Ford mockumentary ponders the fate of legendary fake pitchman John Bronco - Roadshow

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 Ford seemed to on Tuesday.

The Blue Oval seems to have opted to 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 mockumentary cast 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's a 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 Ford 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?

Anyway, there's no official mention of Ford anywhere on the film's website or social media, and 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.

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