Buick to air Super Bowl ad for second straight year

Buick will return to the Super Bowl with a 30-second ad during the first half.

“We will be back in the Super Bowl for the second year in a row,” Buick spokesman Stuart Fowle said.

Last year, Buick showed off its new Cascada convertible in a 30-second spot with two celebrities attending a wedding.

Fowle said the brand opted to return again to the Super Bowl because of how the ad last year helped drive traffic to its website and interest in its vehicles.

Buick will later confirm what the ad will be about and which product it will feature, Fowle said. The premium brand may show the commercial ahead of the game, which will be played Feb. 5 in Houston and broadcast on Fox.

The brand sold 229,631 vehicles in the U.S. last year, up 2.9 percent from 2015 totals. Buick sold more than 7,100 Cascadas last year in the U.S.

In the middle of 2016, Buick launched a new Envision SUV in the U.S., and it’s likely to reveal a redesigned Buick Enclave this year.

General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet brand executives said “no comment” when asked earlier this week if the brand planned to air an advertisement during the Super Bowl.

Chevy is launching its new 2017 Bolt EV and by the end of January will begin introducing a new 2018 Equinox SUV.

Super Bowl ads can help spike interest in automakers’ vehicles and have proven effective with audiences totaling more than 100 million not atypical. But they also are expensive and the number of carmakers choosing to air them each year varies.

Some automakers have confirmed they plan to show ads, including American Honda Motor Co. Inc., which will showcase its redesigned 2017 Honda CR-V.

mburden@detroitnews.com

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