Bill Ford Jr. will become the first family member to appear in television commercials pitching the Ford line of products.
Ford will show the advertisements to the media at Tuesday press conference.
While the specifics haven't been released, the campaign will highlight the company's nearly 100-year-history and focus on efforts to rebuild its relationship with consumers, and feature William Clay Ford Jr. as the company spokesman.
Ford became chief executive officer of the company in October of 2001, replacing Jacques Nasser. Ford had worked for the company for several years until he resigned in 1995 to assume the chairmanship of the board of directors' finance committee. He became board chairman in January 1999 when Nasser was named president and CEO.
He is the son of William Clay Ford Sr., who is a grandson of company founder Henry Ford.
The company's founder, Henry Ford, and former CEO Henry Ford II lent their names to print advertising, but not in the company's history has a Ford family member gone so public by lending becoming a TV spokesman.
Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca appeared in a series of television ads in the early 1980s in an effort to restore confidence in the ailing car company. He became possibly the most effective TV spokesman in U.S. history. During the next 14 years, thanks to his more than 50 Chrysler commercials, Iacocca even figured in presidential politics as a possible candidate, according to
Advertising Age.
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