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

ab348

The commercial is about as bad an idea as the Cayenne itself...

I saw the ad yesterday and just had to shake my head. Of course, they put a disclaimer on the bottom of the scream - "don't ever try this" or something to that effect.

pdalpsher

That really needs a stronger disclaimer..it would be better to yank the commercial. I worked at an insurance company when cruise control was a 'new thing'. We actually got a claim for someone who set his RV on cruise and went to the back to take a nap...needless to say it wrecked. I haven't seen this commerical yet but it sounds very irresponsible.

peter78

"Pdalpsher" that is a good story, it is too unbelievable to be made up, it has to be real. Maybe that is the type of customer Porsche is after.

speterson1

Porsche is making a visual joke. Yes, it is sad that there are probably a handful of adult drivers in the country that would be stupid enough to leave their seats w/the cruise on. But that's not the point of the ad, and it's not like now that you've seen it you're going to go out and try it. Lighten up and take the ad in the spirit for which it was made.

pjyoung

"Porsche SUV" an oxymoron?

andys120

peter78

I think the driver of the motorhome deciding to leave his sleeping wife to go to the back of the motorhome says he doesn't care about his family. If it was just himself and the Porsche getting into a wreck so be it, but to show he cares more about a stupid SUV than his wife is, well, too much.

Think about it, that commercial gives all the wrong messages,IMHO.

swschrad

and explode the darned thing before wrecking it.

I suppose that will be the follow-up ad.

wouldn't even be an acceptable ad if it was for The Rapture, now coming to a ( fill in the blank, I don't study that branch of after-prophets stuff ) church near you...

janjohnson

Yes, the SUV ad is ridiculous, but at least by imitating the current Bush Administration's commercial linking drugs and terrorism it shows just how idiotic and insulting that ad is. I find the ad linking drugs to terrorism just as, if not more, offensive than the SUV ad.

gambit293

First time I saw the drug-terrorism commercial, I actually recall thinking, "In all honesty, if you own a vehicle and buy gas for it, you probably support terrorism to some extent."

In today's global economy, there's no telling whose hands product X (and the $ exchanged)went through before they reached your eager, innocent, suburban paws. If you bought diamond jewelry, then hey, maybe you were supporting guerilla tribes that dismember innocent people in Africa. At the very least you'd likely be supporting an illegal diamond cartel. Depending on which cereal you buy, you might be supporting tobacco companies. But alas, I stray....

Just as a lame way to keep this on topic, I can't stand those stupid Honda element commercials. Such blatant pandering to a demographic group. "And then we like, dude, chilled out, and like just kicked it with these cool chicks, dude, and then we partied on the beach, and then we crashed, dude."

swschrad

like, that is soooooo lame!

suvshopper4

Last nite I saw an Audi TV commercial that was very provocative.

Two neighbors leave their front doors at the same time. The guy in the foreground gets into his car, an Audi A4, and adjusts the mirror so that he can see the road behind him.
The neighbor in his car adjusts the mirror so that he can look at himself.
Foreground guy backs up and drives off, leaving the obviously narcissistic background neighbor still looking at himself in the mirror. It is then revealed that narcissist is in a BMW.

The words appear, "Are you an A4 driver?"

Bold, us v. them, take-that-you-self-centered-so-and-so advertising. I expect that BMW owners will be offended.

xccoachlou

The Bimmer owners are too busy checking themselves out in the mirror to watch TV commercials.

swschrad

but yeah, I don't think they'd see the TV ad at all. they COULD, I suppose, be outside the car making sure they can see themselves in the wheels

oh, sorry, dreaming there for a minute, that's a driving machine, they have no time for TV when there's a road about......

idletask

There, I shopped for the best car for what I wanted and this happened to be a BMW...

There's a joke going on around here that the similarity between BMWs and hemorroids is that only... uhm... something-holes had any

Duh, and I love my car. I must really be one of them

xccoachlou

Is german for "over priced volkswagen" That always riles my friend. lol

But actually they have just started showing the commercial here of the Lexus sport ute going through 8 inches of snow like it was plain summer.

Try and stop in the same distance when there is ice...

a_l_hubcaps

When making my regular drive from NJ to PA last weekend, I thought it was kind of funny that all through NJ I got to hear the infamous "AUTOLAND! 1-800-AUTOLAND!" dealership screamer ads, and then when I crossed into PA and switched to a Philly station, I get the equally irritating, "Is Barbera [Chrysler] The Best? BOY I GUESS!" ads. Those screamer ads wouldn't make me want to shop the dealer, but they sure do stick in one's head.

-Andrew L

xccoachlou

I know a lot of people, and not one of them has ever or will ever visit Autoland. Those ads are a complete turnoff.

alfox

ads caused me to complain to WBZ more than once, and ultimately got me to try NPR, which I now listen to all the time. I just don't think that loud screamer ads every 10 minutes at 5:30am fits the format of an all news station. I surely didn't want to hear them, and as a result I don't listen to the station, and will not patronize a N.E. Mitsu dealer.

pjyoung

And I'm training my 9 year old daughter about them. I was taking her to dance class and one came on and I started mimicking the "disclaimer". She asked why I did that, I told her I did that because the disclaimers were annoying. She asked what a disclaimer was. I told her it was the fast talking at the end of the ad. She asked what it meant - I told her it meant that pretty much everything they screamed about up to that point wasn't true. The king of "screamer ad's" in Kansas City is the Superior Auto Group. I don't care if they were giving away cars, I won't set foot in any of the Superior dealerships.

a_l_hubcaps

alfox-

Mitsu dealer: do you mean "GALANT-A-THON!!!"? Yeah, that's a bad one too. I much prefer the Mitsu 0-0-0 ads. At least they don't scream at me, and sometimes they're kind of clever.

-Andrew L

alfox

To tell you the truth, that was 2 years ago, and I haven't heard a car ad since. Don't miss 'em, either.

:-)

checkme

Here in LA, the dealers have infomercials every Saturday morning. Channel 11, the local UPN affilliate, carries them.

For some reason, I enjoy these infomercials. They have a sort of seductive quailty. Moreover, when we drive past one of the dealerships, I immediately recognize it- "hey, there's Ford of Cerritos!"

One thing is for sure: there are some pretty good deals in the used car market right now!

i_luv_toyota

"Think of something to do lets do it, think of somewhere to go lets goooooo."

Couldn't get it out of my head all day! Thanks alot Toyota!

swschrad

if I broke down in front of Wild-[non-permissible content removed] Harry's Ford in my explorer, and WAH runs screamer ads, I'd pay for the tow to go 20 miles away.

I wouldn't use the driveway of a screamer to turn around in.

they just don't exist any more once I hear that first ad. just a hole in the landscape as I drive by.

hasn't been any reason for me to change my mind on that since the 1970s, and won't be any time in the future.

get the point, decibel-face? the fact that you can't tone it down with 100,000 watts aural and 250,000 watts visual and a microphone the size of a weed-whacker an inch above the picture in front of your head means I don't want to see what you act like in the real world. not now. not ever. never. no way.

suvshopper4

Won't you tell us how you really feel?
C'mon, don't hold back.

"decibel-face"???

idletask

Saab has an ad in magazines currently. Road security is one of the focus of the current government, and as usual they came with a load of repressive measures (radars, higher penalties and so on), apart from very few exceptions. Nothing close to reality, in short.

Saab's print ad for the new 9-3 has this headline: "Mr Minister, here is how we make roads safer". And then telling about how the 9-3 handles, how it obtained 5 stars at Euro NCAP and so on. Excellent pun, and to the point. Now let's hope the government gets the message. But Saab has gained respect to my eyes

kenjabi

Not many car ads in this year's Super Bowl. Doesn't VW usually have one? Oh well, here's the ones I can remember:

Cadillac - The one with the guy in the subway and sees the various Caddies out the window. I love Led Zeppelin, but I'm getting tired of that song pretty darn quick. It looks like they're going full speed ahead to make all their cars have the same kind of front end, looking like the CTS. I do admit that the new roadster looks pretty hot.

Dodge - Guy choking on jerky in passenger seat, driver speeds up, then slams on breaks...which dislodges the guy's jerky and he spits it out on the windshield. Sure it was gross, but I thought it was funny.

Was that it? I don't remember any others.

pjyoung

Saw an ad for the Chrysler Crossfire. I don't recall seeing any more than the ones kenjabi cited.

I didn't care for the Caddy ads, didn't see the Dodge ad, but heard about it on the radio this morning.

xccoachlou

Loved the Crossfire!! At Halftime I was online asking Chrysler to send me information

diploid

Does anyone else think the Crossfire needs Celine Dion in its commercial (singing a Cindi Lauper song!) in order to sell? Of all people, why Celine?

(Celine Dion walks into a bar, the bartender looks up and asks "Why the long face?")

pjyoung

Some things just can't be answered.

diploid

It's Celine Dion! She's like Oprah - guys are just naturally opposed to her.

pjyoung

But so did most other folks. The Honda Element ads. Note to any Honda execs perusing these sites - it's not a good sign, when two days after the big game, where you spent $2 million per ad for your car, that NOBODY seemed to remember seeing them in the super bowl. Truth be told, I even had to check Edmunds site to get the name of the car that was advertised.

badgerfan

It seemed those ads were aimed at the "20 somethings" and all the fun activities they could go to in a vehicle. Seemed to me you could do anything they showed in almost any vehicle. There was so little content relating to the car, it was a little hard to determine what the ads were for.

Well with such an ugly vehicle, maybe they didn't want to dwell on the Element too much, so people wouldn't remember what an ugly box it is.

I guess element shows GM is not the only company capable of designing a truely ugly vehicle. GM did it with Aztek, now Honda with Element. Some of the Toyota Scion boxes that are close to introduction are in the same category.

boaz47

impression from the ad for the Element that because the guy was lying about everything else he did that there was no reason to expect that anything he said about the element was true. I have a very good friend that is a Honda loyalist to the bone. We went down to look at an element, he just wanted an excuse to drive his S2000 and impress me, to a Honda dealer. It is even more square than it looks on TV. I thought he was going to cry.

xccoachlou

are in the element. What are those going to feel like on a HOT summer day?

diploid

It can't be worse than leather or vinyl seats...that's why I love cloth...neutral in both hot and cold weather.

andys120

Now they've got Camrys doing rwd type slides and the guy driving it is so ecstatic he gets out of the car and starts dancing and jumping. That's right Camrys!

swschrad

the night's Friday. I want a badge. Time to stop all this stuff......

lemko

...has the most honest commercial for a SUV. It doesn't show some adventurer thundering through the outback but a western singer telling a story about a suburban father named Blodgett "taking his kids to the coffee shop for a sticky bun" or going to the "home improvement store." There is one line that subtlely states the average slob couldn't afford this vehicle as the man "was a software engineer."

checkme

Toyota has had a lot of really funny commercials lately.

I love the new Cadillac commercial. It's a parody of the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

In it, you see three Escalades (an original Escalade, an EXT, and an ESV) driving side-by-side down a narrow street in Spain. A pack of bulls is running away in front of them! It's really great.

carguy58

Good: Pontiac-Fuel For the Soul(the coolest car commercials out now.)Mitsubishi-I like the music. Nissan-I like their commercials. The commercials for the Maxima and Altima are always cool(the new "shift campaign" is awesome.) Mazda-Zoom-Zoom(catchy)Ford-I like Bill Ford doing the commercials because their informative of the Product. Hyundai-I like the commercial a couple years ago and why the woman bought the Elantra(another good informative car commercial.) The Worst: Toyota-sales event things drive you crazy. Dodge: that commercial a few years ago with the person rolling around in the Neon(I thought it was a joke and not even a commercial.)

suvshopper4

The TV ad for a beer (I think) shows a full-of-himself blind date named Brad pulling up to the bar in his Corvette with a license plate reading "THE BRAD", getting out of the Vette and straightening his tacky leather outfit.
Very uncomplimentary to Vette owners.

caramo

The Dodge truck commercial where the sudden braking causes passenger to spew the jerky he's choking on. . .

At least it's memorable.

janjohnson

That Toyota ad where the guy is driving down the freeway by himself. What is up with that screaming? Every time I hear that god-awful screech I want to scream myself.

diploid

Can't be worse than the Mitsubishi Lancer commercial with the girl break dancing.

pjyoung

driving in the ocean? Is it to sell their undercoating protection? I don't even see the "professional driver on closed course" disclaimers. Does this mean I can drive my Toyota in the ocean and not void the warranty?

ab348

And here I was thinking all along it was a subtle hint as to where their current whale-like styling themes came from...

janjohnson

Compared to that banshee shriek, watching the break dancing girl is an enjoyable experience.