Ford Almost Made One Seriously Awesome Shelby GT500 Commercial
Nixed ad would have shown a Mustang Shelby GT500 doing 0-100-0 mph on the deck of an aircraft carrier.
Ford has made some cool and sometimes iconic commercials over its illustrious history, many of them starring its legendary pony car, the Mustang. But it appears that the automaker had an idea for what would have been one of the coolest ads in history, yet ultimately decided to scrap it. The spot would have shown a 2020 Shelby GT500 accelerating from 0-100 miles-per-hour, then braking back to a standstill – all on the deck of an aircraft carrier.
“We had our brochure company reach out to a mothballed ship fleet and we mathematically knew we could do it, so we penned it out, and really wanted to do it. But we didn’t realize it,” Head of Mustang Marketing, Jim Owens, told Ford Authority in a recent interview.
Owens did not reveal why Ford ultimately decided to abandon this incredibly cool idea. It might have something to do with the global pandemic, or perhaps the legalities or costs involved with such a grand scheme. Regardless, it’s unfortunate that they didn’t find a way to push through, because this would have been one of the coolest commercials in history.
It also would have been the perfect way to advertise the Shelby GT500 and its all-around performance prowess. When the car launched, Ford was quick to point out that it would do 0-100-0 in just 10.6 seconds, an incredible feat indeed. The fact that the automaker revived this long-forgotten performance measurement was also rather interesting all on its own. After all, it was the Shelby Cobra 427 S/C that first made this statistic a big deal.
Alas, like many other good ideas, this one wound up in the great scrapyard of ideas. But it’s fun to think about what could have been. Luckily, Ford didn’t really need to make some fancy, expensive commercial touting the GT500’s capabilities, because it’s selling them as fast as it can make them. But we’re certain that such an ad would have left an impression on everyone who witnessed it, plus it would have made for a cool piece of history decades down the road.
Photos: Ford
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