Call it a Lincolnaissance.
The luxury car company saw a spike in its October sales, the highest for the month since 2007, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The model most purchased was the MKC crossover SUV that Matthew McConaughey drives in the commercials that began airing at the end of September.
Lincoln announced overall sales jumped 25 percent last month and MKC accounted for 2,197 of the 8,883 Lincoln's sold. The MKC sales have grown every month since May, but they saw their biggest leap between September and October, going from 1,763 units to 2,197.
Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn, who helmed 2011's "Drive," shot these spots with McConaughey driving the MKC through the country and dark city streets, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He also used a similar delivery as his "True Detective" character Rust Cohle to say his lines.
In addition to McConaughey's ads, many TV shows also parodied the commercials including "The Ellen Show," "Conan," and "South Park." Jim Carrey imitated the Oscar-winning actor in three parody ads that aired throughout his Saturday Night Live hosting gig on Oct. 25. All the parodies have garnered more than 12.5 million views combined on YouTube.
The parody ads helped exposed the Lincoln brand to a more diverse audience, a company spokesman told The Detroit News. Despite Ellen DeGeneres' references to marijuana-baked brownies in her ad, Lincoln has embraced the parody commercials.
"You can do things today (for a brand) that you couldn't do 10 years ago," Michael Bernacchi, a marketing professor at the University of Detroit Mercy, told The Detroit News. "All the ads and jokes help take the edge off, and make something like that more humorous than it was intended to be."
