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

AG11

Year after year, the most annoying commercial around the holiday season is the Lexus' December to Remember series, but this year, they are surprisingly un-annoying...!

tmart

Personally, I've never had a problem with them, but there are many in this forum that hate them. Guess one has to own a Lexus to like them. There are many much worse. I can't stand GM'S Red Tag Sale ones, especialy the one with the car carrier landing on the roof like Santa. Then it takes off littering the scene with red tags.

AG11

There's nothing wrong with their cars, it's just their end of the year commercials that I usually find annoying. Oddy enough, I find them more annoying than the Toyota-thon commercials!

I can't stand GM's Red Tag Sale ones,

GM commercials are forgettable, just like their cars

Except for the Buick commercials: their new slogan, Beyond Precision is simply ridiculous! I can understand Beyond Precision for a Caddy, but for a Buick?

ateixeira

Buick can get away with that - for years they've scored well in reliability and quality surveys, right up there with Cadillac. I believe one of CR's Best Bets among used cars is the Buick Regal.

-juice

fintail

Happy Honda-Days probably ranks worse than the pretentious Lexus ads.

The Red Tag ads are very stupid for one big reason...a line that says you'll pay the price on the tag "and not a penny more!". Wow! What a concept!

Seeing as outmoded beasts like the old Century helped get Buick those awards, it's hard to see the "quality"...maybe the reliability.

AG11

That's precisely it. I can understand if Buick were touting their reliability or their value, but "Beyond Precision", to me, implies latest technology.

ab348

I find the current line of Nissan sale ads -- a similar series has been running for a while now -- extremely irritating. All those computer-generated images of various Nissan vehicles suddenly flipping over to be replaced by another or entering and exiting the frame, against a stark white background and accompanied by sound effects (thwack!). It's just jarring.

ateixeira

They could be honest and use the tag line, "Beyond Retirement". :surprise:

-juice

i_luv_toyota

Does that mean the Chevy Trailblazer (9-7x) and Subaru Impreza/WRX (9-2x) were "born from jets" too?

ateixeira

That's one's pretty silly, I believe when GM bought Saab they did not acquire the division that worked on aerospace, so it's more than a stretch.

Ironically, the 9-2x is made in Gunma, Japan, at a Fuji plant, a company that still does have direct lineage to a airplane manufacturer.

-juice

anythngbutgm

Anyone catch the new RAV4 add with the bouncing attack boxes? Doesn't really say much about the vehicle other than it can hold a lot more than before but it's kinda humorous...

And my heart skips a beat everytime I hear the Exhaust note for the new GC SRT-8. I am really digging that new rig...

chicagodrive1

Anyone catch the new GM commercial that shows the "Jones" loading up their family of nine into their brand spanking new Tahoe with the neighbor's kids looking on with envy?

I don't think lack of space in SUVs is a serious problem - only to be solved by the new Tahoe...but the underlying message: "buy a bigger truck to keep your kids happy" is silly.

chicagodrive1

There is a new commercial from Honda for the new hybrid Accord: a "smart young white professional" enters his shinny new Accord, someone who clearly cares about the environment...

It's a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky, and as he drives to work cartoon bird fly along side and cartoon animals wave to him from the roadside. This is a truly dorky commercial.

I don't think cartoon characters can sell cars. Remember the Lumina commercial with Disney character bouncing out of the car...real lame. I have kids, but I'm the buying the car - not them! Leave the cartoon characters to selling breakfast cereals.

tmart

I think their new commercial is awesome. The one where the two vehicles collide head on and break into a gazillion pieces and them combind into the hybrid. Unreal CGI.

john_324

Yeah, that's a sweet ad. I love that "hybrid concept vehicle", whatever it is.

In the same vein, even though I hate the vehicle, I like that new Hummer H3 ad where the parts all coalesce into the Hummer which then drives away.

lemko

I saw that one as well. Quite impressive. It reminds me a bit of those "exploded" drawings.

jefferyg

Have you seen the new one from the insurance company (Allstate I believe) where they want to give you a discount on your deductible for being a good driver. That's ludicrous! The only way you'll ever be able to realize the benefit is to HAVE A WRECK!

I don't know about everyone else, but what I want is a discount on the premium.

tmart

I don't understand your statement: "That's ludicrous! The only way you'll ever be able to realize the benefit is to HAVE A WRECK! " :confuse:

By NOT having a wreck, you get the discount. If you have a wreck, no discount. If you have a $500 deductible, which you pay for, after 5 years with no wecks, you have no deductible. If have a wreck in year 6, your deductible would be ZERO on your claim.

PF_Flyer

You only pay the deductible if you have a claim. If you make a claim, that means you've had a wreck.

Yes, you pay for your deductible. The higher your deductible, the lower your premium is.

If your deductible goes to zero in year six and your premiums don't go up as a result, I suppose that's a "gain" in a technical sense, since your getting something that you would have had to pay more for. But you're not going to be paying any less.

jefferyg

Another point I would make here is that you only pay a deductible on an accident chargeable to you. If it's not your fault then you're not going to pay the deductible anyway.

AND I'll bet that if you have a wreck they'll make you start over.

ateixeira

I found it kind of silly, too. To benefit from it, you'd lose the benefit itself (i.e. go back to the full deductible).

-juice

kyfdx

I have to agree with this one.. the only way the safe driver can cash in on his "benefit" is to have a wreck..

This must have occurred to someone.. because just lately, they came out with a different commercial about lower premiums for safe drivers... and, I haven't seen the "lowered deductible" commercial for about a week..

PF_Flyer

I'm sure you've seen them... the Chevy head to head ads. Well the other day the wife and kids starting yelling for me and I run downstairs in time to hear, " You JUST missed it, there was an ad for Edmunds.com" :P

Funny that the ad came across to them as an Edmunds rather than a Chevy ad!

ateixeira

My wife said the same thing...it's good for Edmunds to keep getting mentioned like that.

-juice

kyfdx

Unfortunately... they now have a commercial that mentions KBB.com..

No one has any loyalty, any more..

logic1

Lexus uses a voice over guy with a harrumphing contralto apparently meant to sound classy.

Maybe it is just me, but it is like listening to nails raking a chalk board.

Apparently the voice over dude is nation wide, as I have heard him in New York, Chicago and San Francisco now.

A voice that sounds as though the speaker could use a good three minute listerine session isn't classy. It's annoying.

ateixeira

They should get the guy that says "Let's Get Ready to RumbOOOOOOOOOOOLL!"

Maybe put an IS next to a 3 series.

-juice

kyfdx

Michael Buffer...

logic1

Now that is the kind of cool Lexus could use!

gagrice

I have to question the authenticity of the Tacoma being tossed around in the ocean then starting and taking off. It smells like the fake Volvo ad that got them in hot water. Is it false advertising or one heck of a truck?

PS
The Hummer3 ad was a bit lame....

fintail

I knew I should have watched the game for something.

I think it was 'Top Gear' that bought an old diesel Toyota 4x4 and then abused it to see what it would take to kill it - crashing it, dropping a crane on it, driving into the surf and letting the tide wash over it etc...and it would always start.

carlisimo

Like fintail said, it was based on Top Gear's (real) attempts to kill one (though that one was a diesel). It looked too over the top to even be accused of false advertising... there was a previous Tacoma ad showing one being thrown off a cliff and still working, and I didn't think that one wasn't supposed to be believable either.

No one I was with really like the H3 ad. They could've done more with the "little monster" idea.

The party I was at was basically the Camry ad's intended audience. Lots of Spanish accents, but none like that guy's. It was a really weird accent. Not strong or anything, just... odd. But I'd say the ad hit home pretty well.

gagrice

The party I was at was basically the Camry ad's intended audience.

I missed that one, must have fallen asleep. I thought the ads overall were lame this year. Not just the car ads. Nothing memorable.

lemko

Did anybody catch the Hummer ad with the giant monster and robot for Hummer? Truly weird and disturbing!

PF_Flyer

That was one among many stange ads during the game:)

ateixeira

The Camry ad was for the hybrid, which I found interesting. Noone in the room I was in liked it, but most the folks there were Mopar fans. Toyota is trying too hard to pat themselves on the back.

The Escalade ads got some response, the one in the water. That was decent.

Nothing else really stood out.

-juice

anythngbutgm

The Hummer ad is about 6 montyhs old. Surprised they used it. Still dumbfounded as to the point of the commercial. Not very well done by any means.

i_luv_toyota

Anybody see the ad talking about the Ford F150's towing power? They show an F150 pulling a large Peterbilt semi truck in the air by a pulley system, saying the F150 can tow 10,000 pounds or something like that.

Now I'm no expert, but I'm quite sure a Peterbilt semi truck with a sleeper cab weighs quite a bit more than 10K pounds. You would probably need a semi to lift another semi in the air, not a 1/2 ton truck!

carlisimo

The more pulleys, the less force it takes to move something. So it was probably real, but it wouldn't take an F-150 to do that.

carlisimo

Little article about the creation of the UK ad - the one that preceeded the Civic ad that people have been talking about. It didn't get a lot of comments here, but hey, if you're bored here's some reading.

http://www.topgear.com/content/features/stories/2006/02/stories/15/1.html

The ad's here, click on the front page and then on "see the TV ad" on the lower left. I like it a lot more than the Civic ad.

odie6l

did anybody see the new commercial NASCAR is using to feature their assistance program for cars. Guy and girl riding along (in what looks like a new civic) and she's just chattering away. All of a sudden his car comes to a stop as he notices the check engine light. She's still chattering on, but stops and notices the car stopped in front of an engagement ring place. The look on the guys face and his reaction was priceless. Then the moral of not neglecting you cars maintenance voices over. it was actually very funny, too bad they didn't run it during the superbowl.

fintail

I kind of like the VW "fast" ads - mainly because the voice reminds me of the Transformers character "Soundwave". I've laughed...

There's a local dealer who in his free rag print ads, likes to put "only" in front of the mileage listed for each vehicle. This week's cream of the crop is a 99 Camry with "only" 118K miles. Nice.

john_324

I used to think the "fast" ads were kinda dumb, but they're growing on me.

Seems like an attempt to get guys back into VWs again...all of the ads center on male drivers and their car desires. I like the one where "my fast doesn't like excess weight". :shades:

lemko

A '99 Camry with only 118K miles! That's like telling your friend you're going to set him up with your sister who's slept with only four major league sports teams.

fintail

Some people seem to think if they are under the average 15K/year, they can claim low miles, no matter the age of the car. My 126 was 16 when I sold it, but it had 'only' 182K on it!

I think the 'fast' will catch the eye of the younger male...who among us hasn't said or at least thought "it's really hard to enjoy the sound of the engine with all that yackin'"...

And now VW has a new line of ads...hilarious stuff. I swear I've seen that Honda before, on the roads here

john_324

Those are great! I've heard the "unpimp" radio ads as well, and they're pretty funny too...

"I've spent like $15k modifying a $2k car!"

I'm sure "Superstreet" magazine is NOT amused...

stickguy

I liked the one where the girlfriend/wife was getting blown around by the open windows. She wanted the driver to roll them up, but he wouldn't (wanted to hear the engine). He also made some crack about the noise she was making, but I didn't quite catch it, but I'm pretty sure if I said it to my wife she would belt me.

ateixeira

Those ads seem lame to me, I dunno. They try to be playful but come off as majorly dorky.

-juice

kyfdx

VW's target audience?

stickguy

remember the ad where the dofi pick up the smelly chair?