Lincoln Ads Have Been Strange for a Long Time

Lincoln Blackwood was a strange truck with a strange commercial, even without Matthew McConaughey.

The modern Lincoln commercials with Matthew McConaughey are strange. Sometimes he is talking to himself, sometimes he is talking to a bull standing in the street and sometimes he doesn’t talk at all. The luxury arm of the Ford Motor Company must be happy with the results of his odd commercials, as they have been working with this marketing campaign for a few years now, but Lincoln ads were strange far before Matthew McConaughey got involved.

This week’s Throwback Thursday video comes to us from the YouTube channel of Trisan Walker and it features an odd older Lincoln ad, showcasing the unusual design of the Blackwood. Frankly, the commercial is far weirder than the truck.

The Blackwood

If you don’t recall the Blackwood, it was based on the Ford F-150 Crew Cab, but it had distinct Lincoln styling inside and out. Up front, it had the face of the Navigator and out back, it had an odd tailgate that split in half and opened to the sides rather than swinging down in one piece. It came standard with a power tonneau cover over the stainless steel-trimmed cargo box, along with a proper luxury interior.

The Blackwood was only available in black, it was only available with the 5.4-liter Triton V8 and it was only available in a rear-wheel-drive configuration. The only option was a five-inch navigation screen and black leather was standard.

The truck was offered for 2002 and 2003, but sales were so poor in 2002 that the company announced the end of production before the end of 2002. As a result, only 3,356 examples of the Blackwood were built during 15 months of production and overall, this Lincoln truck was a total failure.

However, it accounted for this commercial, which was every bit as strange as the truck itself. In fact, this commercial may have actually hurt sales.

Blackwood Commercial

The video begins with a guy in a suit, carrying a briefcase walking in the hard rain when a Lincoln Blackwood rolls up next to him. The driver’s door opens, music is playing but there is no driver. The power tonneau cover and tailgate open as well, and as the guy lets go of his briefcase, it floats next to him.

The guy climbs into the mysteriously self-driving Lincoln pickup and races away from the curb, leaving his briefcase floating behind. The Blackwood is suddenly racing across the desert, then it stops and the guy is standing in the middle of a lake, naked. Then a fish jumps out of the water and floats in the air in front of him. None of it makes any sense, really.

The only narration in the commercial are the words “you don’t explain it, it explains you”, then we flash back to the rainy city street where the Blackwood speeds away and the briefcase falls to the ground.

The video quality isn’t great, but neither is the commercial or the truck, so it is kind of fitting. In the long run, we just couldn’t pass up featuring an odd Lincoln commercial from years before Matthew McConaughey started talking to bulls.

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Patrick Rall

"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.

"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.

"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.

"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.

"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.

"Being based on Detroit," says Rall, "I never miss the North American International Auto Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Roadkill Nights, along with spending plenty of time raising hell on Detroit's Woodward Avenue with the best muscle car crowd in the world.

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