Fiat PSA

"It’s more efficient speaking about people’s values instead of gadgets," says Fiat’s Olivier Francois, as quoted by Aaron O. Patrick in the Wall Street Journal (1/26/09). Olivier is explaining the thinking behind a new public-service announcement on behalf of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi "that doubles as an ad for Fiat’s Lancia Delta car." In addition to low production costs (U.S. $78,000) the spot is being run for free, as a public-service announcement" by "networks in nine European countries, including Italy, France and Germany."

Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, but because she leads "the opposition to Myanmar’s repressive military junta … has spent about 12 years under house arrest in Myanmar." Fiat, as sponsor of the Ninth World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, arranged to film four other Nobel Laureates, including former Polish leader Lech Walesa, arriving at the event in black Lancia Deltas, as former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev looks on. A fifth car — a white car — pulls up, but when the door opens the seat is revealed as empty, in honor of Suu Kyi’s absence (video here).

Fiat worked under certain limitations, in that it could only film the arrivals, not stage them. Some of the television stations say their airing of the spot was not exactly free, that it was part of their "general advertising agreement with Fiat," or a "little Christmas gift" for the automaker, which is "a big advertiser." Opinions are split on the ethics of this approach. Michael Boylan, a philosophy professor and co-author of Advertising Ethics, thinks it isn’t because Fiat isn’t offering Suu Kyi any direct help. However, Tony Pigott of Ethos JWT, "says the ad is well made and unobjectionable." ~ Tim Manners, editor.