McConaughey Could Revive Lincoln

Ford Motor Company is turning to “The Lincoln Lawyer” actor Matthew McConaughey, star of the 2011 movie named for the automaker’s luxury line, to sell the brand to younger buyers after a 65% drop in sales since 1990.

McConaughey, 44, will debut next month in an ad introducing Lincoln’s new MKC sport-utility vehicle. The endorsement deal is a 2-year collaboration where the actor “invites viewers to experience the vehicle through unscripted moments,” Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford said today. The automaker didn’t disclose the cost of the collaboration.

The actor plays a defense attorney operating from the backseat of a Lincoln Town Car in the film. As part of its makeover of Lincoln, Ford stopped producing the Town Car as it seeks to lose the brand’s image as an airport shuttle for business travelers. The MKC is aimed at young drivers and starts at $33,995 (R363 845), the lowest price among compact luxury SUVs.

“The MKC is the most promising product they have and they’re looking for a way to break through,” said Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst for researcher Autotrader.com. “Matthew McConaughey is contemporary and he’s hot right now.”

Lincoln lacks the edge and hipness McConaughey conveys, Krebs said. The aged luxury line probably hopes to borrow on McConaughey’s edginess to attract attention to an auto brand forgotten by many, Krebs said.

‘True Detective’

McConaughey, known earlier in his career as a glib leading man in films like “The Wedding Planner,” more recently has taken on more complicated characters like the AIDS-afflicted activist in “Dallas Buyers Club” and the alcoholic renegade cop in HBO’s “True Detective.”

He won the best-actor Oscar for 2013’s “Dallas Buyers Club” and is nominated for an Emmy next week for his leading role in “True Detective.”

McConaughey is a “longtime admirer of Lincoln,” according to the statement. He said he was attracted to this deal because “I would be able to be myself in this collaboration.”

This isn’t the first time that Ford has turned a celebrity into a pitchman for the Lincoln brand. Four years ago, Lincoln featured actor John Slattery, who plays Roger Sterling in AMC’s “Mad Men” series, starred in its commercials in an attempt to lure younger buyers to the brand.

Celebrity pitchmen

Jon Hamm, also from “Mad Men,” provided a voiceover for commercials for Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz brand. And Chrysler Group LLC, meanwhile, used rapper Eminem in a 2011 Super Bowl ad where he sat at the wheel of the one of the automaker’s 200 models. Later Chrysler ads featured Clint Eastwood, Bob Dylan and the voice of the late Paul Harvey.

Lincoln’s US sales rose 16% this year through July, compared with a year earlier when sales fell to a 32-year low. Lincoln ranks eighth among luxury brands sold in the US and it’s outsold by almost two-to-one by General Motor Co.’s Cadillac luxury line. A year’s worth of Lincoln sales would not fill half a Ford factory.

Last year, Alan Mulally, then Ford’s chief executive officer, considered killing Lincoln, according to two people familiar with the matter. Mark Fields, who became CEO on July 1, convinced Mulally that Lincoln was worth saving to give Ford buyers a luxury alternative.

The automaker is redesigning the Lincoln lineup with models that appear less like chromed up versions of everyday Ford cars. Lincoln, though, is nowhere near contributing to Ford’s bottom line, said the people, who asked not to be identified revealing internal discussions.

“You have to be well respected as an actor to carry the weight of a luxury brand on your shoulders,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak.

-Bloomberg