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Cadillac puts on a big performance for the Oscars with 'Rise' campaign

Cadillac skipped the Super Bowl, saving its big play for the 91st Oscars telecast tonight. America's luxury brand has a presence planned for nearly every medium, from television to Twitter to stairstep stories tied into the new commercial campaign. Speaking of which, that campaign is called "Rise," and lauds the "now-complete SUV portfolio" as well as Cadillac's determination to get back to the top. Four new spots will debut: "Rise Above," celebrating the XT6 and the rest of the new range, "Take the Stage," focused on the Escalade, "Make Your Escape," all about the XT4, "Take Flight," for the XT5. The first commercial will be 60 seconds, while the other three are 30-second spots. Cadillac chose Childish Gambino's song "Me and Your Mama" for the campaign soundtrack — it works a lot better than you might guess based on the track name. Beyond that, the Cadillac logo will grace the red carpet, the first time any commercial logo has made a home on the walk of honor. The stairs will be decorated with blue horizontals, inspired by the stair-like pattern of blue in the Cadillac crest. The blue in the carmaker's logo is said to represent "knightly valor" — which, yes, is totally made up, but Cadillac made it up a long time ago, not for this campaign. The real point is that two celebrities in attendance will stand on the steps and present their own stories of rising up. You can check out all the commercials here, watch them unveiled in real time during the Oscars telecast, keep up with what your eleventy hundred Twitter friends think by checking out the hashtag #KeepRising, and finish it off with some time on the Keep Rising microsite.

Hot Wheels partners with Gucci for a diecast 1982 Cadillac Seville. Wait, what?

Hot Wheels is partnering with Italian fashion brand Gucci for a limited-edition toy car. And not just any toy car, but a 1982 Cadillac Seville. Wait, what? At first this trio of names may seem completely incongruous, but the collaboration is actually brilliant on so many levels. Out of the three, the one readers are probably most familiar with is Hot Wheels. The purveyor of $1 diecast cars has been around since 1968 and started out making 1:64 scale versions of muscle cars, hot rods and sports cars. In the 1980s, though, perhaps reflecting the 1:1 scale American automotive landscape, some of their castings choices began to get weird. Among cars like the Dodge Aires Wagon and Chevy Citation was the US of A's Mercedes-fighter, the bustle-butt '82 Cadillac Seville.  Fast-forward to present day, and Hot Wheels are hot collectibles. The little metal cars aren't just coveted by kids and adult car enthusiasts, but hypebeasts whose entire raison d'etre is to acquire limited edition stuff. Add to that an explosion of quasi-ironic interest in '80s cultural signifiers and you have the perfect market conditions for a $120 toy car printed with the mirrored G logo. But while totally uncool jokers quickly bought out the Hot Wheels and Supreme collab featuring the hypebeast car du jour, the E30 BMW M3, the Gucci Caddy is actually far more clever. That's because there is real-world precedent, when in 1978, a Miami-area dealer partnered with Aldo Gucci to create the "Cadillac Seville designed by Gucci". The car featured the luxury brand's signature green-red-green stripes throughout, a quarter-roof padded vinyl carriage top with the trademark "GG" print, and several real 24K gold emblems that were were quickly stolen. Oh, and it came with a five-piece set of Gucci luggage. However, there was also a lesser-known Gucci Seville in 1984 based on the front-wheel-drive second-generation (the one the Hot Wheels car is based upon). There is far less information on them than on the first-generation, but they seem to have followed a similar formula. Very few seem to have survived in tact, but one did make it overseas and resides today at the Museo Gucci showroom in Florence, Italy. It's pictured above. In any case, Hot Wheels never made a 1976-79 Seville, but the '82 was one of the most memorable castings of the era.

Cadillac could 'flourish' in Australia, says marketing chief

Cadillac might have its best product mix in recent history, and GM's luxury brand is looking to expand. In fact, it might even be making a trip Down Under, at least according to the company's global marketing chief.
Uwe Ellinghaus spoke with Australian site Car Advice at the Geneva Motor Show and said the brand could be quite successful there. "[The] goodwill that the Cadillac brand has is such a good starting base that once we get proper volume commitment and a dealer network behind it we can easily flourish," he said, though he warned that the plans are still in their earliest stages and years away. First, Cadillac will expand in markets with the highest possible sales, like China and Russia.
Ellinghaus said that the most likely models for Oz would be the SRX, Escalade and CTS; the latter would probably act as a replacement for the Holden Commodore. GM's Australian arm is ending local production in 2017, and there have been many rumors about what is happening to the big sedan. However, Ellinghaus admits exporting cars from the US to Australia is going to mean higher prices. In addition to the expense, Cadillac doesn't currently build any right-hand-drive models. It would likely take until the end of the decade before the Aussie models could be ready.