THE AUTOMOTIVE YEAR: The ad campaign we loved to hate in 2014

It doesn't happen often, but some messages reach a point that they sink into a nation's psyche so deep that they're repeated and regurgitated, ad nauseam, around family dinner tables, over suburban fences, at the pub and across social media.

Take for example the infamous 'I bought a Jeep' campaign, which isn't a new catch-cry for the American off-road brand, but for some reason has struck a chord with Aussies like few others.

One recent weekend I rolled up to my young bloke's Under 13 cricket match in a Jeep press car and was immediately on the back foot with a cacophony of heckles.

The cheap shots were many and unvaried: "You bought a Jeep"; "Hey, look who's bought a Jeep"; "Bought a Jeep, hey"; and so it went on. And On.

I'm sure if the pony-tailed ad agency type responsible for creating Jeep's eponymous advertising campaign was there to witness the monotonous cacophony, they would have been smug. Well, slightly more smug than successful advertising agency people normally are.

It's been many a year since a car ad has entered the Australian vernacular. Over the years there have been more car catch-phrases than Burgo has hosted TV shows, but only a few are memorable.

In the sensational 1970s Ford cashed in with the 'Going Thing' jingle, which was as catchy as Steve Smith in second slip.

Who can forget the classic 'Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars' commercial, which helped propel Holden to the top of the sales charts back in the day?

Sadly, the irony of this particular jingle is yet to become widely apparent. I only recently learned that said commercial wasn’t homegrown at all; it was based on a US TVC that went: "Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet". I know, what a shock and now look where it's got them…

More recently, it's been all 'Zoom-Zoom' and 'Oh, What a Feeling', these overdone themes certainly helping Mazda and Toyota to become successful, well-trusted auto brands in Australia.

But the holy grail of car advertising would have to be when you get a winning combination of both a catch-phrase and a zippy jingle. So when Jeep married 'I bought a Jeep' with The Potbelleez's 'Don’t' Hold Back', a kind of publicity nirvana was reached.

Jeep wasn't the only brand to hit the jackpot with the ad though — the Aussie musical trio certainly did too when the car-maker signed on to use their debut song from 2007. At the time, while it only reached the lofty heights of number 54 on the German charts, the song became the highest selling Australian single of the year. Members of the band now regularly bathe in expensive German beer thanks to Jeep's lucrative advertising royalties alone.

As annoying as this commercial is to some, its repetition has led to envious brand recognition by the masses — in both city and country and by males and females of all ages. There's no doubt it's riding a wave of SUV mania Down Under, but it's no fluke that Jeep is one of the auto brands raising the biggest glasses this festive season.

After years of male-dominated sales, five words were all it took to get the other half on board: "Michael, I bought a Jeep".

All of these 'what makes a successful car advertising campaign?' thoughts started swirling around inside my head the other night when a Christmas-themed commercial aired.

The set-up is Santa relaxing in a recliner on Christmas Eve when Mrs Claus comes in and questions why he isn’t at work, to which he says his work is already done.

What was the solution to his quick Christmas present drop-and-run? You guessed it — even Santa has bought a Jeep.

Clever Claus? Maybe... Clever advertising? You betcha.