Summary
- Campaign: “Seduction” (2012 Super Bowl Commercial).
- Focus: Introducing the high-performance Fiat 500 Abarth to the North American market
- Core Message: The Fiat 500 Abarth is a seductive, high-energy experience that demands your full attention
- Key Insight: Fiat needed to distance the Abarth from the “cute” image of the standard 500. By personifying the car as a fiery, attractive Italian woman, they communicated its aggressive performance and heritage in a way that captivated a male-dominated Super Bowl audience.
The FIAT 500 Abarth 2012 Super Bowl commercial, titled “Seduction,” was an iconic and highly successful advertisement that used humor, Italian flair, and a racy premise to introduce the car to the American market. It became one of the most talked-about ads of Super Bowl XLVI
Ad plot
The 60-second spot plays on a common male fantasy and a clever twist to associate the Abarth model with passion and excitement
- A young man is walking down a street when he stops, mesmerized by a beautiful woman in a black and red dress (played by Romanian-Italian supermodel Catrinel Menghia) who is bent over adjusting her shoe.
- The woman catches him staring, walks over, speaks to him aggressively in unsubtitled Italian (including lines like “What are you looking at, huh?” and “Are you undressing me with your eyes?”) and even slaps him.
- Her tone suddenly shifts, and she begins a passionate seduction, pulling him close as if they are about to kiss.
- Just as they are about to lock lips, the man blinks and the scene snaps back to reality. The woman has vanished, and he is instead staring at the sleek, black and red Fiat 500 Abarth car, realising the entire interaction was in his daydream. The car’s slogan then appears: “You’ll Never Forget The First Time You See One”.
The narrative successfully personifies the car’s characteristics: its Italian roots, its aggressive engine note, and its surprisingly “wicked” performance despite its small size.
Reception & Recall
The “Seduction” ad became an overnight sensation, frequently cited as one of the best commercials of the 2012 Super Bowl.
- The star of the ad was Catrinel Menghia, who became the face of the Abarth in North America
- The spot was later named “Best TV Commercial” at the 2012 D Show awards
- A key creative decision was filming the ad almost entirely in Italian with no subtitles, which added to its allure and leveraged the association with European sophistication and passion. The ad did not use a widely known song but focused on the dialogue and car sounds.
Following its success, Fiat released another commercial featuring Menghia and actor Charlie Sheen called “House Arrest”, leveraging the Abarth’s “small but wicked” personality and Sheen’s “bad boy” image.
