TBT: This Record-Breaking Global Commercial Reintroduced Ford to the World

Written By by Paul Kampe
Dec 05, 2024
<2 MIN READ
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Ford’s “Global Anthem” campaign was highlighted by the simultaneous global broadcast of a two-minute commercial featuring 13-year-old opera sensation Charlotte Church.

Ford Motor Company had firmly established itself as a global automaker in its first hundred years, but the company was looking to reassert itself as a world leader in automotive products and services at the turn of the century – and wanted to tell the world with a record-breaking commercial that aired in nearly every country in the world. 

‘Just Wave Hello’

To help spread the message, Ford recruited 13-year-old Welsh opera phenom Charlotte Church. The teen had already met with world leaders and had been featured on such American television mainstays as “Good Morning America” and “Oprah.” Already a platinum-selling artist in the U.K. and the United States, Church’s next single “Just Wave Hello” soundtracked the two-minute, documentary-style spot produced by longtime Ford ad agency J. Walter Thompson. 

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Church was already a platinum-selling artist making the rounds on daytime talk shows before “Just Wave Hello” premiered.

The commercial, the purpose of which was to convey Ford as a consumer-driven, global organization, was filmed in nine countries and featured several hundred people, highlighting the cultural diversity of Ford and its customers around the world. The global advertisement included no narrative copy or voiceover and was carried solely by Church’s singing. The lyrics of “Just Say Hello” were synced with images of people gesturing hello and goodbye in their native cultures.  

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The campaign celebrated the diversity of Ford’s customers and the song’s lyrics were paired with scenes of people gesturing hello and goodbye.

“The campaign is an homage to our customers – the people around the world who have made Ford Motor Company what it is today,” said Jim Schroer, former vice president of Global Marketing. “It is Ford Motor Company’s goal to become the world’s leading consumer company. That means listening to our customers and celebrating their diversity and the richness that brings to our product lineup.”

Record audience

The spot, which aired at 9 p.m. local time in each time zone around the world, also showcased vehicles from all seven product brands under the Ford Motor Company umbrella in everyday activities. It was the first television commercial to air in virtually every country in the world on major global and pan-regional networks, as well as online, on Nov. 1, 1999. A one-minute cut-down version of the ad was aired throughout the first two weeks of the month. The spot marked the first time any corporation had run a simultaneous advertising campaign around the world. Ford predicted the commercial would reach one billion viewers in 300 million households upon its premiere. Today, the commercial is listed as the largest simultaneous TV advertisement premiere by the Guinness Book of World Records.

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This rundown shows the schedule for the commercial’s airtimes and networks across the U.S.

While much has changed with Ford, the automotive industry and the world in the past 25 years, the campaign remains a testament to the power of simple, universal messaging and the importance of having strong relationships with our customers.

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