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Independently owned since 1972

June 01, 1996

Reels and Reels of Wheels; Spotlight Burns Brightly When Cars Make a Star Turn

Warren Brown, Washington Post Staff Writer

Salespeople at Fair Oaks Dodge in Fairfax like the hit movie "Twister." They're also fans of the television series "Walker, Texas Ranger." They believe stardom sells, and Dodge trucks and minivans are the stars of the movie and TV show. "People come in and say, 'Hey, that's the one Walker drives,' or, 'I saw that one in the movie,' "

Fair Oaks salesman Victor Coffey said. "That kind of exposure really has an effect." Automakers said cars that become stars don't always sell better, but they do attract more interest. That's why the companies spend several million dollars a year on Hollywood casting agents to find the right film or show to present their products.

That's how BMW of North America Inc. got the premier auto role for its Z3 roadster in the latest James Bond movie, "Goldeneye."

And it's how General Motors Corp. aced Chrysler Corp. in the Barry Sonnenfeld comedy "Get Shorty," and how Ford Motor Co. stole the spotlight from Chrysler in the 1993 dinosaur thriller, "Jurassic Park."

It's a cutthroat business, "no different from if we were representing actors," said Bob Hadler, vice president of Hadler Public Relations, the Los Angeles firm that finds starring roles for Chrysler's products. Hadler used personal contacts to beat out Ford for the top spot in "Twister," which is a movie about trucks as much as it is about the people who use them to chase tornadoes across Oklahoma.

Ford's Hollywood agency, Showcase Placements Inc., a subsidiary of Hill & Knowlton Inc., tried to get the producers of "Twister" to use the 1997 Ford F-150 pickup as the star truck in the movie, according to some Ford sources.

But Hollywood is Hollywood, and who you know counts, Hadler said. "We get the scripts for movies at the same time our competitors get the scripts," Hadler said. "The script for 'Twister' was perfect for a truck like the Dodge Ram or the F-150. It showed trucks taking lots of punishment, trucks being tough -- just the kind of movie you want for a truck. "Some of my friends were producing 'Twister,' " Hadler said. "I called them as soon as I read the script and made a pitch for the Dodge Ram pickup. It came down to a personal relationship." The clincher came when "Twister" director Jan De Bont saw the Dodge Ram. Hadler didn't know De Bont, but De Bont liked the muscular stance of the Dodge Ram, the Chrysler agent said. The truck was in. Only one Dodge Ram pickup, the one driven by stars Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, was shown in the movie. But Chrysler actually supplied five, including a not-for-sale prototype. The prototype was used in scenes in which the vehicle received extensive damage.

"As much as an automaker appreciates this kind of exposure, it isn't willing to absorb beating up all five trucks at $ 25,000 a truck," Hadler said. The other four Dodge Rams were used as backup trucks in less-punishing segments. But the trucks still went through 20 windshields, largely because of glass shattered by flying rocks in chase scenes. Similar damage was incurred by eight Dodge Caravan minivans, four of which were seen in the movie. Was it worth it? "We have no quantitative measurements of the sales impact" of the Dodge Ram's appearance in "Twister," said Patrick J. Keegan, Chrysler's director of corporate merchandising and special events. "It's all subjective. It falls more into the category of product exposure" in which a car or truck is identified with a hero or likable character, Keegan said.

That was the motive behind BMW's efforts to put James Bond in its new Z3 roadster in the last Bond adventure, "Goldeneye." Norman Marshall & Associates of Sun Valley, Calif., shops scripts for BMW. When the placement agency got hold of the "Goldeneye" script, it pursued the film's producers relentlessly, BMW spokesman Richard Brooks said.

"We don't like the bad guys driving in our cars all the time," as often happens in gangster and other films, in which producers secure cars independently of the automakers and their Hollywood agents, Brooks said. For its roadster, BMW was looking for a hero, and a glamorous one at that, Brooks said. The Bond character fit the bill perfectly -- handsome, sexy, wealthy, resourceful, adventurous. He even gave up his usual Lotus and Aston Martin to drive the Z3, which has taken over the title, "The James Bond Car." That's worth something, Brooks said.

GM officials agree. They point to their Oldsmobile Silhouette minivan, the automotive star of "Get Shorty," Sonnenfeld's satire of the Hollywood film business. For placement in the film GM's agent, Vista Group of Burbank, Calif., competed against Ford and Chrysler, the nation's top seller of minivans. This time, however, it was a case of what you could do instead of who you knew, said Carol Schmiederer, Vista's manager of product placement.

"No other minivan had a side door that could open automatically, that would slide back at the push of the button," Schmiederer said. "The producers really liked that. They also liked the look of the [1996] Oldsmobile Silhouette." In the movie, the Silhouette was called "the Cadillac of minivans." That exposure didn't help sales of the Silhouette, 3,540 of which have been sold in the first four months of this year, compared with 3,946 sold during the same period in 1995.

But GM officials aren't fazed. Many of their Oldsmobile dealers liked the Silhouette's role in "Get Shorty." "The dealers were calling [GM] and saying that people were coming into showrooms and asking about the Silhouette," Schmiederer said. That was a positive note for GM officials, who had often said privately that the trouble with the Silhouette was that not many people knew it was available.