I’ve always been a Ford guy. When I was sixteen, I was careering around the gravel roads of Allamakee County, Iowa, in a 1966 Galaxie 500 2-door hardtop, with a thundering 390 GT motor. I’ve driven Fords ever since, for almost half a century. That habit is culminating now with my big, beautiful Super Duty pickup, a diesel-engined beast that weighs as much as a U.S. Navy frigate and can tow Mount Rushmore.
So now, in the Trump tariff era, it’s interesting to see Ford realizing how the market is changing – and how best to take advantage of it, with an America-themed ad campaign.
On the evening of March 27, Ford Motor Co.’s marketing leaders called a meeting at World Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. The country was in turmoil as the second quarter was about to start. The automaker had to do something to keep showrooms buzzing as consumers fretted over newly issued tariffs potentially pushing car prices higher.
Ford already had a new ad campaign and incentive program “in the can,” as they say. It was good to go. But something felt off.
“This was a moment in time,” Rob Kaffl, Ford’s director of U.S. sales and dealer relations told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, about that night. “We were thinking: What would it take for Ford Motor Co. to shine during this uneasiness in the market both for consumers and automotive?”
The answer? America. Ford is an American company, and while they make and sell automobiles world-wide, their origins are in America and their primary market is in America. That doesn’t seem like that should be all that stunning a realization, but with the Trump administration pushing every advantage they can towards domestic production, it was the right time for an American-themed campaign. The result? They outsold the #1 retailer, Toyota, in the second quarter of this year.
That night, Ford leaders would end up ditching the company’s previous campaign plans and instead spend the weekend in a frenzy working up a new campaign with a message to promote the automaker as America’s car company, dubbed: “From America, For America.” As part of it, Ford offered all customers employee prices on most of its vehicles starting April 3 running to July 7.
The “From America, For America” campaign would end up offsetting Ford’s dismal first-quarter results and provide a positive light during a year in which Ford is leading in safety recalls. The campaign was instrumental in delivering a 14% gain in Ford’s second quarter sales and, on July 1, Ford brand — not including Lincoln — became the No. 1 selling brand in the nation for the first half of the year selling 1,058,323 vehicles, topping its closest rival, Toyota brand, by just 550 vehicles and outselling Chevrolet brand sales by 136,437 vehicles.
It was close, but they did it.
See Also: This Is Dumb: Ford’s 2026 Mustang Based on the Worst Mustang Ever
Ford Bringing Back Fun, Old Automobile Feature – but Are They, Really?
Car people like to razz each other over brands. When I was a kid, we Ford guys and the Chevy guys had an ongoing competition in friendly insults and ongoing claims as to which brand was better, with the Dodge guys playing the part of third-party spoilers, at least in our little eastern Iowa community. These days, all of the auto manufacturers are building pretty decent products, and if it’s a new sedan or pickup you’re looking for, you can’t go too far wrong with any of the big manufacturers. But I’m a Ford guy. They’ve made some missteps in recent years, and as you can see in the links just above, when they do, I call them on it. But this time, it looks like the Ford folks have nailed it. They tuned into the zeitgeist and figured out how to take advantage of it.
Good for Ford. Good for a grand old American manufacturer.
Editor’s Note: President Trump is leading America into the “Golden Age” as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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