The Spike Lee Commercial For The Electric Fiat 500e Is My Everything

Spike Lee does commercials. This isn’t a big surprise. I did not expect him to do a commercial for the electric Fiat 500e with Giancarlo Esposito, but he did, and it’s kinda fantastic. It also reveals a hidden irony about the film Do The Right Thing I didn’t realize until just now.

It makes a sort of sense that Lee should focus on the Fiat 500e as the car itself, much like its predecessor, has to be sold on something more than just performance. It offers about 149 miles of range and costs about $34k, which isn’t particularly competitive. What it does do, however, is look great.

This is a good fit for Lee as Lee co-starred with Micheal Jordan in a series of commercials for Nike’s Air Jordans. Specifically, Lee was playing his character Mars Blackmon from his film “She’s Gotta Have It” and it’s great:

Lee sold the shoes not just as performance, but as art and fashion, which is something that didn’t exist before Air Jordans. As Shoe Palace put it:

The commercials featuring Mars adopted much of the style and look of She’s Gotta Have It. Obviously they featured one of its main characters, but those adverts were also filmed in black and white like the film. The tone, aesthetic and feel of those ads was movie quality and that high level of production added to the value of the Air Jordan line.

It’s probably overstating it a bit to say that Spike Lee made the concept of sneakers as fashion a thing, but the Lee commercials are so connected to the legacy of Air Jordans that it’s hard to argue it didn’t help.

Thus, this new ad for Fiat:

The concept here is pretty straightforward: Esposito is Italian and is selling the idea of Italian things being stylish and great. I wouldn’t normally write about a new ad, but this has a few things going for it. First, the hilarious photos that accompany it:

Giancarlo Esposito looks like he’s doing a bit. I’m not sure what this bit even is, but it’s amusing to me.

They look photoshopped in and, again, this is hilarious.

Lol.

Ok, but here’s why it’s sort of worth writing about.

Spike Lee has used Esposito in numerous roles, but I’d argue most famously as Buggin’ Out in the film Do The Right Thing. I don’t wanna spoil the movie if you haven’t seen it (you should see it), but the dramatic action of the film starts with this exchange between Danny Aiello’s Sal and Esposito’s Buggin’ Out:

Essentially, as a pizza shop in a black neighborhood with basically no Italian customers, Buggin’ Out is requesting some representation for black individuals on the wall of Sal’s pizza restaurant, which is covered only with photos of Italian Americans like Robert DeNiro and Frank Sinatra.

At the beginning of the commercial Spike Lee seems surprised that Esposito is driving a Fiat, leading to this exchange:

Spike:  You’re driving a Fiat now?!?

Esposito: It’s electric… and you know I have to rep Italia.

Spike: If I’d known that I’d have never cast you as Buggin’ Out.

Esposito: MOOKIE!

Esposito is a great actor and if you haven’t seen him in any of the million or so great films he’s been in, you’ve at least probably seen him in Breaking Bad. But even as famous as he is, I never assumed he was Italian. But he is! According to the Washington Post, his father was an Italian stagehand and carpenter from Naples and his mother was a classically trained opera singer from Alabama. It turns out that Aiello’s family is actually from Naples as well.

This means that the whole movie is premised on a scene where two Neopolitan guys argue about Italian over-representation. As Lee points out in this new ad, that’s a little funny.

And to bring it full circle: Mars Blackmon of Nike commercial fame is apparently the son of Mookie from Do The Right Thing.

Ok, one more photo: