Bill Murray's 'Groundhog Day' Jeep Ad Is Making the Rounds Again, and Fans Can't Stop Reliving It

Some commercials earn a second life, and Bill Murray’s ‘Groundhog Day’ Jeep spot is one of them. The clip, which sees the actor wake up to a familiar flip clock and a familiar radio song, is circulating widely again online. It lands just as Murray himself is back in the headlines.

Anyone who knows the 1993 comedy will recognize the opening beat immediately. A bedside clock flips to 6:00, the radio kicks in, and Phil Connors realizes he is stuck in the same day once more. The magic of the ad is how faithfully it recreates that moment before taking it somewhere new.

The key detail for anyone seeing the video fresh is that it is not a new commercial. The ad debuted during Super Bowl LIV on February 2, 2020, a game that fell on Groundhog Day for only the second time in the Super Bowl’s 54-year history. The 60-second spot promoted the Jeep Gladiator pickup and marked Murray’s first national television commercial.

Bill Murray retomando su papel de “Atrapado en el tiempo” para un spot publicitario de Jeep. Maravilloso 🤣 https://t.co/nukTu9qWxn
— Multiverso (@MultiversoTM) November 2, 2026

Jeep’s pitch was simple. After Murray’s Phil Connors steals the groundhog, he picks up the Jeep as a getaway vehicle, and every repeated day becomes a fresh adventure. The ad shows him biking, snow drifting and playing whack-a-mole, and Jeep’s tagline was a play on the film’s original poster.

Fiat Chrysler’s chief marketing officer, Olivier Francois, said he first tried to reach Murray in October after noticing the calendar coincidence. He sent a long letter through a mutual friend, then heard nothing for months and nearly gave up on the Super Bowl altogether. Murray eventually agreed, and much of the ad was reportedly unscripted.

The commercial also brought back familiar faces. Stephen Tobolowsky returned as the pesky insurance salesman Ned Ryerson, and Murray’s brother Brian Doyle-Murray reprised Mayor Buster Green. It was filmed in Woodstock, Illinois, the same town where the movie was shot, and it used locations such as the bed-and-breakfast, Town Square and the restaurant from the original.

The ad’s reputation has only grown. Jeep’s press office reported that it was the most-viewed commercial of the 2020 Big Game on social media, with more than 104 million views, and that it took first place in USA Today’s Ad Meter poll. People magazine and Adweek also ranked it at the top of their lists, according to the same release.

Murray’s reaction at the time was characteristically wry. Reflecting on the project in Jeep’s announcement, he said he was glad he did it with Jeep, while adding that he was equally glad it would be his last commercial.

There may be a timely reason people are revisiting it. On Monday, Murray crashed a live CNBC interview and quizzed National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett about his smile. When the host asked which Murray film Hassett liked best, the answer was ‘Groundhog Day’, and Murray told a story about a former Attorney General who showed the movie to new staff as a lesson about the job. I can’t confirm that interview is what sent the Jeep clip viral again, but the timing is hard to ignore.

Part of the ad’s appeal is how rarely Murray revisits his classic roles. ‘Groundhog Day’ never had a sequel, since the filmmakers felt the story had been told perfectly. That made the Jeep spot the actor’s first return to the character, which explains the excitement it generated at the time.

The creative choices helped too. Rather than focusing on the vehicle, the ad leaned on jokes that have nothing to do with the truck, including a scene in an arcade with the groundhog. Jeep also released a longer version afterward, adding roughly 45 seconds of extra footage of Murray and his furry co-star.

The ad also fits a broader trend in which commercials serve as unofficial sequels to beloved films. In an era of reboots and legacy sequels, a 60-second spot may be the closest thing the movie will ever get. Fans have clearly embraced that, which is why a six-year-old ad can still rack up views.

Seeing it again also underlines how well the film’s setup works in any context. A familiar alarm, a familiar song and a deadpan Murray are enough to get an instant reaction. Few pieces of pop culture are so easy to relive.