LOS ANGELES -- Cadillac is prepping for a red-carpet moment of its own during the Academy Awards next month.
General Motors' luxury brand will use the Feb. 28 Oscars broadcast on ABC to air introductory commercials for its two new nameplates launching this spring: the CT6 large sedan, due in showrooms in March, and the XT5 midsize crossover, which will replace the SRX in April.
Cadillac will air as many as six commercials, including a 60-second CT6 spot, at least one SRX ad and an overarching Cadillac commercial, said Kurt Ghering, Cadillac's director of launch and life-cycle marketing.
It was during the 2015 Academy Awards broadcast that Cadillac debuted its "Dare Greatly" advertising campaign, which featured esoteric images of the Manhattan cityscape and glimpses of the then-unveiled CT6 prowling narrow New York streets.
The new commercial lineup "will be arresting and get people's attention, but it will not be a huge detour," from the theme set last year, Ghering said. "It will be very consistent, but will take Dare Greatly in a new direction."
Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen said the brand will also have "a fleet of Cadillacs" shuttling celebrities around Los Angeles, some to their red-carpet arrivals. He didn't name names.
Cadillac marketing chief Uwe Ellinghaus told Automotive News in November that the new commercials will feature the vehicles and features more prominently than did the early Dare Greatly spots.
"We'll try to get the message across that the reason for the CT6 to exist against the very well-established and excellent German large-sedan competitors is that it is the only one that keeps the driving dynamics of a smaller car," Ellinghaus said, "and the luxury and comfort of a bigger one."
