Mamet directs Ford TV ads

In an effort to get more people to notice its new vehicles, Ford Motor Co. has enlisted the help of filmmaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet to direct some commercials.

The television spots, which were scheduled to debut Tuesday night during Fox’s “American Idol,” compare the company’s Edge crossover vehicle with the BMW X-5 and the Lexus RX-350, Ford officials said.

Agency copywriters wrote the dialogue in an effort to mimic Mamet’s work, and he didn’t change any of the words, a Ford executive said.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated announcement, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin said it had acquired Mamet’s papers for use by students and scholars -- more than 100 boxes of journals, correspondence and drafts of all of his plays and screenplays.