They’re a fixture of holiday television: car ads showing a loving family member presenting a new car as a Christmas gift, complete with an oversized red bow. But is there any truth to this popular advertising cliche? CNW Marketing Research says nearly 57k new and used cars will be given as gifts during this holiday season, but I sure don’t know anyone who has given or received a car (let alone a new luxury car) for Christmas… do you?

Road & Track magazine may think Suzuki enjoyed

huge success following the introduction of the Kizashi,

but the numbers don’t really back that perspective up. With 21,347 brand-wide sales year-to-date, the Suzuki brand about as popular as the Dodge Nitro, and only 5,269 of those sales were Kizashis. For a product that was supposed to keep Suzuki in the game in North America, there’s no way around the fact that Kizashi hasn’t “moved the needle.” On the other hand, Suzuki hasn’t done much to market the Kizashi (outside the pages of R&T anyway), and Suzuki is trying to turn things around with a series of ads that are kind of a weird mix of GM’s “May The Best Car Win” selective comparison strategy and Chrysler’s “World’s Best Vehicle (?)” absurdity. There’s been some mainstream media chatter about Hyundai and Buick’s ability to attract luxury brand buyers now that “value for money is the new black” (gotta love that MSM)… and Suzuki clearly wants in on the anti-snobbery bandwagon. But are these ads enough to put Suzuki on the radar?
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European auto executives have been freaking out about a possible Chinese invasion for some time. In fact, Fiat’s Sergio Marchionne has even admitted that he “bought” into Chrysler in hopes of forming a company capable of selling five million units per year globally, the number he felt an automaker needed to hold off the Chinese. And though Chinese production certainly has its advantages, Chinese brands haven’t had much luck in mature markets. Brilliance left Germany under a cloud after its cars failed crash tests, the Jiangling LandWind became infamous after its run-in with the ADAC crash test crew. But, as Bertel has noted, no Chinese automaker can give up on the idea of attacking Europe. Great Wall, which has already been banned from Italy for copyright infringement, has committed $130m to a Bulgarian plant from which it plans to build knock-downs of its suspiciously-familiar vehicles for the European market. But, as these Great Wall promotional images prove, even if GW’s low-cost (€5,000) Chinese cars are up to snuff, the brand still has a long way to go on the marketing front.

Is it a coincidence that, on the day the newswires fill up with reports of renewed cooperation between Aston Martin and Daimler’s Maybach brand, the British sportscar firm has released a video with the theme “one engine, one ethos”? After all, before Aston built a hideous concept on the Mercedes GL platform and Maybach asked Aston to develop a four-door concept, the assumption was that Aston wanted Mercedes engines to replace its aged Cologne-built V-12. Now, possibly motivated by Lotus’s engine flip-flop, it seems that Aston is taking pride in its elderly but unique 12-banger. Which seems like a smart move: high-end buyers often care more about pedigree than absolute performance, and being seen as an independent house rather than an engine customer shop certainly helps cultivate that image… even if it means sticking with an engine that’s based on a pair of Ford V6s. Especially when those two V6s sound so damn enchanting.

Renault’s “We Live In Modern Times” series of ads for its Twingo subcompact were a favorite at TTAC’s “Shameless Sexual Exploitation Weekend,” but it’s this Italian Twingo ad that has the French automaker back in the news. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has banned this Publicis-produced spot from both state-owned RAI television and his own Mediaset broadcasting empire, for its overt use of lesbian themes. It’s not clear exactly what motivated Berlusconi’s decision, but for a guy who is now most famous for his “bunga-bunga” group sex parties and underage girlfriends, it’s one hell of a hypocritical move.

From Germany to China, and from Brazil to Korea, TTAC’s staff spans the globe to bring you the best automotive content on the web. What we don’t have, however, is a staffer in France, so we can’t tell you exactly what is going on in this video promo for the forthcoming Mercedes SLK. What we can tell you is that we never expected a Mercedes to be sold using French sensuality. It just goes to show that you never know what to expect…

Even when marketers are locked in an epic struggle for the hearts of consumers, they still treat each other with a basic level of respect. After all, the competition is just competition; the real enemy is the consumer. But the competing impulses towards ruthless competition and collegial courtesy can often just cause more confusion. Take this spot from Hyundai, which makes a big joke out of a problem that isn’t especially widespread, and yet refuses to actually land the punch. What Hyundai is trying to do here is mock Chevrolet for coming out with a special “Eco” version of its Cruze that gets 42 MPG highway, and then using that claim to advertise all Cruzes with just an asterisk to remind buyers that the Eco model costs extra. Which is an interesting approach, except that we haven’t been able to find much evidence of this tactic… in fact, it seems that at least some Cruze ads cop to a 36 MPG, and the asterisk only references that the number is from the EPA. Did Hyundai jump the gun on this one? If so, the brand’s decision to break out sales of every 40 MPG vehicle it sells should help get things back on track.

So, GM is spending $40m on projects aimed at removing 8m metric tons of C02 from the atmosphere over the next five years… there’s nothing wrong with that, right? Not so fast Greenzo! Here’s the issue: GM claims that

its new carbon-reduction goal equates to the emissions in 2011 from driving the 1.9 million vehicles Chevrolet is expected to sell in the United States over the next year.

Which means that Chevy will actually spend five years and $40m to eliminate all the C02 it will create based on one year of sales. To a multinational corporation that might seem admirable, but to the people who actually care about C02 emissions, this merely underlines how massive GM’s C02 emissions actually are. Moreover, it’s spending that $40m on “eliminating” carbon not by making its vehicles more fuel-efficient, but by investing in initiatives that have nothing to do with its core automotive business.
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…and this is Fiat’s. The Italian brand left the US market in 1982, but it has returned with a first ad that seems like it was made sometime in the late 1990s. It’s a good thing the 500 has been relatively well–received, because it isn’t cheap and it clearly doesn’t have a fraction of the MINI’s marketing mojo. Between this, the “my tank is full” Ram ads (not to mention the entire first wave of “New Chrysler” ads), and the hallucinogenic Caravan spots, it seems like Chrysler’s Olivier Francois should be up for some kind of special award this year…

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a man went out in the streets, throwing money in the air? Handing money out to passer-bys? Well Nissan decided to find out and hired an actor to do just that. It has created quite a ruckus! In more ways than one … Read More >

This summer I had the pleasure of touring Volkswagen’s advanced research lab at an industrial park near Stanford University. VW is developing a number of advanced technologies at this Silicon Valley facility, including its autonomous driving systems and electric battery packs. But in one corner of the lab, VW techs have a driving simulator set up with cameras aimed at the driver’s face. Using these cameras, VW developers measure driver attention and focus, testing just how much the latest Google Maps-based navigation system distracts drivers, and whether a car could offer features designed to keep the driver’s attention on the road.

These are doubtless worthy goals, but this ad for the Hyundai Sonata Turbo made me wonder whether VW pays much attention to changes in facial features based on changes in performance. Surely the kick of a turbo at full boost focuses the driver away from the gadgets and gizmos that VW (and every other automaker) is trying to integrate into its vehicles, and reconnects them with the original automotive “killer app”: a compelling driving experience. Technology, it seems, is being used simply to integrate more technology while minimizing distraction. When will car companies start using that technology to assist their vehicles in providing a more engaging, emotionally-rewarding driving experience?

Born in 1977, Mr Goodwrench was a marketing brand used to sell GM parts and service at franchised dealers. Now, after 33 years in service to The General, Mr Goodwrench is passing on to join Pontiac, Oldsmobile and HUMMER in GM’s crowded brand graveyard. Automotive News [sub] reports that

Yes, things have changed in the world of trucks. Selling Chevrolet pickups was once a simple task, requiring little more sophistication than the average locker room put-down. In this now-bygone time, spokesmen for Chevy trucks were football players, and advertisements either showed a Silverado busting some dirt, or a Ford owner flitting about like Ryan Seacrest at a Justin Bieber concert. Overt, in-your-face masculinity was the currency of this era in truck advertising… until Dodge went and ruined it all by raising macho truck-ad values to the level of the absurd with its laughable “My Tank Is Full” spots (to be fair though, the paradigm was collapsing under its own weight anyway).

All of a sudden, an earnest repetition of hard-working, masculine values alone just wouldn’t cut it in the world of truck advertising anymore. What truck ads needed was a little bit of irony. Some humor to go with all the horsepower numbers, the celebrations of rugged durability, and yes, even the childish put-downs of the competition. So Chevy watched a lot of “Old Spice Guy” ads, hired some comedians and made it happen… with hilarious results.
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Well, there’s nothing quite like being wrong, is there? Exactly a week ago I registered my (somewhat hesitant) support for Chevy’s new tagline, “Chevy Runs Deep,” and though I still believe that the tagline itself is better than anything else GM’s marketers have dreamed up in a while, I probably should have waited for the brand’s ads to come up out before weighing in. After all, any good (or good enough) idea is only as good as its execution… and these ads really don’t seem to move the game past some of Chevrolet’s previous cornball ad efforts. The main ad in the series (above) is as bland as an Impala’s interior, and does nothing to inspire respect for Chevy in contemporary (read: post-bailout) terms. Can “the strength of the nation” be found in every Chevrolet? If so, does that strength refer to something other than the government money that kept Chevrolet from the scrapheap of history? Instead of inspiring a bold approach, it seems that the “Don’t call it Chevy” moment simply pushed Chevy’s advertising back into gauzy pseudo-patriotism of its recent past. But don’t take it from me… hit the jump for a sampling of the latest Chevy Runs Deep ads.
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This is America man… you can have your electric car and your freedom too.

There’s no doubt about it, the Chevy Volt sounds best when you’re just selling the concept. And no wonder: the concept came was born of Bob Lutz’s unique insight into the American psychology… not to mention a psychologically-charged desire to rub the Prius’s nose in some mud. But what nobody seems to be pointing out is the fact that the flip side of being “all things to all people” is fundamental compromise. And in the case of the Volt, the risk is that it won’t be as good of an electric car as the Leaf and it won’t be as good of a gas-powered car as any other hybrid. If GM’s pitch that Volt equals EV plus Freedom doesn’t take, the car will go nowhere fast… so how does the first attempt strike you?