Chalk up a big old win for the creatives behind Jeep’s Super Bowl marketing campaign, because they made absolute magic happen on Sunday when they got Bill Murray to reprise his classic
Groundhog Day role... for an ad that was released
on Groundhog Day, no less. Punxsutawney Phil would be proud.The ad, which was released in all its glory during the big game, opened with Murray back in that same, slightly-too-cheerful bed-and-breakfast from the 1993 flick. As the alarm clock flips to 6 a.m. and Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” cracks to life through the speakers, Murray’s character, weatherman Phil Connors—now with white hair — immediately realizes he’s back in his own version of hell. “Oh no. No, no,” he says.The fun doesn’t stop there. Phil then hits the streets for another run-in with Ned Ryerson, played once again by
One Day At a Time’s Stephen Tobolowsky, and then crosses the street to see the mayor and Punxsutawney Phil getting ready for their big close up. But then he spots a four-door Jeep Gladiator and finds some relief. “Well that’s different,” he says, kicking off a montage of him waking up each day and joyriding the heck out of the sporty car.
The minute-long spot revisits many of the classic scenes from OG
Groundhog Day, plus a few new ones for good measure, like Murray playing Whack-A-Mole and telling the animal it’s not personal. As the time-loop continues, Phil actually begins looking forward to getting out of bed, because hey, he’s got a cool new ride that might actually make it all worthwhile.[video_embed id='1890675']RELATED: Wiarton Willie predicts an early end to winter[/video_embed]
The powers that be tried for a long time to get 69-year-old Murray to return to the character, but the actor notoriously doesn't have an agent, a phone, or an email address. So the producers of the spot took another approach: they started hounding Murray’s friends. Eventually the star called them back, and the ad finished shooting one single week before it aired. Talk about a time crunch.Murry and
Groundhog Day fans lost their minds, of course. Murray has never appeared in a Super Bowl ad before, but this film revival trend seems to be in tune with Super Bowl commercials of late. Because who doesn’t want to see a big name actor revive a classic film role with a twist? Last year
everyone got nostalgic when Joe Pesci watched the Home Alone revival with his buddies for Google, and who could forget a few years back when
Matthew Broderick revived Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for Honda? Ohhhhh yeah.
Groundhog Day isn’t the only notable movie role Murray is rekindling this year:
Ghostbusters fans everywhere are anxiously waiting for him to step back into Dr. Peter Venkman’s shoes for
Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which hits theatres this summer.Who you gonna call for a sweet does of movie nostalgia? Bill Murray, of course.[video_embed id='-1']Before you go: Puppy gets his own puppy and he can’t contain himself[/video_embed]
