Ford and Stellantis address tariff turmoil with bold 'made-in-America' ad campaigns

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In what some industry experts see as a Hail Mary ahead of May 3 — the day President Donald Trump is expected to implement 25% tariffs on all auto parts imported into the United States — Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis have taken to running ad campaigns to tout their American manufacturing might.

Industry experts view the ads as an effort to influence Trump to exempt parts from 25% tariffs in the days ahead. Earlier this month, Trump imposed 25% tariffs on imported vehicles to the United States, though he has hinted at possibly pausing those.

Experts said beyond showing Washington how dedicated to America the companies are, the ads are meant to assure Wall Street of the automakers' strength against some tariffs and to calm their employees and consumers by reasserting that they will continue as American companies.

Even South Korea-based automaker Hyundai put an ad in the Wall Street Journal on April 19 to tell readers that its pricing would remain unchanged. Japanese-based automaker Toyota has been running TV spots promoting that it designs, engineers and makes the Tundra pickup in the United States.

General Motors is the only Detroit-based automaker that is not running any ads about its U.S. commitment or its pricing strategy, GM spokesman Kevin Kelly confirmed April 21. He did not offer a comment on why, but said, "We have and will continue to find memorable ways to communicate with our customers, reminding them about our core strengths and our American roots. After all, there’s only one brand in America that's synonymous with baseball, hot dogs and apple pie. What’s more American than that?”

Industry experts said the advertising Ford and Stellantis have done is a smart tactic for turbulent times as the auto industry awaits word on what Trump will do about parts tariffs on May 3.

"It’s important at this time to get ahead of the information game as much as possible," said Marick Masters, professor emeritus of business in the Department of Management at the Mike Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State University. "This is a way to give a clear message, that they can back up with statistics. They’re sending a message to the president, the other stakeholders that they’re trying to reach, including the union, that they are a company that has invested a lot in America."

Trying to reach Washington, D.C.

Masters said the ads will probably not move the needle much in terms of increasing vehicle sales, but it’s a statement that gives their employees and dealers a lot to talk about when they meet with customers.

"Ford is trying to reach both Washington, D.C., and rural America," said Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. "It is not the first patriotic ad from Ford. Similar ads have been run for 9/11 and other times of crises. Getting the message out now is a direct response to tariffs and economic uncertainty. It allows people some comfort in their buying decision and sends a strong message to Congress as they need to revise their tariffs on auto parts."

Wheaton said he believes that Ford "desperately" wants to avoid the upcoming parts tariffs, noting that while Ford assembles 80% of its vehicles in the United States, about half of the parts it uses are imported.

"The parts tariffs can be devastating to the industry if imposed," Wheaton said.

Harley Shaiken, a labor expert and professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, said the automakers' ads serve a dual purpose: To remind consumers that the auto companies are on board with building vehicles in America, since that is the emphasis out of Washington.

"Second, to make the same point for Trump and advisers," Shaiken said. "The primary goal here is political, not so much driving sales as impressing Washington. What will really drive or retard sales is the sticker on the window and tariffs."

The Ford advertised message

Ford started its made-in-America campaign earlier this month. As the Detroit Free Press reported on April 3, Ford debuted a 30-second TV and social media spot called "Ford Motor Company: From America, For America," along with its employee pricing for everyone campaign that runs through June 2.

Last weekend, the company expanded the campaign to add full-page print ads in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Detroit News, The Detroit Free Press and other publications to "really tell the Ford story," Phil O'Connor, global director of marketing communications for Ford Blue and Ford Model e, wrote in a media release.

The print ad is titled "Always moving forward. Never leaving America behind." Ford starts by addressing a notion that American car companies have offshored everything. In its case, Ford said, the opposite is true.

The ad notes how Ford manufactures more cars in the United States than any other automaker, with nearly 80% of the vehicles it sells here being made here. That was a message the automaker pushed during its contract talks in 2023 with the UAW, noting the financial cost Ford shouldered to ensure it had more factories and more union-represented workers in the States than others, Masters said.

Ford said it also exports more vehicles than any other automaker. On April 18, however, the Free Press reported Ford has stopped shipping several vehicles made in Michigan and Kentucky to China due to tariffs.

Ford also said it employs more hourly union-represented people here than any other carmaker. The ad then says its "values run deeper than the value of the dollar. Our real bottom line? It's the people who make America."

"We've stepped up for our country during world wars, a global pandemic, and too many economic upheavals to count. Through those trials, our commitment to America has only gotten stronger. So while nobody can say for certain what the future holds, we can tell you exactly where we'll be," the ad said.

'We are the right brand at the right time'

Ford spokesman Said Deep told the Free Press on April 21 the reason for the print ad was to take Ford's message a step further than what was in the 30-second TV spots.

"We felt the newspaper ad put more depth into it: That we are the right brand at the right time and it's about being supportive to America," Deep said. "We have an opportunity right now to help people with employee pricing and we can do that because we build more cars in America than anybody else."

As to whether Ford hopes the ads will reach the influential halls in the nation's capital ahead of May 3 to alleviate some tariff pressure on parts, Deep said he could not speak to that. But, he added, "Obviously, there's a lot of uncertainty and this is a way to say you can count on Ford."

Mark Truby, Ford's head of public relations, told the Free Press the ad has been a success with the public.

"In today's communications world, it's remarkable that a simple and powerful newspaper advertisement has struck such a chord," Truby told the Free Press on April 21. "We have had people around the country clip it out and mail it to us thanking us for investing in America. It's been widely shared on Facebook, LinkedIn."

The Stellantis message

Stellantis started running "America's Freedom of Choice" ads on April 4. It offers employee pricing or current cash incentives options on eligible models across Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram brands until April 30.

Some of the ads bragged about Stellantis brands' U.S. heritage, including reminding people of Jeep’s hero role during World War II, according to published reports. The ads said Jeep was “America’s most patriotic brand,” and Ram trucks are “built from the ground up in America," according to Carscoops. Stellantis had to tentatively remove the ads to tweak the messaging after independent watchdog group, Truth in Advertising, told the automaker it had a problem with the word "built" based on terms laid out by the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC requires for any car to say it is built in the United States, it must contain “no — or negligible — foreign content,” Truth in Advertising explains. No Jeep, Dodge or Ram vehicle meets that criteria, it said. Stellantis vehicles are more accurately described as American-assembled using imported parts.

A Stellantis spokesperson confirmed that the ads have been adjusted, and continue to run through this month.

It's 'in fashion' to proclaim an American heritage

The truth is that most vehicles that are assembled in the United States contain imported parts.

As the Free Press reported in January, the Tesla Model 3 is the most American-made car by content, but even 12.5% of its parts are imported. The Free Press reported earlier this month that Ford CEO Jim Farley spoke to Fox News about how Ford uses thousands of imported parts in the cars it builds in the United States, and that creates great concern for how it could impact Ford's costs even in assembling cars domestically.

According to a Reuters report that cited data from research firm GlobalData, half of the cars sold in the U.S. last year were imported. GM imports 46% of its car sales, and Ford is at 21%. A spokesperson for GlobalData did not respond to a Free Press inquiry to confirm those figures and provide a figure for Stellantis.

But the data is enough for one industry observer to view the ad campaigns out of Stellantis and Ford with skepticism.

"If you want to be in fashion, you proclaim your American heritage, even if you are a French-Italian company or a Detroit-based company whose cars and trucks are about half made in the U.S.," said Erik Gordon, area chair of entrepreneurial studies at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. "We are easily fooled, but what many Americans want is a vehicle that is assembled by U.S. workers, using parts made by U.S. workers, and that doesn't cost over $40,000."

Jamie L. LaReau is the senior autos writer who covers Ford Motor Co. for the Detroit Free Press. Contact Jamie at jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. To sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.