After spending years courting Bruce Springsteen to appear in his first commercial, Jeep took down the ad on Wednesday after news broke that the rock legend had been charged with drunken driving in November.<\/p>\n
The two-minute spot, which featured Mr. Springsteen in the rural middle of the country, urging unity from a white Jeep, was made last month and aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday. Time for the broadcast, the biggest television event of the year, cost most advertisers $5.5 million for 30 seconds.<\/p>\n
The charges against Mr. Springsteen, which included reckless driving and driving while intoxicated in New Jersey on Nov. 14, became public on Wednesday. His first virtual court appearance will likely occur toward the end of February.<\/p>\n
Jeep removed the Super Bowl ad, which was made by a creative team chosen by Mr. Springsteen, from its Twitter feed and YouTube page. The commercial was the second-most-watched game-day spot on YouTube on Sunday night, behind Amazon\u2019s ad and ahead of commercials by Cadillac and Uber Eats, according to the platform.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Jeep said, \u201cIt would be inappropriate for us to comment on the details of a matter we have only read about and we cannot substantiate. But it\u2019s also right that we pause our Big Game commercial until the actual facts can be established.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIts message of community and unity is as relevant as ever,\u201d the company said. \u201cAs is the message that drinking and driving can never be condoned.\u201d<\/p>\n