Jennifer Lopez a Bronx no-show for Fiat ad
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Jennifer Lopez zips along in a tiny convertible Fiat, her long hair blowing in the Bronx breeze while her voice-over talks about how embedded she is in the rough-and-tumble New York ‘hood.
She’s still Jenny from the block, you see.
But according to The Smoking Gun, the ad campaign that’s been airing for the last several weeks is a fraud. The muckraking blog says that the “American Idol” judge never set foot in her home borough, but did her work for the commercial in Los Angeles.
It was a body double used in the cliché-riddled Bronx shots. (Double dutch, graffiti artists and break dancing, anyone?)
A digital production studio merged the footage of the lookalike with images of Lopez inside the 2012 model of the carmaker’s 500 Cabrio somewhere in L.A.
A Chrysler spokeswoman confirmed the blog’s account:
“Both commercials featuring Jennifer Lopez were indeed filmed in the Bronx as well as outside locations. As you may know, in today’s world people are increasingly mobile and their work takes them to a variety of locations. As a result, we took the opportunity to film wherever Ms. Lopez was working at the time to accommodate her schedule.”
The ad (shown below), dubbed “My World,” has Lopez waxing on about the mean streets where she grew up, inspiring her “to be tougher, to stay sharper, to think faster.” “Until it Beats No More,” a song from her new CD, “Love?” serves as the soundtrack as Lopez surveys her “surroundings,” while declaring, “They may be just streets to you, but to me, they’re a playground.”
From a distance, that is. And let’s get real here -- does anyone believe Lopez drives a $20,000 subcompact, even if it does have Tom-Tom?
Chrysler’s statement defended the undisclosed switch by saying, ‘The commercial tells the story of how the simple elements of our upbringing can help explain who we are, where we’re going and serve as a source of inspiration to achieve our goals in life. One does not need to be in a specific location to be inspired or continue to be inspired.”
The auto brand, which has made music the cornerstone of its marketing, has an ongoing promotional relationship with Lopez. The actress-singer-entrepreneur will appear in a number of ads -– two have launched so far -- and Fiat vehicles were prominent in her recent music video.
She performed alongside a Fiat on stage during Sunday night’s “American Music Awards” on ABC, raising some eyebrows even among her fellow music artists (see clip below). John Legend, after seeing the medley, sent out a tweet that said, “That had to be the most shameless thing I’ve ever seen in a performance. I was genuinely shocked.”
Fiat’s parent company, Chrysler, partnered with a musician to much better effect with Eminem and his “Made in Detroit” Super Bowl spot. From all reports, he was actually riding the roads of his hometown in those ads.
Now that’s street cred.
-- T.L. Stanley