With the future at stake, how does Ford balance risk with reward? By daring to be different, with an eye on the past and an ear to the present: It's the latest "people mover".

And with those dire words, we bring you back to the latest installment in the 285-part "Bold Moves" joke Mark Field's "swan song" documentary. Remember, this whole thing is all about Ford moving themselves back to profitability — and nothing says profitable like the Ford Fairlane, the latest "people mover" that's not "The People Mover." Is it just us or is FoMoCo's production company making fun of this whole thing by titling the episode "pitching the fairlane concept" and then beginning the video by talking about the "Woody?" – Ray Wert

Paper to Pavement: Pitching the Fairlane Concept [FordBoldMoves.com]

Related:
Ford's B.M. — Episode VI: FoMoCo PR's Got The Biggest Balls Of Them All [internal]

We've been a bit lackadaisical in our coverage of the "Bold Moves" documentary as of late, and for the two of you who're fans of the 50-part documentary, we apologize (sorry Bill and Mark!). For the rest of us, watching these web-isodes is kind of like passing a car accident on the side of the road, where the only "Bold Move" made is when you pry yourself away from the gawking. But given the train wreck nature of this thing, we do have to give the PR folks of FoMoCo credit on the sheer size of their balls by making a video featuring a staff person from the Rainforest Action Network claiming "Ford has the worst fuel efficiency of any automaker in America." There is at least one positive we've taken away from this episode and it's that we get more video of design stud Peter "Dave" Horbury. Oh please Peter...please charm us with your big balls again.

Related:
Ford's B.M. — Episode II: Peter Horbury Has Balls; But Does "Dave"? [internal]

Ford's just released the second of 20 webisodes comprising its "Bold Moves" documentary. In this segment, the focus is on design (or the lack thereof). It's so overflowing with brilliant lines, we can't even pick a favorite to run through the Jalopnik meat grinder. There's Mark Fields, with, "We gotta get that design mojo back," and some tricky linguistics from Peter "Hi, I'm Dave" Horbury, who says he's the "super chief designer," while eyeballing the Ford "Super Chief" concept truck. Still, none could compare to that uttered by our good friend from episode one, Cliff Sword. If you'll recall, he's the auto mechanic from Dearborn, MI who knows exactly what Ford needs to right itself:

"Well it's gonna take somebody with balls to step up and say we're gonna try something entirely different and new"

We couldn't agree with you more, Cliff. That begs a question. Who's got the biggest designer cojones at Ford? Why, it's none other than our good friend and creator of the Gillette razor Fusion grillework. That's right, from now on when you think "Ford" and "Big n' Brass" — we want you to picture this:

Horbury's got such huge balls, he's gotta point at them — with both hands! Or maybe they're just hidden under the cowboy hat.

Bold Moves: Documenting The Future of Ford [FordBoldMoves.com]

Related:
More on Ford's B.M. [internal]

Mark "movie star" Fields now has his big-budget action flick — where he can show his pluckiness, his spunk, his grit and determination. Or at the very least it's a place where Fields can make the case for Ford being an "underdog." We'll let you make the call on the veracity of that statement yourself. The prologue's great — it's like a making of the making of the making of Bold Moves. But it's the first webisode where Bold Moves strikes the purest of gold. Our favorite quotes from the first of 20 parts come from a gentleman named Calvin Stephenson, a man proud of his connection to Ford and Cliff Sword, an auto mechanic from Dearborn.

Take a gander at the video above and then hit the jump to hear our fave quotes and commentary from our main men, Calvin and Cliff:

"My father worked for Fords(sic), I worked for Fords...I uhh...I retired from Fords."

Right, well — he probably wouldn't be a retiree right now if Ford hadn't needed to shutter a factory or two. Later on, Calvin continues:

"Ford Motor Company! Five dollars a day! They come up here, like 1905, 1906...they come up here a ways, man — to get the job. Ford helped the people — on both sides of the fence."

We can only assume, if the documents from a couple weeks ago are true, that Calvin means Ford's helping people on both sides of the US border — you know, white collar workers in Dearborn and blue collar workers in Mexico.

But let's hear from Cliff:

"Ford. Who's gonna support America. Period. When it's all gone?"

Oh wait — maybe Cliff's just got his punctuation wrong...maybe it should be more like this:

"[Bill] Ford, who's gonna support America...when it's all gone?"

We can only imagine what the answer will be, Cliff — we can only imagine. Especially given FoMoCo's penchant for dropping big-selling vehicles like the Fusion into Mexican plants. But really, Cliff won't have to worry — he's a mechanic — and there'll still be cars for him to service — just mostly from Dearborn execs and not so much from blue collar folks.

Boy, we can't hardly wait until the next webisode! In fact, we're going to create a special tag just for these webisodes — to make a "Bold Move" ourselves it'll be called "BM Documentary" — so follow along as we watch this special documentary...all about B.M.

Episode One: Change or Die [FordBoldMoves.com]

Related:
Ford's Thinking Hollywood, Baby! Bold Moves: The Movie! [internal]

Most people outside of the company never will have seen such an insider's view of the designing, engineering, manufacturing and selling of cars and trucks. We believe the public will be fascinated - and, at times, shocked by our candor. That's because this is not typical marketing or PR. It's not scripted or pre-planned. The documentary chronicles actual events as they happen.

Right — and we totally believe it'll be "not scripted or pre-planned" as well chock full of "candor" and we're sure the public will be "fascinated" as well. Will they be "shocked?" Well...maybe Wall Street will be when they find out about this cockamamie idea. It sounds like Fields has everything under control over there...but...just in case they're looking for some wacky n' bold ideas, we think we've come up with some titles for a few of their webisodes — check them out, along with the full e-mail from Marky-Mark, after the jump — and then provide us with some of your own:

Webisode Titles:

1.) Ford: The Battle for Dearborn
2.) Episode II: Use The Fords, Fields
3.) Mark Fields: Demolition Man
4.) William Ford Sr: The Ford-father
5.) Mark Fields' List
6.) Ford Of The Rings

Marky-Mark's E-mail

This week, we mark the next phase in our Bold Moves marketing communications platform. Tomorrow at noon Eastern time, we will introduce the world to a rare behind-the-scenes look at our Way Forward turnaround through an online documentary series we call

"BOLDMOVES: The Future of Ford."

Hosted at www.fordboldmoves.com, the weekly documentary tells our story in a direct, open and honest manner. Many of you and your colleagues will "star" in the episodes, as we work to show the world that we have the passion and the plan to win.

Over time, the documentary will present a picture of a company that is committed to revitalization through our people, products, improved quality and costs, and a laser-sharp focus on the customer. Each episode will provide evidence that it's not business as usual at the Ford Motor Company and that our "change or die" Way Forward attitude is not a sound bite. It's the way we're approaching our future.

The documentary is one of a series of Bold Moves initiatives. As we previously have pointed out, Bold Moves is far more than an advertising campaign or new tag line. It reflects who we are, where we're going and what's important to our customers. Bold Moves reflects not just how we communicate with our customers, but also how we operate internally as a nimbler, faster and less bureaucratic organization.

The documentary is being taped during the course of the year and will include up to 50 episodes that are approximately 3 - 5 minutes in length. The storyline will vary from the making of the Ford Shelby GT500 to our decision-making on future products and work to assemble them with improved quality and costs.

In the first episode, we set the stage for the business realities we face. In an upcoming episode, North America design chief Peter Horbury explains our Way Forward vision of bold, American design. In another episode, we visit an assembly plant to show the world the complexity of vehicle manufacturing.

Most people outside of the company never will have seen such an insider's view of the designing, engineering, manufacturing and selling of cars and trucks. We believe the public will be fascinated - and, at times, shocked by our candor. That's because this is not typical marketing or PR. It's not scripted or pre-planned. The documentary chronicles actual events as they happen.

I invite you and all employees to become regular viewers of the documentary and to encourage your family and friends to do the same. I am convinced that, once more people see how we are changing and how passionate we are about winning, the public increasingly will cheer us on and help lead us to success.
- Mark Fields
xxxxxxxx@ford.com

Bold Moves: Documentaring the future of Ford [fordboldmoves.com]

Related:
Ad Watch: Run Ford Your Life — It's Taylor Hicks! [internal]