Fiat caned as JLo ad launches the 500 in the US: "Worst car spot for years"

Surely it can't be that bad? After all she IS JLo - but the ad aimed at women was shown on sports programmes .

 A music-video-style ad featuring JLo for Fiat  is taking a drubbing for both its creative and media placement, says AdAge magazine. 

Former auto-marketing exec Peter DeLorenzo called it "quite possibly the worst automotive spot of the last decade, hands down."

The ad was launched launched  Sept. 12 on Monday Night Football where is has been appearing  since. 

Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for Edmunds.com."The ad says this is a car for hip women. . So why advertise that on football?"  

"I don't think we have a car problem; people love the car," said Olivier Francois, of Chrysler told AdAge magazine in an exclusive interview . "I think we have an awareness problem."

Mr. Francois, chief marketing officer for  Chrysler,  has now added oversight of Fiat marketing .

He told AdAge ,"When you are working with limited resources, you have to invent some out-of-the-box stuff which I am trying to do."

One out-of-the-box play was working with Ms. Lopez, said Adage  Mr. Francois  said it was not a commercial at all but rather a "trailer" for Ms. Lopez's new video for the single "Papi." 

Mr. Francois said  he and his friend Ms. Lopez had a discussion with her manager Benny Medina, in which they talked about having the Fiat 500 used as the car featured in the chase sequence of the video. 

Afterward, Mr. Francois said he asked Mr. Medina for the footage and said Fiat would put together a 30-second trailer for the video.

THe original ad agency  Impatto were not  involved. "I think it's clear that it's a trailer and not an ad; we're inviting people to go see the whole video on YouTube," Mr. Francois said 

In January Fiat North America CEO Laura Soave  had hired Impatto, a Michigan-based boutique agency to handle creative duties and event strategy. They were behind the “Life is Best When Driven” tag but are now reportedly being dropped . 

After six months, Fiat  is selling only half  the 6,000 cars per month month in the US, the goal set by Fiat-Chrysler chairman Sergio Marchionne,

"Dealers are disgruntled that they have only one model, the 500, to sell," says Ad Age. 

Mr. Francois said  that a "real" Fiat ad featuring Ms. Lopez would be out "in a few weeks" -- though he wouldn't  say which agency was doing the spot. The automaker's current roster agencies include Wieden & Kennedy, Leo Burnett and Global Hue. 

Mr. Francois said the tagline will remain even in the new J. Lo spot. He added,  "Listen, I'm not a great fan of using celebrities at any cost. I prefer a good idea to a bad celebrity. "

But  according to the New York Post,  Fiat and celebrity website TMZ had done an earlier  deal  involving  celebrities driving the car.

The  Post said the paparazzi would be tipped off to celebrities who were set to drive the cars, and they would shoot the unsuspecting stars.

"This was conceived before my time," said Mr. Francois.

" The paparazzi part is crazy to me. Maybe there had been internal talks but I was not involved," he said. "We were going to give the opportunity to some opinion leaders to drive the car. We have a lot of requests, around L.A. especially, to drive the car. It's nothing but good to have opinion leaders driving your car. I don't know what happened, but it spun out of control."