It didn’t sink in at first, but I realize what’s missing from this Cadillac spot set to be shown on TV during Sunday’s 87th Academy Awards broadcast. Cadillacs, that’s what this commercial needs.

General Motors’ luxury brand and its ad agency, Publicis, is using “Dare Greatly” more as a jumping off point to welcome Cadillac to New York, its soon-to-be global headquarters.

Unless I missed a black Escalade somewhere among the taxis and people, though, this could’ve been an ad for anything. And how exactly do lines from a 1910 Teddy Roosevelt speech relate to Cadillac? It’s a perfectly nice teaser ad, but a teaser for what? There are more questions than answers here.

For me, the build-up in this 90-second spot reminded me of Maserati’s “Now We Strike” ad from last year’s Super Bowl, where the Ghibli roared to life towards the end. That didn’t happen with the Cadillac commercial and I wish it had.

But what do you think? Is there anything Cadillac-ish about it or did it make you yawn?

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