Fiat Brazil ‘Resurrects’ Elvis Presley To Promote New Strada Pickup

The all-new Fiat Strada subcompact unibody pickup promises to be a big hit in Brazil, with the automaker already racking up 6,000 sales in the first 10 days the vehicle has been on sale.

Eager to convince even more customers, the automaker has launched an advertising campaign headlined by a video commercial featuring the long gone Elvis Presley.

The film, called “The Legend”, debuted last week with The King of Rock ’n’ Roll taking center stage. In the video, we see a young Elvis Presley performing “Blue Suede Shoes” in a show when a red Fiat Strada drives through a wall and interrupts the performance.

Elvis quickly jumps in the driver’s seat and starts driving through several recording studios and movie sets, demonstrating the subcompact pickup’s qualities along the way. He also uses the opportunity to fight some samurais, drive past a full moon, cross a desert, and then arrive at the Fiat Strada’s launch event.

Now, viewers who are aware of the King’s taste in cars may find the sight of him driving a Fiat Strada a bit disturbing, but that wasn’t a concern for Fiat Brazil and its partners Leo Burnett Brazil and the Globo Group, apparently.

“It’s an honor to contribute to the campaign for Fiat’s main product launch this year, a campaign that’s on a par with the history of this inspiring brand. It is a glimmer of hope, in these trying times, that creativity, production excellence, and these two legends – the Fiat Strada and Elvis – will never die,” said Pedro Prado, Leo Burnett Brazil Creative VP.

Of course, Elvis Presley did die in 1977 so how did they bring him back? Well, in order to faithfully reproduce Elvis’ mannerisms, appearance and features, the production team relied on technology and the participation of one of the superstar’s best doubles.

That would be Dean Z, from Missouri, USA, who won a global competition promoted by the Presley family in 2013. The team then replaced Dean Z’s face using CGI likeness based on real scenes from Elvis Presley’s appearances in shows and films from 1968.