Whore From The Block

Fiat, an Italian automobile manufacturer, had been absent from the United States since 1984, but after its controlling acquisition of Chrysler a few years ago, it decided to make another go at it in North America. 

Their first vehicle to re-enter the market here this year is the little shit car known as the "Fiat 500", which looks suspiciously like a Cozy Coupe toy car. If you think you haven't heard of Fiat before and/or have never seen the car, trust me, you have. It's impossible not to with actress/singer/Living Color Fly Girl Jennifer Lopez whoring herself out to the automobile manufacturer every chance she gets.

First there was this commercial, that featured hoards of people going crazy and chasing after the famous celebrity as she drove by, which basically turns into a dance number for one of her music videos at the end.

A second commercial came along, with Lopez now driving through her old Bronx neighborhood talking about how she's never forgotten her roots, blah blah blah. She obviously has though, because the old "Jenny from the block" was nowhere near the Bronx, as it was discovered she used a body double for most of the commercial and filmed her close-up scenes in Los Angeles.
 
Currently, she has a third commercial out and again it's just her driving through New York (which was also probably faked) with another voice over narration talking about elegance and some shit. It's all somehow tied in with the Gucci fashion label as well, making it a trifecta of horrendous-ness. Like the other commercials, one of her songs off her new album is featured underneath the narration and it becomes a dual promotional ad, for both Fiat and her horrible music.

Her latest act of degradation and shameless self-promotion came at the American Music Awards over this past weekend where she performed a "live" medley of new songs that featured the Fiat 500 on stage for a good portion of the set, which was turned into a quasi commercial for the auto at one point.

It was in extremely poor taste and was a horribly brazen attempt at product placement; many other celebrities in attendance thought so too as they immediately "tweeted" their thoughts about it, as they tend to do so often.

The commercials airing on overkill and her stage performance are all examples of how not to use a celebrity to promote a product. The main purpose of having a celebrity tie-in is to generate greater interest and exposure among the general public, not to repel consumers away and invoke negative emotions towards the product, as Fiat has done here.

But maybe the real problem isn't Fiat, but just J.Lo herself. Take her music video for one of her new songs titled "On The Floor". Within the first 20 seconds there is a blatant product placement for BMW and Swarovski crystal, then half-way through, Crown Royal whiskey gets a decent amount of face time.

It appears that J.Lo suddenly just likes to whore herself out to any product, just like current soap operas on daytime television. Perhaps because if she doesn't, she's afraid her mediocre new tunes won't have any exposure and her album will be an enormous flop, which is exactly true. 

So it's not really Fiat's fault, J.Lo just can't stop spreading open her legs and is unfortunately selling herself out more to Fiat than anybody else. Celebrity/company tie-ins are nothing new, but most just stick to hocking one product at a time. It's too bad though that Fiat's commercials in America can't be more like this one. Creative and successful in generating positive interest...and it's all done without an overblown celebrity.