
For residents of Detroit, today may have felt like they were transported back to the great old West, as automakers
Ford Motor (NYSE:
F) and Chrysler
brought country to Motown for this year's North American International Auto Show.
For Ford, that meant recruiting the help of country music icon Toby Keith to unveil its newest model of the popular F-150 heavy duty truck. For Chrysler, it meant taking things to an even higher level. The auto maker literally brought traffic to a standstill when it paraded 120 Texas Longhorns into the convention center surrounding its newest version of the Dodge Ram pick up truck.
Definitely impressive marketing techniques to launch new models. Perhaps Ford and Chrysler figure they better put on a good show this year, after all, truck sales dropped pretty sharply last year, and with gasoline prices still hovering around $3 a gallon, you can bet that the trend will carry over into 2008.