Ad agencies evaluate the effectiveness of their artistry using a "recall score." The metric measures how well consumers remember a brand and/or product within 24 hours of having seen its advert. A high recall score means the commercial hot-wired the product into the consumers' minds. A low score means the sponsor wasted their money. Although I watch quite a bit of TV, this semi-professional pistonhead can't recall more than a handful of car ads. So much for carmakers getting their money's worth.
One ad that managed to stick in my mental craw: GM's $150m campaign for Chevy's new "now you see, now you can't buy it" Malibu. The ads show a computer-generated facsimile of the ‘Bu zooming around intimidating Camrys and generally showing off its sleek new lines. At first I wondered if the ad agency also couldn't get their hands on one, hence the computer animation. Then I wondered where they spent the remaining $149,975,000.
But at least the Malibu is in production. Another ad GM's running shows an ethnically blended troop of kids with their ears against a Volt, listening to it hum. The hip young spokesman tells them it's "the extended-range electric car powered by the miracle of the advanced lithium-ion battery pack." And hey! "They expect they'll get up to 40 miles without a drop of gas." The kids gasp their appreciation like they're about to snort Pixies Sticks. "I've heard the future and it hums" the actor exclaims. The obligatory voice-over intones "Chevy- from gas-friendly to gas free. That's an American revolution."
What they don't bother to say, except in small print flashed momentarily at the bottom of the screen, is that you can't have get one– no matter how badly you want it. They also neglect to mention that the production model- whenever it arrives- will look nothing like the sexy beast whispering God knows what into kids' ears (where's Steve King when you need him?). Or that once you go past that claimed 40-mile range you're burning petrochemicals to recharge the batteries. Or that currently the only "gas free" model Chevy offers is a large diesel-powered pickup truck.
The manufacturers all seem Hell bent on saving us from our own tailpipe pollution (i.e. alleviating globally-warmed guilt). From Accords driving through tunnels lined with images of nature at its best to Subarus coexisting with Bambi, carmakers want you to believe that it's OK to buy their car; Mother Nature won't mind a bit if you do.
The most blatant example of eco-misdirection is from Toyota. They show a Prius made of twigs and leaves raising spontaneously from the muck of a bog only to return to it, convincing us (they hope) that their eco-mobile is one with nature. Just don't think about what's required to manufacture or dispose of those battery packs crammed within. Or the fuel oil burned to ship the cars here from Japan.
The award for the strangest eco-mercial shows a group of hit men trying to take each other out with water pistols, super shooters and water balloons. The message? "What if we could replace something harmful with water?" You guessed it: it's an ad for Honda's yet-to-be-released limited production Clarity hydrogen fuel cell car.
So hit men won't kill each other with water balloons (is there a hit man jobs bank?) and we won't kill each other with the Clarity because all it produces is water instead of that yucky greenhouse gas. Of course, we're not supposed to think about how much energy is used to make that hydrogen or what the by-products of that process might be. Or the fact that water vapor is a greenhouse gas. I'm beginning to think Norway had the right idea by banning car ads that extol the a car's benefit to the environment.
Meanwhile, trucks. Big. Macho Trucks. Ford, Chevy, Toyota, Nissan and Dodge all have the toughest truck. They're all the biggest, haul the most, tow the most, last the longest and offer "class leading" fuel economy. By implication, anyone who doesn't buy theirs is a weenie. And they practically take a sledgehammer to their truck to prove… some weird sado-masochistic point.
The Tundra ad best reflects this chorus of "any abuse you can take I can take more" pre-school of thought. The Texas Toyota hauls a trailer up and then down an iron teeter-totter poised over a cliff (I think) in a landscape that would give Mad Max the heebie-jeebies. What's the point? If you're ever performing truck tricks at a post-apocalyptic party, the Tundra's the way to go.
And that's it. That's all I got. Except this: a new study of auto advertising found that Japanese auto manufacturers reached 22 percent more audience than U.S. automakers and 27 percent more than European manufacturers. Considering the car ads in question, it's clear that the entire auto industry's reach exceeds its grasp.
Car makers have done some pretty good adverts. Vauxhall are currently running (in the UK) their “C’mon!” adverts and they’re really generating a buzz. So much so, that the cuddly toys in the adverts are making their way to the high street! In fact, the toys are more popular than the cars!
Here’s an example of the “C’mon” adverts.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9AKW6T6Yog
But my favourites were the Toyota adverts of the early 90’s in the UK. Here’s an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlchMEQ9nB4
In fact, that one was my favourite ad. It had the best tag line “The car in front is a Toyota”. Why did they ever get rid of that line?
Toyota also had a good tag line in North America something like “It’s time to move forward”.
Toyota Australia did the Steve Irwin (R.I.P) advert and they had a catchy jingle. Here’s a sample:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmFL5Flnwwo
The one that really annoys me is Mazda’s “Zoom zoom”. It sounds childish! Like they’re advertising Matchbox cars!
Good ads, Katie. Thanks for sharing.
Great editorial.
I think the best ads that appeal to me, (and probably every one of TTAC’s readers.) are ones that are simple. The vehicle driving. Where the focus of the ad is the vehicle itself, not the Earth, not the people, not the scenery, just the car.
When the WRX was launched in NA in 2001 (?) they ran an ad that just had the car racing through a forest road, with the singing Boxer engine being the focus of the ad. Brilliant. Not sure if the average Joe would see the same appeal, but it was great for me.
The only car ad that’s really stuck with me in recent or ancient history was a BMW ad from the mid-80s that showed people actually talking about DRIVING in a BMW driver’s course and driving their cars on a course. The phrase (now, sadly dropped) “Ultimate Driving Machine” stuck with me.
Ask me about car ads I saw yesterday or today, fuhgedaboutit.
how can we talk about car commercials and not bring up VW!?
the Da-da-da commercial, the gti stuck in the tree, the safe happens series, the fast series, they have had some really good ads. always make me crack a smile.
I also left out the Hyundai “duh” commercials. They don’t try to mislead– they’re just duhmb.
Frank—-you are correct—Ad agencies do evaluate the effectiveness of their artistry using a “recall score.”
But being in the business—I do know the client side often evaluate Ad effectivness based on a “pursuasion score”—-i.e was the ad effective enough to get people to try. Was it both different and meaningful to the consumer.
Net an Ad can be very clever and cutsie to generate recall, but if it doesn’t induce trial or minimally interest in the brand—what the hell good is it….which is exactly your point—auto ads have a LONG way to go on this count.
To echo Yournamehere, the VW ‘Safe Happens’ ads were some of the most mesmerizing and effective ads I’ve seen recently.
The first time I watched one of the ads, I just sat there, stunned.
Seems every 20 mins of TV I watch there’s a GM / Ford / Chrysler or Toyota ad. Others not as often. I can channel surf over 5 stations at 7pm ET and they are all car ads. Once I got hit with ads for the older focus on 4 channels – it was like deja vu. I don’t want to go out and buy one – it actually makes me sick how much the focus is on advertising rather than building better cars – thus I don’t buy one and flip to another channel hoping there’s no commercials. Then I got a DVR – greatest invention ever (cya car ads).
Oh, and I hereby nominate KatiePuckrik to be TTAC’s official Blog-Goddess!
Katie, your insights are always insightful, to the point, and relevant. And sometimes, you’re even right.
Can’t talk about memorable car ads without bringing up what is, IMO, the best of all- the Joe Isuzu campaign from the mid-80’s. I still vividly remember those commercials and can practically recite them. Ask me about any Ford or Chrysler ads from the past month, though, and I have amnesia.
While they didn’t run in Canada, I think Honda UK’s ad for the Accord (Cog) is one of the most visually stunning ads I’ve ever seen.
They also ran one for the Civic where are a group of vocalists produce all of the noises which I also thought was rather clever.
As much as I found them ironic, I did like the Caddy comercials with the Led Zepplin and CTS and STS blasting around a ball room. Really enjoyed those. And I always like watching the BMW one where the M5 pulls away from the rocket car. The new Mazda one (about more people driving MAzda on race day) is pretty nifty too.
How, and you think Lutz and the add agencies are to damned in love with hydrogen/electric/hybrid/whatever? You should see the way some of the lower level personel act. I swear, I have one boss whose felatio of the Volt would make even Bob Lutz blush.
I also saw one just recently for the VW Polo where a terrorist gets into one, and tries to blow up a cafe. However, when he detonates the bomb, it is all contained inside the VW. That one made me laugh.
I was talking about this with my wife just last night about how car ads and most all TV ads have become bad and don’t seem to do what they were intended, bring customers to the products.
And a lot of the car ads that do stick to my head in recent times I mostly just remember because they annoy me. That makes be want to buy there car even less.
I think it is because we aren’t the demographic they are selling to since most of us aren’t looking for an appliance or image from our cars, we want to drive them.
I think the increase in poor ads (from any manufacturers) is directly linked to the increasing number of people who Tivo and DVR them to oblivion.
What I’d like to know is who pays for the annoying radio ads (my XM has been on the fritz) that Ford/GM run touting their dealer service departments? Do they really get bodies into dealership by advertising tires?
Zarba,
Katie, your insights are always insightful, to the point, and relevant. And sometimes, you’re even right.
Hang on! “Sometimes” I’m right! I’m ALWAYS right! Bloody men! ;O)
Was Joe Isuzu the advert where he wore a lie detector, spouted a load of facts about the Isuzu, then said “See? You can trust me!” then got electrocuted?
I saw that advert once on a TV show in the UK and nearly killed myself laughing!
Frank Williams’ ruminations here suggest that ad agencies should measure both recall and blood pressure responses. The Volt ad tends to piss me off, too.
Some ads, however, you remember a long, long time… because they’re just darned good, imaginative, fun.
Two of my all-time favorites are Nissan ads for the Z, both of which aired during the Super Bowl, if I recall correctly.
In the first, GIJoe, with his doll-house-scale shiny red Z snakes Ken’s Barbie away from him.
The following year, if I remember correctly, Nissan was back with a squadron of birds going after a shiny black Z as it emerges from a car wash, trying to hit it with bird droppings. Featured the music from Top Gun and the voice of Cliff Claven.
It wasn’t a great ad but I did get a kick out of an older Volvo ad showcasing their WAGON in a sports car race. “What’s really remarkable is that it’s WINNING.”
IMO — the majority of US car advertising is wasted.
Ad agencies are in bed with their client counterparts — and have led them to believe things like “ads take multiple exposures to make an impression”. (b*llsh*t — every point of contact needs to make an impression, if it doesn’t its not getting the message across or the image across effectively!)
Recall is the measure agencies like best — it allows them to create wow zing commercials — that people remember (well, they might remember the commercial if not the brand, the model, or any real info about the car).
The measure they are loathe to use (well, I will tell you a few car makers do use) is “persuasion” — which measures likelihood and interest vs other brand and models.
(BTW — as far as I know, no US automaker currently uses this measure — and so most ads are truly junk)
/p
By far the VW ads are the most creative and I remember them and the brand. They have done their magic. Vee-Dub in the da house! Loved the “Unpimp de auto” ones for the GTI.
“What if we could replace something harmful with water?”
bah! Dihydrogen Monoxide is one of the most harmful substances known to man! Kills people all the time!
KixStart, I remeber that first Z one, I liked it too.
Ya know, as much as the PETA types might try to Crucify me for it…I love those two Ford Sport Ka adds where it kills the bird and cat.
Virtual Insanity,
I’d like to think of myself as a big animal lover. I abhor cruelty to any living thing (humans, included) and I regularly donate to animal charities.
However, I giggled at the Ford adverts where the Ka killed the bird. If PETA try to crucify anyone for that advert, then I have to ask myself, why do I give money to a charity which now protects ficitional animals as well as real ones!
There have been plenty of good car ads. Here are a couple that I remembered:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0f7kSyCG8o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XLyCDsKhGo
As mentioned above, there are plenty of good VW commercials too. Creating commercials is a tough business. A successful commercial walks on a very fine edge with steep cliffs on either side.
I guess the first one is the add that VirtualInsanity and Katie were refering too (took me a while to find them).
I did more than giggle when I first saw it. ROTFL is a more appropriate term.
It always depresses me when I spend 3 hours cleaning my car only to have the neighbors cat put paw prints across my hood. Cats always land on their feet right?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m actually a total cat person. But I think those commercials appeal to the part of us that, no matter how cute something is, it just gets annoying after a while. And after I first saw either of them, I didn’t just chuckle, I lost it.
Most ads are wonderfully forgettable. A handful stand out and actually tell you something about the car or brand.
Unfortunately right now we also have some real stinkers on TV and I can’t quite get them out of my mind – yuk!
1. The stupid Hyundai “duh” ad with people in fancy glittery dress singing to a vehicle (looks like a cheap copy of a recent Mazda ad).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsbH_kRNq-Q with variants.
2. The irritating (nee arrogant) add for Toyota that has “primitives” building a car out of branches, twigs and grass which then decays back to a “natural” state. Grrr!
(probably get banned in some countries for being misleading)
To me, one of the classic misdirected car commercials of all time was the Subaru ad for the dreadful XT “sports car” (and I say that having actually owned–bought it brand new–an XT6) that featured a grandmotherly type driving it while the soundtrack, or maybe it was the radio, blared “La Bamba.”
It was hilarious. So much so that everyone recalled the ad but not one in a thousand could tell you what car was being advertised.
I can recall a lot of car commercials, just not in a good way. I at least got a chuckle out of the MAzda ads for their CUV where the hiker has an ear pressed to the ground and is telling his buddies what is coming down the road. I also got a chuckle out of the silly VW pimp your car ads, just because of the culture and TV shows that they were poking fun at. I absolutely hate the Toyota truck ads, and absolutely agree with the writer’s description. I think I first saw one during the Superbowl, and it just made me think why would anybody do something like that for a commercial or otherwise!? The new Cadillac commercials that are based around the question, “Does your car turn you on when you turn it on” are amusing in that I can answer yes and I can think of quite a few other cars that, if I owned them, I could answer, hell yes; not one of them is a Cadillac. For a good chuckle, go on Youtube and watch some of the old commercials for the Mustang when it first came out. And, even though it’s completely fancifull, I love the ad for the Shelby Mustang where the guy ships it to Germany because he can’t find any roads to drive it on in America. I think the question and answer at the end of that ad is great.
Midwest-looking couple talking to Joe Izuzu, who has his ever present canary eatin’ smile on his face.
man: What did you say the name of the vehicle was?
Joe: Izuzu.
man: Gesundheit. What did you say was the name of the vehicle was?
Those where great commercials.
Lots of commercials are really memorable. What I don’t understand is why they pay to air ones that aren’t.
Let’ see, we have the little Zoom-zoom kid. The stretchable truck was cool. “Dogs like trucks.” Fahrvegnugen (sp?). Anything with Jill in it. The old stupid truck trick commercials worked I think, but now they are too common. Perrrrfect! Corinthian Leather. I think Joe Isuzu inspired a religious cult. There is the valet stand commercial where the women joke about men compensating with their car until a good looking guy comes up in Hyundai. And of course, we all stop to watch Jill Wagner commercials, even though no one bothered to watch her TV series.
Yes, I mentioned Jill twice. How could I not?
The most memorable auto ads I can think of are the VW “Unpimp ze Auto” and the Honda commercial that ran in Europe called The Cog.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o9o9Sr_vw5I
What bugs me the most are commercials that do nothing but compare their cars against other brands’. American companies tend to do this the most.
Almost the entirety of the Buick Enclave commercial is comparisons between it and it’s perceived competition. Quieter than…Cheaper than…Larger Rear-view-mirror than…More mp3 jacks than…
I’ve just remembered. I don’t know whether anyone heard about these adverts from Honda UK, but they are considered classics in the advert world. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGngcQb_0qg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A4boZ9PM3Q
P.S. Honda’s tag line “The power of dreams” is a little lame!
The one I remember most vividly is the VW “1949 Auto Show” starring MacLean Stephenson as the Packard pitchman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2jJeEnHbtA
I’m also fond of the Nissan “action figure” commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylyvWXcoOWQ
and the recent VW “Unpimp your auto!” campaign:
For a good (fake) commercial, YouTube Big Bobs Used Cars…
ITS A BAJAMBA SALE! YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? SHAZAM!
Jill Wagner was in a TV series? What was it? I still have no clue who this woman was before these Mercury ads. I don’t watch primetime TV, it pretty universally sucks except for Heroes.
And isn’t water harmful to people who can’t swim, as in deadly.
The problem with modern advertising is twofold. One aspect is that the companies that turn to agencies are filled with overpaid fools in suits that demand numerous objective metrics on what is at the root a subjective pursuit. Then they sit around in committees discussing recall rates and focus group performance.
The other aspect of the problem is the ad agencies are staffed with smart, creative hotshots who will often let their creativity supercede the message in an ad. Many ads you see on TV obviously have very little connection with the actual brand history and personality and become 30 second creativity exhibitions divorced from their intended purpose of promoting a brand based on unique brand principles or consumer benefits.
It isn’t just car ads that aren’t getting the job done on a “per impression” basis or whatever asinine metric you want to assign. It’s all ads. The true goal of any successful ad in an advertising campaign is to successfully grow the brand and cement its understanding in consumers minds. Even ads that people forget create an impression of the brand that sticks in a persons head; after so many thousand impressions, assuming they are consistent and well crafted, even a consumer who couldn’t tell you anything about any ad they’ve ever seen should be able to tell you something about the brand.
Focus groups & recall rates are for short-term quarterly results focused boobs. Individual metrics don’t work and won’t register when you poll Joe Sixpack about an ad he saw last week. Advertising is a small aspect of Branding, and Branding is a grand cumulative effort that involves not only TV or print ads but also what products a company even produces and the packaging of products and where the products are sold and a company’s corporate practices and what stationary they use in their own offices and a million other things. We should be concerned with how well ads cultivate a brand’s image, not with how well people remember a specific ad after a period of time.
The relatively recent car ad that came right to my mind was Audi’s “the luxury car for people who can park themselves” spot.
Are people reacting at all positively to the new CTS ads with Kate Walsh and Martin Henderson? (These in the States – not sure about int’l broadcast) They strike me as a pretty good re-introduction of the Cadillac brand on its own merits…
Nice editorial, but your specific criticisms of the Prius are unfair. All imports are brought over on fume-spewing, diesel-burning ships, not to mention that they are carted from port to dealer by locomotives and trucks. If you are going to not-so-subtly imply that such activities more than offset the Prius’ reduced operating emissions then you really ought to provide some data. I seriously doubt it exists.
Ditto on your battery comment. This is an oft-repeated claim, but I have yet to see any data on the damage caused by Prius batteries. I seriously doubt this exists, too. And besides, does this criticism not apply to every other hybrid model as well?
All car companies tout their green credentials these days fairly or not, and few models are truly unique in any way. There is simply no way to criticize a single production car without criticizing several others.
Though I agree, it’s a silly ad. As are all ads in this vein – if you want to help the environment, take the bus.
brownie Nice editorial, but your specific criticisms of the Prius are unfair. I'm not criticizing the Prius. I'm criticizing the Prius ad. There's a big difference. I know imports are sent here by ship. However, Toyota is going overboard (no pun intended) trying to make it look like they (in general) and the Prius (specifically) cause no harm to the environment when just getting them here from Japan has a tremendous impact.. Batteries of any kind contain chemicals and metals that cannot be produced nor reclaimed in an environmentally-neutral manner. The only environmental benefit a Prius provides over other (non-hybrid) vehicles is reduced exhaust emissions. That's it. In the ad, they're trying to make it look like a Prius can be build from natural materials, then recycled into the environment leaving no evidence it ever existed. I'm sorry, but it ain't so, and trying to portray it any other way is fraudulent.
The VW Cabrio “Pink Moon” ad, that’s the one that got me. I went right out and bought the Nick Drake album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vptGhAUukc
Did it work for VW? One YouTube viewer writes ‘funny, I remember thinking “I wanna be in that car” back when it came out…’
Frank, I’m just saying you could say the same about every ad touting the green credentials of any imported car, or any car really. Like I said, any ad suggesting that anything other than taking the bus is helpful to the environment is a lie. Singling out the Prius ad over ads for, say, the Civic, any Subaru, or even other Toyota products (remember that Echo ad with the clapping monkeys?) is an unfair criticism of the Prius and its ad.
It’s not the Prius ad that’s uniquely bad, it’s the whole genre of ads that are collectively bad.
The Volt ad, by contrast, is uniquely bad, as it manages to tout the green credentials of a car that doesnt exist, may never exist, and simply can’t exist within the limits of current technology. I’ve never seen anything like that before… it has truly raised (lowered?) the bar.
Got to hand it to Ford’s ad agency with their current TV spot for the ’08 Focus. With such a road toad on it’s hands, the ad touts the Sync audio system and not much else. Exterior shots are limited to the front and rear only, nothing showing it’s oh so attractive and proportionate profile.
Ms. Wagner was in the TV series Blade, from the Wesley Snipe film of the same name.
She was the only reason to watch it.
Baby M:
Thanks for posting the link to the VW “Unpimp your automobile” commercial. I had forgotten hwo good they were.
Actor playing German engineer, “What does this do?”
Kid, “It sucks air.”
Engineer’s female assistant, “It’s certainly sucking.”
Love it!
Seriously there was a Blade TV show. The movies were ok at best but a TV show, wow I’m glad I have essentially sworn off TV except for the History channel. I guess that explains why I had no clue who she was before Mercury. I used to enjoy watching TV ads when I was younger too, they were entertaining and funny at times. Now they seem to be as annoying as watching one of the propaganda news channels. There are a few gems but overall its become unwatchable, at least for me. I have way to many hobbies to waste hours in front of the idiot box, now if I could just get the rest of my family to wean off their addiction.
Is anyone else hating the site links after the last update. None of the links work like they used to and I find myself constantly clicking through pages. I hate the way it’s going to bring me back to the beginning after I post this. The content has gotten way better though, I just miss how easy it was 2 weeks ago to get where you wanted to be.
Weren’t those VW “crash test” ads real accidents done in a controlled environment?
I’m just a little too young to really remember the early-80’s commercials, but my bookshelves at home show a lot of automotive history materials on them. From what I understand, a lot of Americans really rallied behind the Lee Iacocca commercials. We had oil shortages, a massive recession, high unemployment, and places like Detroit and Flint were fading. Here comes this guy that looks like our grandfather asking us to buy American at a low price and we did. I do remember the ads where it was obvious he was losing touch with the market (really, how many stretched K-Car models with vinyl roofs and velour puffy seats did they need) and I read that he was against the Viper being built…and there he was with his last commercial sitting in one saying that he wanted to go out with a bang. He just connected – just like Joe Isuzu!
I’m just floored Toyota is actually running ads about vehicles. Most of their ads have consisted of a REALLY crappy cover of a crappier song with an image of a car spinning like a Red Bull-fueled four year old while they tell you the deal (and only the deal) for THIS WEEKEND ONLY!!! (Cycle repeats on Monday.)
Can I BE THE BIG BAD DADDY DAWG PLEASE???????? Sorry. Just got lost looking at a Ford Super Duty grill in the commercial. Proof positive that money can’t buy taste and that you need a chrome grill the size of an interstate billboard to be considered a heavy- or super-duty truck.
Anyone have a link on this oldie for our younger members?
Dustin Hofffman, A Volkswagen, Two Trunks.
Classic!
Nevermind, I found it.
We own a stove (range, cooker, whatever) yet I can’t recall ever seeing a TV ad for a stove. We own a refridgerator, and though there are TV ads for ‘fridges, (I think) I can’t recall any. We own a washer and dryer, not Maytag, even though the only TV ads I can remember for any appliance are the Maytag commercials. We own a TV, but I can’t even remember the last time I saw a commercial for TVs.
My point being, household appliances are not advertised to the same degree as cars, yet we all have a houseful of appliances. Maybe the automakers just don’t need to advertise nearly as much. Anyone not heard of a car maker called Chevrolet? Anyone not heard of Toyota?
I watch very little TV (and no cable/satellite) so maybe I just missed them. Maybe there are lots of appliance ads that I just have not seen, but it doesn’t seem as if there are many. I really don’t think TV ads have influenced any of our appliance purchases. Or car purchases for that matter.
I bought a Mac because my brother had one and it’s just a lot nicer to use than a PC. The “cool guy” Apple ads havn’t influenced me at all – in fact they make me cringe.
I think one reason commercials are so forgettable is that the are still trying to sell the driving experience -zoom zoom, cars going fast around corners, cars going very fast along straight highways. You don’t see anyone in an appliance commercial getting off using their washer/dryer – the emphasis is on making chores easier, not having fun doing laundry. Cars are just transportation appliances. Don’t try to make me think I’m going to have wonderful driving experiences if I buy a certain car.
That brings us to unreality. Why show me a truck driving up to the top of some spikey rock formation? I never do that with my truck. Show me the truck at Home Depot, and show me how much lumber I can get in the thing – that’s what I do with my truck.
I live in a place where all the raods are laid out in grids. Why show me a car whipping through S-curves? I don’t want to do that in the first place, and even if I did, I’d have to go somewhere else to do it.
Stop trying to sell the sizzle, because we aren’t even all that interested in the steak.
The 1993 4th Gen Camaro Z28 intro ads. The one with the red Z28 sliding sideways aka the old Porsche 944 Turbo ad. “Big enough cupholder for a slurpee”. Classic.
Another 4th gen Camaro ad that used Jimi Hendrix’s “Let me stand next to your fire” as background music is another classic.
I envy Dynamic88, who by abstaining from cable has avoided abundant ads for new widescreen HDTVs run on ESPN. And ads for home appliances run on Food Network. Or Swiffer ads on Bravo showing housewives getting off on housecleaning. I’m afraid there is no shortage of consumer product advertising elsewhere, on cable and in print.
But I don’t envy Dynamic’s roads laid out in grids, lack of good driving experiences, or absence of spiky rock formations. One reason that car makers continue to run ads highlighting great driving experiences is because they DO exist — and for every happy Olds 88 driver toddling back and forth to work, there’s a Corolla driver listening to NPR and dreaming of a weekend drive in the twisties in something really exciting.
Hope to see you on the winding roads and spiky rocks some day…
“Hope to see you on the winding roads and spiky rocks some day…”
The spikey rocks isn’t going to happen. Twisty roads are fun, but I’m not buying a car just for that, as I’d rarely make use of it that way.
All I’m saying is there is no use making TV commercials for pistonheads as they are a small percentage of the market. Most people see a car sliding sideways on a wet surface and ask themselves “Why would I ever want to do that?”
As for all the other commercials, I’m glad I’m missing them – and yet, I have most of the products anyway. Makes me wonder.
Finally. The truth from Ricardo Montalban.
How can you forget those ’08 Mercedes C Class ads? You know – the guy proclaiming “Because we promised you a Mercedes Benz” after each engineering marvel? How can you forget that the the doors can hold a 200 pound man each? How can you forget that the car goes 80 to 0 in 4 seconds?
…until you read the fine print “For demonstration only. Do not attempt” under each of these… Otherwise memorable.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=78hDOqnK1gA
*****
The ads I really don’t like is the series of Swap Your Ride ads from Ford, which thinks that we are stupid.
STUPIDITY #1: “We didn’t tell them we were from Ford. We told them we were market research.”
Um… have you done market research before? If you participated in Swap Your Ride, here’s what they most likely told you: “Hi, we are market research. AN AUTO MANUFACTURER would like you to test a vehicle to see how it compares to yours. You will be driving this manufacturer’s vehcicle for a week.” Yup, they were not told they were from Ford…
STUPIDITY #2: “We didn’t tell them what to say”
Um… if you have done market research, you are REQUIRED to give your opinions in order to be compensated that $$$ they would be earning. You are asked questions. In this case, Ford wrote the questions that market research asks to the people participating in Swap Your Ride. Yeah, of course they wrote the questions that make Ford look more favorable. When everyone in these ads says “I’m going to miss you” to their Ford, you know that was something that Ford wrote in for the Q&A session. So yeah, Ford didn’t tell them what to say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T0Z839SRtg
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Also, whatever happened to those 2 inspired by Jeff Foxworthy stupider-then-a-5th-grader rednecks in the Dodge ads who love hemis?
I don’t believe anyone has mentioned, what I regard as one of the all-time best and most effective car ads, the BMW E39 M5 television commercial.
The ad I liked best was the one Ford did in 2000 showcasing all their brands around the world, which featured Charlotte Church singing in them. I don’t know why, but I found it highly emotional and uplifting, to the point that it almost made me proud to own a Ford at that time…I got over that feeling rather quickly though…
But it was still a great ad!
I think some car ads can actually scar viewers for life & forever ruin their opinion of a given brand.
Mercury produced this ad during my formative years & convinced me that I’d never be caught dead in one:
Mercedes-Benz did a great ad back in the 90’s. It was a sped-up view from the driver’s seat over the hood over a trip across the US. The MB hood emblem was dead center. For some reason, I really liked it. Perhaps cause I owned a Benz at the time.
Anyone seen the Subaru Ad? You know ” We are the only Car plant that is also a wildlife preserve”? and then it shows a couple of deer?
The deer are not discerning nor are they very smart. I work at a plant that has been considered an environmental disaster for what was dumped on the property 50 years ago and we have deer all the time. And like Subaru doesn’t use toxic chemicals to ensue that th body panels etc are clean enough to take the paint. Ahh, but Joe “I like Foreign car companies”, doesn’t know this and thinks that Subaru is greener than the Big 3 because the plant is on a wildlife preserve. The Big 3 made mistakes in the past and what is Subaru’s record in Japan. Consumers are dumber than the deer if they fall for that
I like the M5 rocket car ad, my favorite is the face polo commercial that never aired:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I62bOXfZXek
questionable taste maybe, but I laughed.
Impressive display of both car scorn and ad knowledge in these comments.
First, on the ads: VW has always struck me as the most consistently on target for creating memorable ads AND brand recognition. I can’t believe no one has mentioned the ad where the gentleman licks the car to prevent the new owners from taking it home.
Water vapor is the primary greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and yet we are rushing to produce hydrogen cars? Eegads! Ethanol stores less energy than gasoline and takes more to make? Yikes!
Hybrids use funky things in their production that are not environmentally friendly? Wowie.
The only things I’ve seen to date that I like for the future are:
1. Plug-in electric – the infrastructure exists and producing electricity is cheap, easy to regulate, and can be done cleanly through a variety of methods. If this catches on, it will only advance the industry and our country’s electric infrastructure.
2. Diesel – In leaps and bounds, diesel technology is getting more efficient, cleaner, and producing greater power. The advantages over gasoline are substantial, and it’s still improving.
3. Hydraulic – Hydraulic drive systems re-use wasted kinetic energy. I use the metaphor of the spring…when the car slows down, the hydraulic system acts as a spring “compressing” (storing up energy). As you accelerate, the hydraulic system releases energy to move the car forward. Currently large, bulky systems used on UPS trucks. Yields thus far have been a 60% increase in economy and 40% reduction in emissions.
4. Ingenuity – BMW efficient dynamics seems to capture this best. On-demand water pumps, alternators that decouple and use regenerative braking to charge, steam-based closed system turbochargers that reuse exhaust heat, stop-start technology. All things that can be added to current cars and add up to substantial savings.
5. Mixtures of the above – A diesel engine utilizing a hybrid-plug-in system to allow electric-only operation at idle and low speed, hydraulic energy recapture, and efficient dynamics to help the car not waste energy.
Science always finds a way to escape those who don’t want it.
But we were talking about ads.
Joe
Sometimes, the right voice makes all the difference. I remember the numerous ads voiced by Hector Alejandro in the 90’s for Buick. Seemed to the right voice for the right car.
I would never imagine James Earl Jones voicing ads for Hyndai…