FROM BUSINESS WEEK: Sex appeal has virtually disappeared from American car marketing. So when models wearing metallic minidresses shared a stage with a Chrysler concept car at the Detroit Auto Show in January, some onlookers declared the display passé and even déclassé. Olivier François, the impeccably dressed Frenchman in charge of Chrysler’s latest rebranding effort, was merely bemused. “I am doing here what I know from [home],” he said.
Chrysler is turning European again. This time, it’s not the Germans calling the shots, as they did during Chrysler’s short-lived marriage to Daimler . Now the Italians from Fiat and their French marketing chief are in charge, and the next generation of Chryslers and Dodges will resemble the quirky little cars that zip around Rome. François, meanwhile, is willing to push buttons with his marketing—even at the risk of offending prim American sensibilities. MORE»
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