic? Use different music.

Any hipster can tell you Justice is the latest group my target market has adopted for self-branding coolness. They're euro, they're electronic, and they're certainly not too gay. (there's a fine line between cool electronica and gay electronica). They're perfect for reinstating Cadillac to my consumer-consciousness. GM still has a lot of ground to make up if it wants to capture us away from the BMW-Audi-Volkswagon triumverate. If this commercial is any indication of what's to come, I'm sure they'll have a fighting chance.

and now, the commercial:

Escalade commercial featuring Justice "Genesis"

(the copyright gods won't let me embed, so the link will have to suffice - lo siento)