Maybe I’m getting old, because I think most popular culture is dreck, or maybe it really is at best pablum and at worse corrosive to the mind and soul. Perhaps it’s because I don’t want to be harangued politically by someone whose profession involves lying convincingly. Whatever the reason, I haven’t watched an award show like the Oscars or Grammys in decades. I wouldn’t have even known the Golden Globes award show was taking place Sunday night if NBC hadn’t been hyping the broadcast during the NFL playoff game I tuned into to get some idea of what people who don’t live in Detroit do on Sunday afternoons in January.
Though I knew about it, as you can guess, I hadn’t planned on watching the Golden Globes. I went out to hear some blues, but the award show was on a couple of the flat screens on the walls at the Blue Goose Inn. That’s how Walmart’s new commercial promoting its grocery pickup service came into my ken. You may ask yourself, why is Schreiber talking about grocery ads at a car site? The answer to that question is that Walmart contracted with a number of movie and television studios to be able to feature a dozen genuinely iconic movie and TV cars and trucks in the ad. Get it? Movie cars in an ad running during a movie award show?
Who wants to see Chevy’s real people when you can watch the Batmobile doing a grocery run? Considering I’ve deliberately done a grocery run in a 204 mph McLaren just to say it could be done, the commercial’s conceit appeals to me. From the reaction in and outside the automotive world, from Autoblog to USA Today, I’m not the only one whose interest was piqued, at least in the movie machines, if not in having canned corn delivered to my trunk at Walmart.
The vehicles in the ad, titled “Famous Cars” and set to the music of Gary Numan’s 1979 hit, Cars, are:
- The Batmobile from 2016’s Suicide Squad.
- Ecto-1 from the original Ghostbusters.
- Knight-Rider’s KITT.
- The animated Cars‘ Lightning McQueen.
- Dumb and Dumber’s shag pile Mutt Cutts van.
- The Wagon Queen Family Truckster from National Lampoon’s Vacation.
- Scooby Doo’s Mystery Machine.
- Jurassic Park’s Ford Explorer (complete with some lizards on the paleo diet).
- A pumpkin delivered to a Walmart parking lot turns into Cinderella’s carriage.
- Fred Flintstone’s foot-powered phaeton.
- The VW Beetle version of Bumblebee from the Transformers franchise.
- A Mr. Fusion-powered DeLorean from the Back To The Future franchise.
As is the fashion these days, there are multiple versions of the ad, with two 30-second versions and one 60-second version for broadcast and a 90-second version for online viewers.
In Walmart’s press release announcing the promotional campaign, Walmart’s Chief Marketing Officer, Barbara Messing, said, “We also worked with a variety of different Hollywood studios to gain access to these vehicles. This helped ensure the ‘famous cars’ looked just like what our customers knew from the films.” How many of the vehicles used in the shooting of the commercial were real (or at least authentic props), how many were replicas, and how many were generated by CGI, isn’t known.
There are also cameo appearances by some of the characters from those shows. I won’t spoil your surprise nor will I identify an “Easter egg” that Walmart also tossed in, though I will give you a hint that it has something to do with a guy sitting outside a KMart store in Garden City, Michigan, in 1962. You can put your guesses in the comments.
[Images: Walmart/YouTube]
I saw Walmart founder Sam Walton’s red and white 1979 Ford F-150 at the end of the one video I watched.
https://www.facebook.com/thecrustyautoworker/
Conspicuous by its’ absence: the Bluesmobile. Probably afraid Jake and Elwood would drive it through the store.
Also the “General Lee” 1969 Dodge Charger (which could have jumped over the store into a parking space) and the Starsky and Hutch 1976 Ford Gran Torino (which could have chased some of the other non-celebrity cars away).
The General Lee isn’t PC enough for today’s Walmart.
I’m chalking that up to people actually learning from stupidity. That dumba** flag shouldn’t have ever flown anywhere but a museum after April, 1865.
That ship has sailed, like it or not.
True. If some folks hadn’t been idiotic enough to just get over the fact that the south lost, that ship would have stopped sailing the day after the big meeting at Appomatox Courthouse, and saved us a whole bunch of trouble.
The General Lee definitely should have been there.
It def should of been there but unfortunately, a small group of whiny babies who think their opinions are more important than others complained about history and made it a bad thing. Naughty naughty bad because my safe space cant hide me and my widdle fee fees got hurted. You would think as adults some of these babies would have thicker skin.
namesakeone
So in 2019, who’s climing out of the window in the Daisy Dukes.
A)Jessica Simpson from the movie
B)Catherine Bock from the T.V. Show
C)Johnny Knoxville from jackass
Bluesmobile
Traded it for a microphone
A microphone?
I can see that.
Fix the cigarette lighter.
I’d like to see the Munster Mobile and the Beverly Hillbilly’s rig, with Granny perched on top.
Since it was “movie” cars (although KITT seems more TV than movie) I would have liked to see Green Hornet’s ride, The Prisoner’s Lotus(?), Emma Peel’s Lotus, Rick Simon’s Power Wagon, Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 and the Monkeemobile.
Great ad! Needs some Christine tho…
…with a cameo appearance by The Car!
youtube.com/watch?v=I6yicZYCI94
Yes Christine! Of course with nobody in it…
My wife who hates all things Wally Mart basically cheered at all the great cars in this ad. Its really well done but yeah they missed several more opportunities. The General Lee in particular is something one would expect to see in a Walmart parking lot. Also where is Big Foot?
No, you’re more likely to see beater Altimas (tie in from another TTAC article) and late model Impalas rocking 20s.
Big Foot is in the isle with the Jack Links.
Where’s Bill Hickman and Paul Genge in a black ’68 Charger, being chased by Steve McQueen in a ’68 Highland Green Mustang? The finale could be the Charger crashing into the Murphy USA gas station at the Walmart, and exploding.
Beat me to it.
All told, these are entertaining, clever and original as far as commercials go. Are you paying attention, Chevy?
The Bullitt cars would have been too serious. They were definitely going for the comedy/sci-fi angle. As others have said, pass on that dumbass General Lee Charger, but seeing Christine and the Bluesmobile would have been kind of cool.
That’s pretty great! They had a lot of fun making these.
For the “missing” cars in the other comments, they can always make a sequel if this commercial(s) is a big enough hit. You could come up with enough suggestions to fill a few sequels.
Well obviously they didn’t want any cars that were too “Fast and Furious” or “Gone in 60 seconds” in their comercial.
“Smokey and the Bandit” got their groceries at the Choke and Puke
Cheech & Chongs van went “Up in Smoke”
The Deathmobile from”Animal House” whereabouts unknown.
I saw Dexter’s Oxygen Blue Hybrid 2nd gen Ford Escape… Was I suppose to?
Excellent commercial, Walmart
I hated Burger King for pushing a Dodge Intrepid off of an overpass in one commercial way back when I was in middle school.
I’m supervised by the absence of Chinese automobiles in the commercials.
After all, the stores are filled with Communist made garbage!
The Deathmobile would have been a good one with “Eat Me” on it. How about the Volvo from the Saint? Definitely should have had Rockford’s Firebird and Rocky’s GMC.
I personally own a Jurassic Park 1992 Ford Explorer and have done a number of events with the young man who owns the Explorer that was featured on this ad. He was thrilled to do it, and it was cool to have the JP Explorer get airtime alongside so many cool cars.
So many friends have reached out to me today thinking it’s my Explorer on the commercial.
Kudos to Walmart for making such a creative and fun ad. It seems like a waste on the Golden Globes, and given its quality, would’ve been more befitting on the Super Bowl.
I was hoping for a dude in a Hawaiian shirt driving a red Ferrari.
Ronnie, please reveal the Easter egg–or is it the F150?
Pretty cool .
One only needs to look at the lack of real books @ wallmart so see how/why the advert cars are chosen .
Subscribed hoping to learn what the ‘Easter Egg’ is .
-Nate