Chrysler was once the king of crazy auto-show stunts
Stellantis’ decision not to attend auto shows in North America, including next month’s Chicago Auto Show, serves as a reminder of how many memorable moments the corporate parent of Dodge, Ram, and Jeep has provided at the once-premier North American International Auto Show, typically called the Detroit show. At its height, the show was arguably the most important one in the world, and it benefited from being the hometown production for Detroit’s Big Three.
Jason Vines, former global vice-president of communications for Stellantis precursor DaimlerChrysler, was the lead architect of several of the company’s top auto show stunts. Now a crisis public relations consultant and author (What Did Jesus Drive? Crisis PR in Cars, Computers and Christianity, available on Amazon), Vines wonders if auto shows will make a comeback.
Manufacturers “don’t like the show business aspect” of auto shows, Vines says. “I get that. So much of the business is online now. I get that, too: I’ve been shopping for cars for my wife and my daughter this last month. But unlike auto shows, online doesn’t let you sit in the car when you’re at home or in your office on your laptop.”
One of Vines’ most famous productions at the Detroit show was “the cattle drive,” where cowboys on horseback, paraded up Detroit’s Washington Boulevard in January of 2008, en route to Cobo Hall, the site of the show. Vines and his colleagues rounded up 120 longhorn cattle and had them shipped up from Oklahoma, where they surrounded several of the then-new 2009 Dodge Ram Crew Cab pickups.
Ford, that same day, introduced its restyled F-150 pickup at the show in a far more conventional setting. “The perennial number-one best-selling vehicle in America, and I know we got double, maybe triple the coverage for the Ram,” Vines recalls. That year, 2008, the Detroit show claimed to host 5500 media members from around the world.
Possibly the company’s best-known product reveal came in 1992, and was arguably the first of multiple major Chrysler auto show stunts. The attending media gathered near the north end of Cobo Hall and watched a brand-new Jeep Grand Cherokee slowly creep up the steps. Seconds later, it crashed through the plate glass window, and continued driving inside the building. Bob Lutz, then Chrysler’s vice-chairman, was at the wheel, and his passenger was Detroit Mayor Coleman Young.
The real glass had been replaced with movie-stunt glass, and the moment the Grand Cherokee reached it, a series of small explosives that had been planted around the window were triggered by remote, allowing the Jeep to enter amid thousands of “glass” shards.
“It was designed to be safe, and it was a brilliant demonstration of how you can use a low-cost PR stunt to far more effect at a product introduction than you could ever get from conventional advertising,” Lutz told the Detroit News in 2022. “That stunt was on every TV station, every major news media in the U.S.—and around the world.” According to the News, “There would actually be a sequel in 2006 when Jeep drove another new product—the ’07 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon—off its stand and through Cobo’s glass into the street.”
Some other memorable moments from the Stellantis crew:
In 1993, Dodge slowly dropped the new Ram truck from the Cobo ceiling onto the stage.
In 1994, “Chrysler holds the limelight for the third consecutive year,” said Automotive News. “Peter Graves, of TV’s Mission: Impossible helped Chrysler President Bob Lutz unveil its ‘cloud cars,’ the 1995 Dodge Stratus and Chrysler Cirrus, accompanied by showbiz theatrics. Wall Street is so impressed, it sends Chrysler’s stock soaring the same day.”
In 1995, Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth were introducing redesigned minivans, featuring sliding doors on both sides. As Lutz and Chrysler Chairman Bob Eaton sat on fake rocks, with Eaton wearing a Mister Rogers–style sweater, they read aloud from children’s storybooks as a red Dodge Caravan emerged from the right side of the stage, six feet above ground, driven by Kermit the Frog. It passed over Lutz and Eaton and settled into a patch of fake lily pads, splashing water onto the gathered media. The message: Chrysler was “leapfrogging” the competition.
In 2003, for reasons no one quite understood, the company developed an enormous, sinister-looking three-wheeled motorcycle called the Tomahawk, with a Dodge Viper’s V-10 engine. Riding it onto the stage: A leather-clad Wolfgang Bernhard, the company’s chief operating officer. In 2023 Stellantis recalled the Tomahawk as a “sleek, rolling sculpture that combined styling with extreme engineering.”
In 2006, the Chrysler Aspen, the brand’s first SUV, was introduced in an absolute blizzard of fake snow, as clowns from Slava’s Snowshow, a touring theater production described as “a universal and timeless theatrical poetic spectacle,” joined Chrysler executives on stage.
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Longhorns – here in Denver, Colorado a longhorn parade downtown is a precursor event leading to the two week long Denver Stock Show where Ram is featured in several displays – been there for years. Also, at the State Fair in Pueblo, the Ram display included several driven Rams with passengers over a very steep demonstration obstacle course. And I actually was allowed to sit in a $100k Ram, the diesel Cummins was a $10k feature by itself!
My brother-in-law was a corporate executive engineer for American motors 2004. We got free tickets to go to the Chicago car show. I was in love with the minivans because the middle seats folded flat into the floor. I also fill them up with the 2004 yellow rumble bee pickup truck. I bought one late 2003. It was built for the Milwaukee car show and was too late For the show.At that time you could order one you just had to buy what the dealer had the first one that came in was a four-wheel-drive that was built for the Milwaukee car show.
Because I gotta Chrysler corporate executive discount. I got it for under $20,000. And now has 75,000 miles on it and I still have it still runs great and never rusted out very few problems. Just a few electrical gremlins.
At age 80. I’m thinking I’m going to keep it forever
Chrysler’s best stunt is this years stunt.
They’re not showing up at all.
I guess I’m missing something. What did Longhorn Cattle have to do with Bighorn Sheep?
They’re both delicious.
Wasted lots of my pay and now retirement money on stunts that probably didn’t increase sales; just funneled money to a friend’s business.
I took my son after he turned 18 in 2001. They had jeeps crawling up a “mountain” that got steeper to pure vertical to completely inverted all the to the top of Cobo Hall. Then mid day – Cirque du Soleil began doing “trapeze/high wire stunts” not too far from it. We always wondered how cool it would have been to watch them build (or tear down) that display. I couldn’t begin to count the number of prototypes we saw. We loved it.
We always wanted to go back – but sounds like that is past history now. One more thing we can thank technology and covid for. 🙁
Back in 68 or 69 I went to the Detroit auto show. Arnold Schwarzenegger was there full of muscles for one of the companies. A busty young lady yelled” show me your pecs!” He yelled “Show me yours first”! She peeled her shirt first and so did Arnold with a big smile. Best headlights I’d seen that day. (Arnold’s we’re impressive too)
With the 300, Challenger and Charger gone… what’s to display at Chrysler?
The only auto shows I went to were a bit north of Chicago. I started going to the old Milwaukee Auditorium when I was thirteen years old. I remember the 1955 Thunderbird and stand upon stand of all the other makes. Of course I was walking around in awe of all of them. A few years later was the introduction of the Edsel. I wasn’t impressed. looked like a ford with a fish nose. That’s when I also realized that a Mercury was the same as a Ford with different tail lights and grill. I collected bags of brochures every year. In retrospect, it didn’t take long for them to disappear after I got home. My Mother was a neat freak, I wasn’t.
Working for the car magazines over the years, I had credentials for the NAIAS Press Days during this timeframe, and had the opportunity to see most of the above Chrysler Corp. stunts – which were very clever and got a LOT of press attention – Chrysler Corp. being kind of the “bold, brash, upstart” amongst the “Big Three” at the time. A couple of notes: Regarding the Chrysler minivan with 2nd row sliding doors on both side…prior to that launch event mentioned above, I saw Bob Eaton, Bob Lutz, and Tom Gale all visit the Ford display, and look at / sit inside the new Ford Windstar minivan, which attracted a small crowd of press people – the three Chrysler Corp. execs were all smirking like they knew something everyone else didn’t – and the Ford Windstar still only had a sliding door on the curb / passenger side of the 2nd row! Wolfgang Bernhard – after the Viper V-10 / Dodge Tomahawk motorcycle stunt – talked with one of our automotive writers while I was there, and admitted that he was almost petrified to ride that beast up onto the stage – even though he was an accomplished rider…he was afraid that one little extra burst of throttle may launch it into the crowd of press beyond – with him on it!! Lastly – I still have a full-sized box of Wheaties cereal – with the likeness of Bob Lutz on the front of the box – from yet another Chrysler Corp. press stunt at the NAIAS – does anyone remember what that one was about?!?
I have a distant (false?) memory of Lincoln-Mercury (“the sign of the cat”) having live cougars at an auto show and having their models mauled by them. Most likely in New York City. Anyone else remember this happening?
I am currently reading ONCE UPON A CAR, The Fall and Resurrection of America’s Big Three Automakers (2011). In it, the author describes the Dodge cattle drive being broken up with laughter as “the cows began humping each other.” My questions: Where did they find those lesbian cows, and why were they allowed to strap on those devices?
As a Chrysler Corp enthusiast who was very glad they had emerged from bankruptcy (an amount that seems measly compared to what came later!!) with new, innovative, and desired vehicles, those into stunts made me smile. I always wondered what they had to do to get those Dodge pickups dropped from above the stage to not bend. Lots of neat things Chrysler did back then! After each intro, starring with that first re-designed Doge Ram, their stock doubled with each year’s new vehicle introduction! From about $8 to $80/share by the time they ended their dramatic intros and such.
As great as the larger auto shows were, they were expensive to do. But look at what the same amount of normal advertising would have bought! Media advertising was FREE, not to forget how the attendees would talk to their friends and such, too. Corporate accountants can’t monetize “goodwill” values.
I recall some live feeds of the Cobo Hall set-up and such. Quite neat! Checking in to see what had been built by which company, every day or so.
Perhaps Stellantis will return next year with all of their new Dodge cars, pickups, SUVs, Jeeps, Chry 300 replacement, and Pacificas? If they’d showed up this year, you can bet their presenters would have been asked about “What’s going to replace the Hemi?” or if the Challenger would become a ‘Cuda next year?
At that 2008 longhorn cattle event, I informed PR boss Jason Vines that it’s impossible to herd cattle with a sheep (Ram). He was forlorn.
The Chicago Auto Show was great fun back in the 70’s into the early 90’s. The concept cars teased us with what was possible. Models would smile back at you from the turn tables that had this years offering. It was something that you looked forward to all year long, like the Peanuts Halloween and Christmas TV shows. Now its packed with fat people pushing strollers and letting their spawn run wild. Most of the cars I want to see are no longer participants. I can drive down Ogden Avenue and visit the dealerships. I can see more interesting cars at the CACW car show in Oak Brook.