The UK gets a bit of a harsh stereotype. Allegedly, we’ve got bad teeth, drive on the “wrong side of the road” and are very reserved (apparently, that’s a bad thing). We also call ads or TV commercials “adverts.” We may be odd, but believe it or not, we can kick “bottom” when we feel like it. Now I could point to the Burning of Washington, but I’ve been advised by Führer Schmitt that this may be “too soon,” and could “hurt their feelings.” Nor will I point to Waterloo or the Iranian Embassy Siege. What I’m pointing to is the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA). They are quite a rabid bunch. If they don’t like something, they’ll kick its bottom and ban it. Like this advert, or this one. They’re also quite hard on automotive adverts, too. In 2007, the ASA banned an advert from Toyota about the Prius for being “misleading” (you can watch the advert here). And now, Renault is copping it in the neck (as we fancy to say.) (Read More…)

We recently asked our Best and Brightest to show us their favorite car ads of all time, and we all wasted the rest of the day staring at old Youtube clips of some of the best auto spots of all time. But what was the best car ad to come out in 2009? According to Automotive News [sub], Nielsen IAG Automotive has awarded this Kia Soul ad the prize of “Automotive Ad of the Year for effectiveness” for 2009. But was it really the best? Be sure to include your own nominations for the best car ad of ’09 in your comments.

In America, certain European cars ostensibly set their drivers apart as willfully unique characters. Cars like the Volvo C30, or just about any Saab indicate that the driver’s desire to be seen as quirky iconoclasts outweighs any of the more rational metrics that might guide the car-buying process. And while in the US, compact size and European pedigree are the keys to stepping out of the automotive mainstream, making an automotive statement in Europe requires the opposite approach. Pickup trucks, muscle cars and American SUVs are the signifiers of choice for the Europeans who find themselves marching out of step with their efficient hatchback-driving fellow citizens. As a result, European advertisements for motorized guilty pleasures, like the one above, play on the perception that big V8s are downright antisocial. By refined European standards, no one should drive a brutish Camaro… but what’s more fun than blowing a supercharged raspberry at social niceties? And though the marketing for American muscle cars in Europe practically writes itself, global brands like Chevrolet don’t necessarily want the Ameri-barbarian associations… which might explain why Chevrolet has canceled plans to build a right hand drive Camaro.

(Read More…)

I was having a look on YouTube for car adverts and came across this belter from Toyota. Which got me wondering: what are your favourite adverts or advertising campaigns from the auto world? Chevrolet’s “An American Revolution”?  VW’s “Unpimp your Ride”? Or maybe it’s a foreign spot you’ve seen on the internet, like Volvo UK’s famous SIPS advert. My favorite’s the one above, which features what I think is one of the best taglines ever. What’s yours?

Please put a link to a picture or video in to the comments, and have your name immortalized in this weekend’s TTAC’s History Of Whackiest Car Ads.

PS: If your suggestions don’t come up immediately, that’s because they have to be approved  due to links or whatever. Don’t despair, BS will approve them the minute he’s back from his Chinese pub crawl …

Think you have it figured out? Hit the jump for the answer…
(Read More…)

BMW has ditched its long-running “Ultimate Driving Machine” tagline in favor of the vague, lifestyle-y “We Make Joy” promise. And though advertisers never tire of explaining that products themselves pale in comparison to the feelings they inspire in their owners, much of BMW’s (and most German luxury brands’) appeal comes from a projection of sachlichkeit, or single-minded obsession with something for its own sake. “The Ultimate Driving Machine” expressed the brand’s practical and emotional values in a simple, original phrase. The new line might open the brand to more non-enthusiast consumers, but it also reeks of the kind of marketing done by firms that don’t have top notch products on the market (usually because of a distinct lack of institutional sachlichkeit). For the closest analogue we could find on short notice, hit the jump.
(Read More…)

Despite spending $264.1 million on measured media in the first 11 months of 2009, up 16.5 percent from the year-ago period [per AdAge monitoring] while sales fell nearly 27 percent, Automotive News [sub] reports that Acura is upping its 2010 ad spend by 50 percent. According to Acura’s advertising boss Steven Center, Acura’s awareness levels have been consistently high, but consumers didn’t perceive it being as prestigious as other luxury brands. By boosting advertising of new products like the ZDX and TSX Sportwagon, Center hopes to close the gap with the premium perceptions of its German competitors. Center explains:

Our messaging for years has been too ill-focused and not about the product. The ads weren’t making the point and the point is: What is it about Acura that makes it better? We want to have the emotion of BMW without the hardware,

You know, instead of being seen as higher-content, uglified Hondas. Yeah, more advertising should help with that.

What do you sell if you can’t sell a car? Sophisticated commentary on the state of gender relations, of course. Hit the jump to see just how gendered one marketing campaign can get.
(Read More…)

Furious Fuschia counterpoint after the jump.

(Read More…)

If there’s one certainty in the car business, it’s that you know a company is in trouble when their ads forgo showing off their latest models in favor of gauzy images of beloved products past. It’s a trick that the Detroit firms have played to death over their 30 years of decline, and now Toyota is dipping a toe in the soothing waters of nostalgia. For contrast, check out Hyundai’s “more-Toyota-than-Toyota” Super Bowl spot after the jump.
(Read More…)

GM withdrew its sponsorship of the US Olympic team after the 2008 games, because, as a spokesperson explained at the time, “we have other avenues to be able to reach this same audience without bearing the expense of being an official sponsor of the U.S. Olympic team.” However, GM is a main sponsor and official vehicle supplier of the 2010 games in addition to being the main sponsor of the Canadian national team. According to TNS Media, GM was the leading advertiser in the 2006 Winter Games, spending $111.6m and leading the auto sector to a resounding lead in ad spending (total $156.7m). General Motors has reportedly cut back its ad spend on Vancouver, but details aren’t being disclosed. And at least one GM investment in Vancouver-related publicity won’t be paying off: the General Motors Place is being temporarily renamed the Canada Hockey Place in order to comply with IOC standards. We’d normally make some crack here about your tax dollars at work, but Olympic sponsorships are lined up years in advance. Too bad that back in 2007, when GM was losing $2b annually, it denied that its financial status had anything to do with its removal of US Olympic team sponsorship. Had the firm been more realistic about its financial health… well, who knows where we’d be right now.

Truck marketing is so out of ideas. Despite a few hesitant signs that the old “bigger, stronger, butcher” paradigm might be giving way to less primitive appeals to consumers, GM’s Tom Stephens has dragged truck marketing back to the stone age, issueing the following challenge to Ford [via Pickuptrucks.com].

You’re going to love our new diesel Duramax engine in the new Heavy Duty. You know what I want to do to prove it? I want to take our truck and Ford’s [new Super Duty] and chain them together back -to-back. Then I want to have them pull against each other. I know our truck will beat theirs.

Pickuptrucks.com has passed the memo on to Ford, in hopes of spawning a “V-Series Challenge”-type media stunt. Too bad it will never happen. When the trucks are evenly-matched, these contests tend to come down to driver skill, timing and luck. And what would that prove? Note to GM: if you want to market your trucks in wholly unoriginal ways, leave reality out of it and just make an ad showing your truck kicking the other trucks asses or mocking owners of competing brands. You know, the way the good lord intended trucks to be marketed. These guys have it figured out.

The gist of Sweet Pete DeLorenzo’s argument is that Chrysler has to do something to remind Americans that they still exist. Given the Chrysler’s inability thus far to articulate a vision for the Dodge brand post-Ram, this makes a certain amount of sense. With a new, well-respected ad agency, Dodge could use the Super Bowl’s giant stage to get back on the buying public’s radar. The problem with the plan lies in the one question that DeLorenzo fails to answer: why bring buyers into Dodge showrooms if there’s nothing there?
(Read More…)

Of all of Chrysler Group’s branding conundrums, the de-Ram-ified Dodge brand has got to be one of the toughest ones. Without the truck-based image or styling, Dodge is a brand without a purpose, and Dodge CEO Ralph Gilles brought little to his brand presentation at Chrysler Group’s five-year plan that would help explain what Dodge is or why consumers should choose it. Other than more refined youthfulness and less rugged wisdom. Or something. Anyway, if Dodge is really to be “all things to all hip people” as the Autoextremist succinctly puts it, they sure picked the right ad agency. Wieden + Kennedy does hip like few others, having started with Nike’s “Just Do It” and taken off from there. As the ad above, and several other Honda spots prove, the guys knows how to bring some youthful enthusiasm to the otherwise staid, desperate world of car advertising. And goodness knows recent Chrysler Group advertising needs the help.

First it was the Prius, now Audi has come out with an ad featuring failed suicide. In both cases, the intended message (our car doesn’t spew poison) gets a bit lost in shuffle due to the fact that consumers of these products are portrayed attempting suicide. So this is what Audi’s CMO meant when he said rational arguments don’t work in the marketplace. Unfortunately, as the California Air Resources Board helpfully points out, diesel fumes contain arsenic, benzene, formaldehyde, nickel, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. So, you know, professional driver on a closed course, and all that. Don’t try this at home, kids!