What is in a name? Apparently the bigwigs over at Ford, officially known as the Ford Motor Company, think that names are a big deal. With the Lincoln brand languishing from a lack of fresh and innovative new products that aren’t merely upscale Fords, the execs in charge have decided that the Lincoln brand needed a relaunching under a new name…sort of.

From where on out, “Lincoln” is officially known as “The Lincoln Motor Company”, and to get people talking, Ford released this Superbowl trailer two months before the biggest game of the football season. But is a name change really what Lincoln needs?

The 60-second commercial teaser is kind of all over the place, starting with an image of Lincoln’s namesake, Abraham Lincoln, moving towards the viewer through a foggy mist. Then comes a lot of nostalgia for nameplates and models that have long since disappeared…cars like the Zephyr, Continental, and Mark V. There’s some more retro-goodness thrown in, and talk about marching to the beat of a different drummer, as well as some sharp-looking video of the new Lincoln MKZ sedan in action.

But ultimately, this seems like a brand change without the content to back it up. We can understand Ford wanting to get on with name change. But a relaunch should have waiting for a more dramatic vehicle than the Lincoln MKZ, a reworked Ford Fusion with some admittedly awesome features, but nothing really worth getting worked up over. The brand really needs a new and exciting car…and it just doesn’t have that, at least not yet.

Yet perhaps that is the plan; aligning Lincoln more closely with Ford, and trying to convince people to get over the idea of paying a premium price for a Ford Fusion with a glass roof and no shifter. What do you think of the “Lincoln Motor Company” and what products do you hope they bring back?