Car-Vid Classics: Groundhog Gladiator

Dean Evans
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Popular culture owes a lot to 1993's Groundhog Day movie. Sonny & Cher's 1965 song I Got you Babe became an earworm, the title has become an analogy for repeated events, and it provided another platform for Bill Murray's talent to shine, after Caddyshack, Stripes and Ghostbusters.

Bill Murray and Punxsutawney Phil, together again... in a Jeep.

And 27 years after the film released, reinforcing its cultural popularity and significance, the film was revived in-part as the basis for a Jeep Gladiator commercial, with Bill Murray reprising his lead role as Phil Connors, along with Brian Doyle-Murray (Bill's brother) as Punxsutawney town mayor and Stephen Tobolowsky as Needlenose Ned.

Unveiling Jeep's Gladiator line in 2020, the ad was released on Superbowl Sunday, which by incredible coincidence in 2020, was also Groundhog Day; the first time in 54 years that the two events collided... and it's this that likely helped convince Murray to appear in his first ever national commercial. Murray doesn't have an agent, an email, and is notoriously difficult to contact.

The commercial was filmed over three days in Woodstock, Illinois, where the movie was also filmed. It was even published at 6am on Superbowl Sunday, a nod to when Murray's character awoke each day in the movie.

Murray said: “This is my first commercial. I’m glad I did it with you (Jeep). And I’m glad that this is my last commercial, as well.”

Popular culture owes a lot to 1993's Groundhog Day movie (hang on, did we already say that...?).