"Bugs" will be found in some of the most unusual places as the Jeep® brand launches a new marketing campaign to introduce the next two vehicles in the brand’s product offensive — the all-new 2007 Jeep Wrangler two-door, the brand’s icon, and the new Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, the first-ever four-door Wrangler.

Both vehicles tap aspirational Jeep values — the need for freedom, adventure, excitement and fun.


"With more capability, interior space and comfort, refinement, power and open-air fun, the all-new Wrangler is the best Jeep Wrangler ever and takes the freedom to go anywhere and do anything to a new level," says John Plecha, Director – Jeep Marketing and Global Communications. "It's the ultimate freedom machine.

"And, with room for five adult passengers and the most cargo space ever offered in a Wrangler, the four-door Unlimited expands the Jeep experience and allows consumers to share Wrangler's unparalleled fun, freedom and adventure with family and friends," adds Plecha.

This active Jeep lifestyle is communicated in a new marketing campaign featuring "bugs" traveling across indoor and outdoor landscapes, up the walls of buildings and through magazine pages. At closer look, the bugs are actually an aerial view of the new Jeep Wranglers carrying typical "tools" of the Jeep lifestyle such as kayaks, surfboards, snowboards and backpacking gear. When the images shift to a side view, it becomes clear that the bugs are actually a Jeep Wrangler or Wrangler Unlimited, the new species of Jeep.

The bugs, and other creative treatments, will reach consumers through a 360 marketing campaign that includes television, print, online, events, gaming, out-of-home media, customer relationship marketing and merchandising.

"The emotional connection between the Jeep owner and his or her Wrangler is strong and unlike other vehicles," said Jay Kuhnie, Director – Jeep Communications. "With key passions of outdoor, adventure, sports and music, you'll find Jeep Wrangler advertising showing up in both traditional and non-traditional lifestyle locations."

Wrangler television spots begin the week of Sept. 18 on the season premieres of "Extreme Home Makeover," "Lost," "Deal or No Deal," "The Office," "Boston Legal," "Everybody Hates Chris," "All of Us," "The Game" and "Heroes." Additional programming includes NFL and college football and high-profile prime-time shows such as "Studio 60" (NBC), "House" (FOX), "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (NBC), and "CSI: NY" on networks including ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, Comedy Central, FUEL TV, MTV, ESPN, FX, TBS and TLC.

Five TV spots were created, in total. “Grooming” and “Bird” introduce the Wrangler Unlimited, the world’s first four-door Wrangler; “Lizard” introduces the all-new 2007 Wrangler, and “Rock Crawler” features both vehicles. Wrangler Unlimited will be introduced to the African American market with a spot called “Bigger Deffer” which pays homage to Wrangler’s place in the beginning stages of Hip Hop music.

The “bugs” are featured prominently in print advertising that includes magazine inserts and multiple page spreads. The ads will run in men’s, sports, music, entertainment, outdoor/adventure, automotive, women’s and health/fitness publications including Esquire, Men’s Journal, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Automobile, Car Driver, Wheeler and Motor Trend.

In one ad, readers are asked to “find the new species” of bugs from among the16 different varieties shown, with four aerial views of the Wrangler or Wrangler Unlimited hidden among pictures of the real bugs.

In addition to full-page ads, there will be a fun creative treatment running in the Sept. 19 issue of USA Today where a bug appears to burrow through editorial copy, before turning into a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited advertisement.

A hip-hop oriented print ad with the heading, “The culture grew…so did we,” will introduce the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited in publications reaching African-American consumers.

Online advertising includes banner ads and home page takeovers on sites such as Edmunds, AOL, MSN, Yahoo and Kelly Blue Book. The Wrangler and Wrangler Unlimited interactive presence includes video games and partnerships with DirecTV, Ripe TV, Mobi TV, FUEL TV's "Drive: Notes from the Wilderness" with Mike V., and Actions Sports Lat34.

Jeep Wrangler will be the first vehicle to be integrated in TLC’s Miami Ink podcasts; and the sponsor of the first-ever Sports Illustrated “This is My House” fantasy football initiative, and the first-ever “Action Sports Awards,” produced by FUEL and airing on the FOX network.

The bugs will be crawling everywhere in traditional and non-traditional out-of-home media placements that include rotating and mobile billboards, wallscapes, building and storefront wraps, and graffiti murals in key markets such as N.Y., L.A., Miami, Houston, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Chicago and San Francisco.

Building wraps, for example, feature bugs crawling up and/or around buildings leading to a traditional billboard featuring a side view of the new Wrangler Unlimited.

TV Spot Descriptions
In “Grooming,” two gorillas encounter a “bug” they believe to be food only to find out it’s really the new Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. In “Bird,” a hungry bird zeros in on a potential “bug” snack and painfully discovers the Unlimited. In “Rock Crawler,” what appears to be a bug-like object makes its way through an adventurous tunnel only to surface as the new four-door Jeep Wrangler Unlimited alongside the all-new Jeep Wrangler two-door.

“Lizard” opens on a lizard running across the desert floor. It sees the old Jeep Wrangler, faces off against it, then expands himself and hisses to try and scare away the Wrangler. The Wrangler, unfazed, suddenly expands and changes into the all-new Jeep Wrangler and scares off the lizard. The voiceover says, “Introducing the 2007 Wrangler. Bigger…Bolder…Badder… A new species from Jeep.”

“Bigger Deffer” opens with the words “we ran the streets… and became legendary” set to Hip Hop music and fast paced computer generated images in an urban setting. The spot communicates the four doors, Freedom Top™ and MyGIG™ Multimedia Infotainment System of the new 2007 Wrangler Unlimited and closes with “more room to move the crowd” flashing on the screen.