Innovation Anyone? Anyone?

The web site builds on Ford's national ad campaign, Driving American Innovation.... It aims to emphasize forward-thinking technology over power for its own sake ....

--Detroit Free Press, 9/12/06

The Ford ad campaign raises an interesting question: Is innovation something you sell for its own sake (like power)? Or should it play a support role in marketing that emphasizes more tangible product benefits like higher gas mileage or fewer repairs? I'm thinking support role since who cares how innovative something is if it gives me what I really want? Besides, just saying something is cool probably makes it less so.

Ford's message, by the way, isn't actually that innovative itself. Look through any 1950s era Life Magazine and you'll see lots of ad copy hyping automotive innovation and lots of cars that look like space ships. What has changed is the technology employed (like blogs and Flash) to convey that message -- intended to reinforce its newness or coolness.

Ford's innovation is using a new and improved way to say "New and improved!" How cool is that?