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Car Commercials, the good, the bad, and the annoying!
Does anyone remember the Nissan Maxima commercials from sometime ago? They would do something crazy with the car and then an old Japanese guy(who was he?) would come out caressing a parrot or a sparrow? I thought it was kind of weird.
To make a short answer long - here you go. The old guy is supposed to represent the "father" of the Z or something like that.. I thought it was interesting.
I keep seeing the one where the guy keeps driving back and forth between his place and his gf's. It's funny because it's true - as Homer Simpson would have said.
Forgive me if this has been covered, I don't normally watch tv so I am behind on the ads. I have just seen a series of ads for the Toyota Celica, that are based on how fast the car looks, even standing still. My two favorites? The old man that yells at the parked Celica for going too quickly in a residential neighborhood, and the dog chasing the Celica that runs into the back of it.
Can someone explain the VolksWagen commercial, I don't get it. It features a guy driving to make a wedding, he finally gets to the chapel, but is obviously late for the wedding. The question I have...is he late for his friends wedding? or is he late for his own wedding and his bride ends up marrying someone else? I don't understand it and they never really explain it. I find this commercial intriguing because of its ambiguous "plot". The accompanying music is terrific too...does anyone know what the title is?
It's not a true car commercial in the sense of things...but it was for a Local Monster Truck event and it started by showing a ford excursion and an announcer calmly saying "Even the biggest SUV has some problems going off road, I many cases our SUV have NO problem with anything onor off the road" Just as the guys says that the REALLY REALLY BIG bigfoot (the one with the 30ft high tires) crushes the Excursion flat as a pancake, The guy then says, "See what I mean" then goes into the whole deal about the monster truck show on SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY
but I loved the commercial - I think it was for the Echo - where a car full of people with jumbo coffee cups without lids are repeatedly saying, "dude" to get the driver's attention about upcoming railroad tracks. The "dude's" were in varying levels of panic as they approached closer and closer to the obvious hot coffee in lap situation, especially the front passenger who has his coffee and the drivers. Then they go over the tracks and when no one spills any coffee they all excitedly go "DUDE."
May or may not have been the echo, but was definitely a small sedan.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't the focus. I seem to remember seeing the commercial after I became interested in the focus (I bought a ZX3) and noticed that they weren't the same car. It was either the Echo or a Civic. Again, fuzzy memory as they haven't played it any time recently, so you may be right.
I probably thought it was funny as I am constantly getting made fun of for using "Dude."
Those new Honda clearance "seize the moment" ads suck. Didn't they use that for last years clearance? Get a clue Honda!
Even Toyota non-Celica commercials suck. Mostly the ones that feature that HBO guy Arliss (I can't stand that dumb secretary of his, "Annie" I think), Garfield (yes the cat) and Mr. Clean.
The Celica commercials are cool, though, especially the one with the dog running into the back of a parked Celica w/action package. Hey, it looks fast!
I have a bunch of old car ads that I clipped from magazines in the '80s because I thought I would have a good time looking through them years later (I was right). Believe it or not, some of the most clever magazine ad slogans were used on what time has shown to be a rather questionable car: the Hyundai Excel. Some of the ones I have include:
"For the price of the average new car, you can buy a Hyundai Excel...and a spare."
"Can't put a price on happiness? Try $5195."
"Most cars in our price range have around 50,000 miles on them."
Of course, each of these is accompanied with an equally witty block of text. If only they had been used on a decent car. One other good one, for the Volvo 7-class, shows a 760GLE with a large truck sitting on top of it, and asks, "Does your car stand up to heavy traffic?"
In terms of modern TV ads, I like the VW Newbeetle ads that explain the architectural value of the arch as a Newbeetle drives up and shows that its shape is the same. I believe "Round for a reason" is the accompanying slogan.
Here's a classic, but I don't know if it should be considered Good, Bad or Annoying. Long before Maaco there was EARL SCHEIB who could always paint a car for $99.95.
...where this family brought in a beat-up St. Regis that they were ashamed to even be seen with. Maaco was adverstising their "Ambassador" paint finish, or something like that, for around $149.99. Then they showed what was obviously another St. Regis, with the family all happy, smiling, and proud. They shoulda been sued for false advertising, because it would've taken A LOT more than $150 to get that car looking decent again!
driving a Jeep SUV with a log strapped to the roof and a boulder hanging by a rope from the front of the log. The moron then proceeds to collide with the boulder, smashing the front end of his Jeep. I know the commercial is actually for some other make of SUV claiming buying their SUV is smarter than buying a Jeep, but despite having seen it several times, I can never remember what brand X is. My take away from this is just to never buy a Jeep. You would think maybe DC could sue X over this?
Your right, its for the Axiom. I think the commercial is hilarious. Its a spin on a Jeep commercial where the guy takes the rock and puts it in front of his Grand Cherokee to "get him through the week". The Jeep commercial is basically indicating that the guy will take it off road come the weekend. The Axiom commercial is basically saying, "Come on, you know your not gonna drive your SUV off road, so why by a Jeep?"
I just saw the ad which involves a (European?) car chase scene. The small Fiat like vehicle is driving wildly through the streets, knocking car mirrors off right and left. The pursued car comes up to a parked Solar, gingerly eases itself by the car and then takes off again.
Whenever you see a vehicle being put through its paces, there's always that little chunk of legalese at the bottom of the screen that reads "professional driver on a closed road, yadda yadda, don't do it, yadda, instant death, yadda yadda, void your warranty, yadda."
Dedicated Speedvision viewers may have seen this commercial which has an interesting twist: A guy on a big BMW motorcycle (1150 GS?) with off-road tires bashing along a trail and through a stream, with the voice-over, "Some guys spend their Saturdays washing their bikes."
The disclaimer text reads, "Experienced BMW rider shown. Knobby tires and sanity are optional."
Seeing old Volvo wagons mentioned in another thread (the college guy looking for a $3500 car) reminded me of this really old ad, '70's or early '80's probably. Does anyone remember a Lambourghini Countach on a desert highway, pulling a small U-Haul up a slight incline? It gets passed by a Volvo wagon. No narration until the end, when someone says something like, "Get the picture?". As a teenager in love with the Countach at the time, I remember almost vomiting. Now, as a mid-thirties dad, I say, "Yeah Volvo, kick butt!!!
They had a print ad variation on that theme-- a photo of a Countach with a U-Haul trailer attached. There were two different captions for the same picture, in separate ads. They read something like "The basic idea behind the 740 Turbo Wagon" and "Until Lamborghini builds a wagon, this will have to do."
Did anyone cover the commercial with a Chevy Tracker about to tow the Semi Trailer? If not, this one definately deserves to be called silly at the very least.
Maaco can be OK, but you better remove all the trim yourself or suffer their haste. They sanded my father's classic '66 mustang rear chrome bumper. It's restored to factory orignal, and everything except carpet and paint it original. The paint looks great too, without any noticable imperfections, but the bumper was just plain ignorance.
Andre Mentioned the Ourisman Chevy Jingle. Here in DC we've gotten a bunch of dippy local adds:
Ted Britt Ford, where he breaks out each of his 800 kids to go through the lot and models. I had friends that went to Jefferson with them, and they hated those kids.
Local commercials are always worse than national ones. The 'scream as loud as you can!' commercials from the 80s just came back into style here. Makes me very, very sad. (
An ad where the Saab 9-5 some kind of an award, the people in the ad from Sweden not bragging about it, sharing the effort, so to speak. While in the USA, the people can be heard going "SAAB! SAAB! We are the best! We are the best!!! Whoo, whoo, whoo!!!" Then the voice-over goes, "In Sweden, it's not polite to brag. But we're not in Sweden. The Saab 9-5." One of the stupidest ads, radio or television, I have ever witnessed*.
-RAVvie4me
*excludes any recent Acura ads or Honda clearance (Seize the moment) spots.
...wouldn't the ad be a bit more realistic if the tornado just sucked up an Aztek and ripped all the plastic junk off of it? Maybe Pontiac can use something like that when they introduce their restyled Aztek. Have a tornado suck up a current model, rip all the crap off, and then have it spit out something beautiful (if that's possible!)
You'd think that they would've at least used GM vehicles in their commercial. As it stands, that commercial is basically sending me the message the folks at Buick think Ford makes a better SUV, Chrysler makes a better minivan, and Lexus makes a better luxury car!
I don't know how new this one is, but I laughed at it after seeing it this weekend. This guy is watching a game show on TV and it's stormy outside. They give the contestant a choice of a ne VW or an island vacation. The guy watching TV keeps chanting "Pick the Volkswagen, Pick the Volkswagen". The contestant says "I think I'm going to go with fun in the sun. The guy watching TV says "Idiot". The camera pans back to show that it's a bartender watching TV in the bar, and he turns to see the contestant is sitting at the bar.
The Fram oil filter commercials are a hoot. The guy comes in from changing his oil and leaves oily handprints all over the house. The oily sandwich is gross, but the rest are funny.
There is a new spot for the VW Passat Wagon where an owner is being harrassed by a would be personal injury fraud after she bumped into his car while parking on a crowded city street. So VW is telling me if buy their car I can expect to be defendant in a frivolous lawsuit?
No, they're trying to say that it makes you look wealthier than you are. Completely in line with their efforts to take on M-B both here and in Germany. I actually chuckled at that ad. "I'm no internist, but I think I'm having some internal bleeding here!"
Just saw a commercial for a Subaru WRX for the first time. Great commercial! A WRX is being really driven hard on a challenging road and the driver is shown upshifting and downshifting the manual transmission as appropriate while negotiating the road. What really makes it great are the engine sounds as it is wound out, then upshifted, etc. and downshifted for the corners. Quite a contrast to those awful commercials for a few other cars that make a point of showing the driver "shifting" the automatic transmission.
"Quite a contrast to those awful commercials for a few other cars that make a point of showing the driver "shifting" the automatic transmission."
You mean like the current Acura (CL-S and TL-S) ads, showing the driver bumping the shifter up and down in his Tiptronic (sorry, don't know Honda's term for it) transmission?
I agree those ads suck. I have been complaining about them forever now!
"Quite a contrast to those awful commercials for a few other cars that make a point of showing the driver "shifting" the automatic transmission."
You mean like the current Acura (CL-S and TL-S) ads, showing the driver bumping the shifter up and down in his Tiptronic (sorry, don't know Honda's term for it) transmission?
I agree those ads suck. I have been complaining about them forever now!
Comments
Maybe not... I don't recall that commercial
Dummies indeed...
Odie
May or may not have been the echo, but was definitely a small sedan.
I probably thought it was funny as I am constantly getting made fun of for using "Dude."
http://www.adcritic.com/content/ford-focus-dude.html
http://www.bestofthebay.com/1998/soma.html (scroll down to "Best Burger and Beer Combo")
Even Toyota non-Celica commercials suck. Mostly the ones that feature that HBO guy Arliss (I can't stand that dumb secretary of his, "Annie" I think), Garfield (yes the cat) and Mr. Clean.
The Celica commercials are cool, though, especially the one with the dog running into the back of a parked Celica w/action package. Hey, it looks fast!
-RAVvie4me
"For the price of the average new car, you can buy a Hyundai Excel...and a spare."
"Can't put a price on happiness? Try $5195."
"Most cars in our price range have around 50,000 miles on them."
Of course, each of these is accompanied with an equally witty block of text. If only they had been used on a decent car. One other good one, for the Volvo 7-class, shows a 760GLE with a large truck sitting on top of it, and asks, "Does your car stand up to heavy traffic?"
In terms of modern TV ads, I like the VW Newbeetle ads that explain the architectural value of the arch as a Newbeetle drives up and shows that its shape is the same. I believe "Round for a reason" is the accompanying slogan.
-Andrew L
Odie
Yeah, didn't Iacocca say that about the K-car originally? :surprise:
I don't care much for the recent Lincoln LS commercial. The older ones were better.
Dedicated Speedvision viewers may have seen this commercial which has an interesting twist: A guy on a big BMW motorcycle (1150 GS?) with off-road tires bashing along a trail and through a stream, with the voice-over, "Some guys spend their Saturdays washing their bikes."
The disclaimer text reads, "Experienced BMW rider shown. Knobby tires and sanity are optional."
Maaco can be OK, but you better remove all the trim yourself or suffer their haste. They sanded my father's classic '66 mustang rear chrome bumper. It's restored to factory orignal, and everything except carpet and paint it original. The paint looks great too, without any noticable imperfections, but the bumper was just plain ignorance.
Nice twist of words!
Ever heard it?
Odie
BTW--I think that car that got sucked into the tornado was a Lexus ES300.
-RAVvie4me
What I'm waiting for, patiently, is to hear a Rendezvous owner to call their car a 'Ren-Dez-Vous' while I'm present. I think I'll die laughing.
Ted Britt Ford, where he breaks out each of his 800 kids to go through the lot and models. I had friends that went to Jefferson with them, and they hated those kids.
One of the stupidest ads, radio or television, I have ever witnessed*.
-RAVvie4me
*excludes any recent Acura ads or Honda clearance (Seize the moment) spots.
You'd think that they would've at least used GM vehicles in their commercial. As it stands, that commercial is basically sending me the message the folks at Buick think Ford makes a better SUV, Chrysler makes a better minivan, and Lexus makes a better luxury car!
"Hi, I'm Joe Isuzu. And this is my brother, the Pope"
(He's lying.)
You mean like the current Acura (CL-S and TL-S) ads, showing the driver bumping the shifter up and down in his Tiptronic (sorry, don't know Honda's term for it) transmission?
I agree those ads suck. I have been complaining about them forever now!
You mean like the current Acura (CL-S and TL-S) ads, showing the driver bumping the shifter up and down in his Tiptronic (sorry, don't know Honda's term for it) transmission?
I agree those ads suck. I have been complaining about them forever now!
-RAVvie4me