Car Commercials, the good, the bad, and the annoying!

rest_stop

I looked up the word "Axiom" and it means: "A self-evident or universally recognized truth".
It's ironic that Joe Isuzu, a universally reconized liar from those mid-80s Isuzu commercials, is the pitchman for their Axioms.
It's a weird commercial.

a_l_hubcaps

Lemko-

Yeah, I mentioned that Mercedes ad awhile back in this thread. I thought they did a great job with it. It really makes an impression. Also, it's an ad idea that would only work with certain manufacturers. Hyundai, for example, would not benefit from an ad like that. "The outside changes, but the soul remains the same" is not something people who remember the 1986 Excel would want to hear :-)

-Andrew L

lancerfixer

I agree-- it's a great ad, and I can think of maybe two manufacturers that'd be able to get away with showing one of their cars going to the crusher...Volvo being the other one.

i_luv_toyota

that it's still spring?

I heard an ad for the "Toyota Nationwide SUMMER Sales Event." What the....?!
I know we had unusually warm temperatures a few weeks back (at least where I live), but to say its "summer" is rediculous!

andys120

I'm sure they'll notify the agency of the goof (unless they're mistakenly running last summer's ad.).

tj_610

It's just the lastest affirmation of a marketing fact -- Toyota just doesn't care. There is simply no other explanation for their ads. Don't want to bash Toyota, they make great cars, and although I've never owned one I've come close a few times. Their limited efforts come across stooopid - like the 30 y.o. guy getting all those "You're too sexy" looks in a (gulp) Camry.

a_l_hubcaps

I used to like the Toyota "Everyday People" ads they ran around 1997 or so. Yes, they were corny, but it was a good song, and I think it really emphasized Toyota's nature as a practical everyman's car.

I've also found that I like the current GM "One, Two, Three" ad, that simply shows a bunch of GM vehicles kind of moving with the rhythm of the song on a white background. I like it because it tries to direct your attention to the actual appearance of the cars, rather than what the cars can [supposedly] do. It's a refreshing break from the "stunt driving in the desert kicking up dust clouds" theme that's been so overused lately.

-Andrew L

porknbeans

I like the new commercial for the Rendevous. The one that takes place on Bourbon Street with the Stevie Wonder song playing in the background. Strong visuals and a smokin' brunette...too bad they had to ruin it with the voice over and the vehicle. I even liked the way they got Tiger into the action. He even looked like he was having fun not just getting payed for being in his dads car (probably that brunette next to him).

verozahl

"Toyota just doesn't care."
... that's pretty much the description I would give for the next new member of the Big Three here in the US market.

I've seen a lot of new ads recently, including Lexus and Cadillac. The one that sticks in my head is the Altima commercial with the tired office worker. He's sitting at his office in an office tower at a late night (reminds me of sitting in my place here and studying) and suddenly grabs his keys to spin around the city with his car. "Addicting" is a great ad theme for the new Nissan.

Print ad in Forbes for the Tahoe: "you're a small speck in the universe, so you might as well be a powerful truck-owning speck"... compared to themselves, GM thinks of everyone as a speck in the universe.

Toyota's ads are the best GM-wannabe-poseur noises out there, but you can't really outdo GM in that.

mpyne

buick rendevous
its pretty sad when they describe luxury car they have a es300 instead of a caddy

vw golf/gti
ive seen it posted but when the car gets stuck in the tree and they throw a shoe at it. (anyone else notice that it looks like the back axle breaks when it hits the ground) look at the back tire next time its on.

LOL vw quality i guess

sirharper

Ever see their "unity" commericial? It has the usual Chrysler products driving in a line accross the flats but this time MB offerings are included. After 2 years of the Germans stifling Chryslers R&D 2003-2004 offering will be very eye-opening. About time the merger accomplished anything.

sirharper

LMAO...I'm glad somebody else noticed the VW also. That car was SERVERLY damaged by that fall.

Ever see the Isuzu commerical with the load of mud coming down on top of Joe Isuzu? You can clearly se him going down faster than Michael Spinx.

lancerfixer

Name ONE car that could survive a fall from a tree...

tj_610

Any powerful GM truck owned by a speck named Bubba. Tires would only be a few inches off the ground.

ab348

Up here in Canada at least, that Rendezvous ad with Tiger in New Orleans has undergone a soundtrack change. No longer is the music "Superstition", but instead some unrecognizable generic music. Wonder if someone complained?

andre1969

...about those Rendezvous ads, is that when they combine the luxury car, minivan, and SUV, NONE of them are GM! They use an ES300, a Mopar minivan, and an Explorer Sport Trac! But even worse, they use a last-generation ES300 and minivan, while the Sport-Trac is also built on the old Explorer chassis.

Couldn't GM at least have whipped up current offerings to come out with the Rendezvous? ;-)

ateixeira

Maybe they didn't want to set expectations too high, so they used older models?

-juice

goducks1

Just noticed this thread..I'm a regular on the Wrangler board. I like the "life of a Mercedes commercial" too, one of the best commercials I've seen in recent years though I've never owned a MB.

For anyone interested, Jeep has a section of their website with old video and print ads for Jeep products that go WAY back to the days when it was owned by AMC and (even earlier) Kaiser and Willys. It's at http://www.jeep.com/news_features/heritage/index.html

My favorite commercials of the bunch: an early 70s Levi's edition CJ5 commercial with several groovy girls parking their rears into the back seat of the Jeep, and especially the mid-60s Jeep Commando commercial with the Marlboro-voiced announcer telling you the Commando has "GUTS! Takes you wherever you need to go! GUTS! with a tough 6-cylinder engine! GUTS!" etc etc.

i_luv_toyota

You all know them, "The Civic as a..."

1: hangout. 3 guys waiting for their friend to come out of house and get in the car. But when he gets in he asks "where we going?" and his friends laugh and one goes "classic." Yeah, all I want to do is sit in a riced-out Civic all day.

2: reality show. "I got this (Civic LX sedan) for $189 a month." "DOOOOOOOOOOD you sound like a car commercial." "You mean they didn't TELL you?!!"
Friend looks at camera in stupidity.

3: wallpaper. A guy covers the walls of his office cubicle with pictures of his Civic's interior (dashboard).

All pretty dumb if you ask me.

Another involving an Accord. Background music "I'm gonna do it my way, yeah" and the guy soaps up his car and proceeds to rinse it off with bottled water instead of the hose. UGH!!!!

andys120

...surrounded by sharks who are trying to attack it. Now why would Sharks attck a big SUV? Because it looks like a whale.

Bad move Ford.

Kirstie_H

They've been pushed around, kicked in the mouth...

Where exactly is the mouth of a Chevy truck? And what's pushing them?

kirstie_h
Roving Host
Edmunds.com

Kirstie_H

We need to interview a few people by telephone who are currently shopping for cars and are looking at vehicles in several different categories or at least are looking for one type of vehicle and are cross shopping several different brands. If you respond, you must be willing to be quoted by name in a national publication.

Interested, qualified parties, please send your name and telephone number to carguy147@hotmail.com no later than Monday, May 20, 2002. Thanks.

tj_610

You guys seen the newest Honda campaign? The golfer who owns an Accord, the dog walking business owner who has a Civic, etc.? These aren't awful, just "blah". But I admit, they got their target demographic down pat this time. And, yes, I drive an '88 Civic and my wife has an '02 Odyssey so I can say whatever I want about Honda owners! LOL

seminole_kev

is also a Honda ad. It has the guys standing around a driveway staring under the hood of an Accord. The ad says something to the effect of how interesting the Vtec equiped engine is. I love cars, but I don't think I'd spend my time staring at a plastic engine shroud with VTEC on it. Woo hoo.

ateixeira

Did you catch the pregnant woman sniffing paint fumes in a freshly painted baby room? Duh.

-juice

geegee1958

I think the commericial is for BMW, but a man and woman are driving in a car and the woman, who is the passenger, has a pizza box on her lap. They are forced to stop short, and she opens the pizza box, and all the cheese on the pizza is pushed to one side, and the other half is completely naked.
So to compensate, the driver makes a fast start, and what do you know? The pizza now has its cheese evenly distributed again. Kinda cute.

ateixeira

I've seen it, but was it BMW?

-juice

machiavelli

It's for a Volvo - not a good ad from Volvo's perspective if people think it's for a BMW! LOL!

pjyoung

The VW ad's for the Karman Ghia back in the late 60's and early 70's...the one where the car is driving towards a paper barricade while the announcer says "The Karman Ghia is the most affordable sports car" then the car hits the paper and bounces off and the announcer continues "It's just not the most powerful". Ah...truth in advertising.

geegee1958

all I know is that it's out of my price range by a long shot! lol

tj_610

Pizza ad worked for me, I saw it last night and it was definitely a Volvo, I think the S60. How can you forget the Donald Sutherland voice-over? "Sixty to zero is just as important as 0 to 60, but we'll leave that up to you." Or something like that. :-)

speterson1

Last night I saw for the first time an ad for the Toyota Matrix. It alternates animation and live shots as if they're being influenced by the car driving around, and it's pretty cool. The animation style reminds me of the animated VW ad that talks about the engineers that always are coming up with new ideas. So Toyota may be copycatting a little bit, but at least they're copying a company that makes good ads! The Matrix ad is way better than the typical regional crap or Toyota sell-a-thon snoozer ads.

tj_610

Haven't seen that, but it sounds like that '80's video for "Take On Me" by a-ha!

crkeehn

Saturn is running a series of "honest" sale ads in this area now. I enjoyed the one in which the salesperson informs the buyer that the car will not improve his chance of picking up girls.

tj_610

I like the one where the guy is standing right in his face, and the salesman says it's making him uncomfortable. I think it's only funny if you know someone who gets in your face like that when talking.

Saw the Volvo S60 pizza ad again. The exact tag line is "Isn't 60 to 0 just as important as 0 to 60? You decide."

seminole_kev

The new Matrix ad mentioned above is pretty good. I like it. Much better than any Toyota ad I've seen in a long time.

peter78

I watched the Indy 500 today. A lot of car commercials. One of them had a dog run out of the yard chasing a red Toyota Celica that was parked on the street. Of course the dog ran into the back of the Celica. Then the ad said "Toyota Celica, looks fast even when standing still". For some reason it got my funny bone and I laughed out loud. I hope they didn't hurt the dog.

verozahl

Nasty-looking car, good ad.

peter78

It is a funky looking car. I guess the commercial couldn't even hide that.

beachnut

First, the annoying: Mitsu - especially the one where the girl is rave-dancing in the passenger seat. I guess I'm getting old, but I just can't stand any of their commercials. I suppose Mitsu has to do something to overcome the bad rap (pun intended) they've taken in recent years!

I really like the new Tiberon commercial! It's the one were the poor guy goes to Hell, meets the Devil driving a red Tib, then asks if he can have one. The Devil replies "This is Hell, you're getting a minivan!" Tooooo funny!

SC - current minivan owner

ateixeira

Yeah, the van's an old Astro IIRC.

The Celica ads are funny. You seen the one with the old man yelling from across the street?

-juice

beachnut

I thought that was an Astro! No, I haven't seen the old man yet, I'll be on the look-out. Actually, I don't watch much TV ... spend WAY too much time on Edmund's, hehehe. Heres two more annoying ones: the Chevy Impala commercial where all the oldie cars are doing the Southtown shuffle, and (my MPV buddies are gonna kill me!) the zoom-zoom spots. Ditch the kid, ditch the song, ditch the slogan! Sounds like something my little 2 y.o. does when playing with matchboxes ;-)

suvshopper4

Yeah, it is funny. Saw it at least once during the Indy 500.

The old man yells out "Slow down! This is a neighborhood!" as he ~slowly~ walks along. Meanwhile, the Celica is just parked at the curb across the street.

maltb

Your comments are being tracked and will count against your overall MPV loyalty score. Shame. shame!

machiavelli

I could live without the "zoom zoom" but you have to admit it's been an effective campaign for Mazda.

ateixeira

Yep, it's been effective if nothing else.

The music is Brazilian style Capoeira, the song comes from the "Only the Strong" soundtrack, a movie about that Afro-Brazilian martial art.

-juice

beachnut

I knew I'd get caught ... especially by the omnipresent malt !!!

javadoc

Watch out beachy... you may have to turn over your keys (I'll take them, thanks)!

/j

beachnut

givin' my MPV keys to no one! Well, except maybe to my d/w .... you know, a nice reggae tune with a gyrating Sade would've been slick, even with the zoom-zoom 8*)

SC - hanging his head in shame, take me back guys!

andys120

BTW- take away the hole in the front of the hood
that houses the (sappy) Toyo emblem and you've got a great looking car (if you don't mess it up w the optional wing-thing)IMHO.