New mockumentary ponders the fate of legendary fake pitchman John Bronco
Everyone is trying to cash in on Bronco-mania, it seems.
Marketing is a tough business. It requires you to consistently find new ways to break through the shell that people build around themselves to reach them and convince them to buy something. Sometimes that's done very directly with big shouty ads packed with bright colors and loud noises. Other times, you have to get a little weirder, like the folks behind a new mockumentary seemed to on Tuesday.
The Blue Oval allowed Imagine Entertainment access to its archives to help create a fake documentary film, called John Bronco, which attempts to understand what happened to a fake legendary Ford pitchman of same name. Now, usually, this kind of thing would just elicit a bunch of cringes and groans from us journalist types, but the title role of John Bronco is being played by none other than Walton Goggins, and that, friends, has my attention.
The cast also includes Tim Meadows, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bo Derek. They got Dennis Quaid to narrate it. Is it going to be good? Probably not. It seems like a weirdly-timed 37-minute ad for the Ford Bronco, after all. Am I going to waste 37 minutes of my life watching it?
As the late, legendary film producer Robert Evans would say, "You bet your ass I will."
There are other, even weirder components to the mockumentary's website. For example, you can submit sightings of John Bronco. Part of me wishes that someone had paid Walton Goggins a pile of cash to hang out in character, but that's probably not the case. Besides, how would you recognize a fake pitchman played by a real character actor in a socially responsible mask anyway?
There's no official mention of Ford anywhere on the film's website or social media and based on a statement from a Ford representative, the Blue Oval is not directly behind it and didn't finance the picture. We've reached out to Imagine Entertainment for further comment, but it didn't immediately respond.
Anyway, the teaser video they posted just says the film is coming soon, so your guess is as good as ours as to when or if it'll actually debut.
