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

anythngbutgm

The VW ads with the megaphones were good for a chuckle for the first couple of times I watched them, but I get the feeling that what Vdub is lacking in EGO, they are more than making up for in arrogance.

I just don't see how belittling someone who buys a Viper or 300C creates a positive spin on owning a Passat.

lemko

...seems to be poking fun at DCX.

"Because Daddy never hugged me!" Chrysler 300
"Because I make more money than you!" Mercedes E-Class
"Because I'm compensating for my shortcomings!" Dodge Viper

What was the girl driving and what was she saying?

anythngbutgm

I think it was a MB SLK with aftermarket rims.

Wow Lemko, never thought about that conclusion. Funny that VW would be attacking Daimler when the two are supposed to be collaborating on the next minivan for Vdub.

4crrt

I think anythingbutgm is right, the girl is in a red SLK. Funny, I didn't pull the DCX connection together either and I guesss anyone with aftermarket rims emits high "ego."

What the girl is saying is actually what makes the commercial to me, since it is the only cliche that hasn't been overused yet:

"Because the more guys notice me, the more I love myself." LOL

4crrt

I agree, the commercial is moderately arrogant.

I was looking at "Hotel Rhawanda" on television this weekend and there is a scene in it where the star said he bribed someone with a car to move his future wife to a clinic nearer to him. The wife kept pressing to find out what kind of car and he finally gave in and said, "A Volkswagen." Then they both laughed and she then said, "It better have been a new one."

Funny thing is, it seems with the recent ads that VW is taking pride in this image. I think the only cars with an identity are the retro-Beetle and the GTI, both of which are also the most likely VW to be seen with aftermarket rims (tuner or street) and thereby increasing their "ego" emissions. LOL

4crrt

I spoke to soon. There is no commercial for it that I've seen yet, but the Rabbit, another VW with identity will return this summer as the 5G Gulf.

http://www.vw.com/companyinfo/news_20060410.html?ic_id=promo_rabbit2006

andre1969

I finally saw that Caliber ad with the dog mooning all the little frou-frou (sp?) dogs in their little frou-frou cars.

I thought it was kinda funny. Well, the first couple times I saw it, then it got grating. One thing that struck me kinda odd though, is at the end of the commercial, when the Caliber was accelerating away, it sounded awfully muscular, more like a V-8 than a 4-cyl. I wonder if they put in a V-8 rumble in the sound editing?

michaellno

Saw this for the first time last night.

A Tahoe with a large family is pulling a boat on a trailer. It is then passed by a series of generic white four door sedans, each one carrying part of another large family. The last car in line only shows the family dog; no humans in the car at all.

The voice over is something like 'carry your entire family together'. A bit of a slam on the cars that cannot hold more than 5 passengers.

andre1969

but I thought the timing on this was funny. The other night I caught some History Channel thing on the Titanic. At one point I remember them saying something like "Titanic: The Final Moments of Disaster. Sponsored by Buick. And Waste Management, Incorporated."

considering how the Titanic General Motors has been going down, I thought it was a bit ironic...

ateixeira

That's a bit silly because 90% of the time it's the driver alone, how often are there really 8 people in the car? Even then a van can do it using half the resources.

-juice

john_324

I love how strange it is to see people in the back seats of sedans these days...

fintail

Wasn't there a promotion a couple years back when you'd get like 7 free days of a rental car with a purchase of a new Impala? I'm not joking...

And I just remembered the "Walkin on the Sun" Pontiac ads...it took me about 2 seconds to retort "Yeah, you might as well be walkin on the sun, because you're gonna get burned if you buy one of these".

john_324

Gotta say that the Fit ads are really growing on me...the utter strangeness and eccentricity of them is such a welcome departure from usual car ads. "Ferocious Small Dominator!" :shades:

On the bad side, is it just me, or do Chevy's ads these days seem to have a real air of desperation about them?

andre1969

that aired a year or so ago that was ripe for picking was the one where they'd let you take a Chevy (or other selected models of other brands) home over the weekend for a long "extended test drive", and they were playing the "Let me sleep on it, baby, baby" line from that Meatloaf song, "Paradise by the Dashboard lights".

However, they didn't think it through, because at the end of that song it says...

"And now I'm waiting for the end of time...
to hurry up and arrive...
'cuz if I have to spend another moment with you...
I'm not sure if I can really survive..."

I wonder how many buyers now are waiting for the end of time? Or at least, waiting for their lease to be up, or their upside-down-edness to be up so they can "end their time with you"? :P

anythngbutgm

lol

ateixeira

You really thought that through!

-juice

mopowah

or does it seem that there are a lot more car ads in general on tv than there used to be? I was watching tv the other day and I saw a Ford commercial, a Toyota commercial and I think Hyundai commercial all in a row during the commercial break.

john_324

Yeah, I'll say...car ads and chain restaurant ads. :P

I really like the new Honda Element ads...gotta love the low budget quirkiness of them..."where does a platypus learn a word like 'hodgepodge' anyway?" It's interesting that both of them (the platypus one and the crab one) are trying to plant in people's minds that the Element looks like a "surf wagon."

ateixeira

Saw another one, I dunno, I think the Yaris ads are better made, more clever. And I prefer the Fit as a car.

-juice

mopowah

So far was I think the VW(?) ad where it shows the VW setup as a crash barrier in a side impact test and crash sled goes flipping over the car at impact because the VW is supposedly so solid. I think that's a VW ad anyway. Laughed pretty hard when I saw that.

ateixeira

Mercedes, I think, for the new GL class.

They use hyberbole to get the point across that the SUV is roomy, tough, and handles well for its class.

A bit exaggerated, but they're effective.

-juice

mopowah

Oh yeah, I remember now. You are correct. Mercedes.

It was exaggerated, but highly entertaining.

lemko

...anybody see the ad where a Yaris squashes the spider made of gas pump nozzles?

john_324

Yeah...it's kinda weird to me. Sure, I get the point, but to me, the Fit ads are so much more catchy because they're so much more over the top.

The Yaris ads seem to be trying, in a very Toyota-bland way, to appear hip and cool, but without offending anyone. Honda meanwhile has thrown caution to the wind, and even is associating Fit styling with mullets..."super tail action!" I like ads that take those kind of chances myself.

lemko

"...a very Toyota-bland way, to appear hip and cool, but without offending anyone."

Sort of like bubblegum pop-stars or teenage female leads of Disney films.

ateixeira

The Fit ads come off as low-budget, cheaply made. I see how some controversy might make them funnier, though.

Yaris ads seem to target fuel pumps and piggy banks. But I swear it's like the ad agency had a budget 10 times as big for digital effects. They came out more professional looking.

-juice

wevk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv157ZIInUk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCIF6JF1O5U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I0WfnhVs2s

WVK

wevk

carlisimo

Yes, we should all drive boring cars with no color and no shape, and anyone who acts on their imagination should be publically ridiculed.

And we should all watch old ads which were thoroughly discussed months ago.

john_324

The Yaris ads just seem to me like some ad guy pitched them as "nothing says 'classy' more than digital effects!" and didn't think so much about the content. I do like how whichever Yaris wasn't featured at the end pops out of the other one.

What's noticable to me is that some Japanese car companies (Honda and Mitubishi) seem in their ads to have gone back to playing up that they're Japanese. The Eclipse ads with the drummers do so very strikingly, and the Fit ads seem to have a "Godzilla" style to them. Toyota however is going the opposite, doing its best to show its connections to America. Interesting.

john_324

And freedom of expression doesn't include the right to be taken seriously. Those ads are hysterical.

fintail

Indeed

I see 50 cars a day I wish I could un-pimp

hemicruiser

As the owner of a Chrysler 300C I think the VW ads are pretty funny, although they're also indicating that the Passat market has a pretty high snob potential, what with looking down their noses at everyone else's choice in a motor vehicle. But if I had the megaphone I'd be yelling "Because I'm 7 feet tall and I don't fit inside your crappy little Passat!! Because I'm 7 feet tall and I don't fit inside your crappy little Passat!!

john_324

In that vein, I always thought Passat drivers should be shouting "Hey, it's almost the BMW I really want!"

carlisimo

here's an odd find

kyfdx

Hilarious... I was immediately transported back to junior high school.... What a blast from the past!!

andre1969

which style-wise, seemed about 10 years out of date, and just seemed a bit off, like they were done by a marketing company that was out-of-tune with American tastes? Well that's how I see those Yaris ads. For lack of a better word they're just "off". Or like they're a product of mis-guided focus groups or something.

In contrast, the FIT ads do seem better-aimed. When I look at one I can tell that I'm no longer in their target demographic, but I do at least "get it", I guess. :P

meateater

That hummer ad where the kid on his first day of school at a new school gets dropped off by Mom. And he says its OK to get out right in front of the crowd gathered by the front doors, because Mom's driving a Hummer.

Moms didn't have Hummers when I was a kid. But my Mom wasn't cool enough to buy a Hummer anyway. This kid's Mom apparently is.

I guess Hummer buyers are ONLY concerned with their image.

ateixeira

That's funny. Too bad the rotary engine never caught on, though Mazda has still enough problems with oil consumption, poor mileage, and low torque output that it probably never will.

VW - I find it interesting that they say the GTI has no spoilers, but there is a rear roof spoiler. That plus the red stripe around the grille opening and the plaid seats, it's not exactly totally Unpimped itself.

Unpimp my GTI - ditch the rear spoiler, black out the grille, and how 'bout some low key monotone dark gray seats to replace that silly plaid?



-juice

ateixeira

I think they got the plaid from re-cycled shirts from the Pimp himself, Snoop:



-juice

john_324

I like the plaid...it's very classic sportscar, and nice to see it back on seats (esp. a nice muted one like that). Fits the character of the car I think. VWs don't really do menacing well, so I'd say good to skip the monochrome interiors.

In high school, I had a friend with a Triumph Spitfire 1500, and it had these great black and white houndstooth seat fabrics that seemed to me the epitome of British "ripping fun motoring, that!" sporting cool.

fintail

I always thought the Mentos ads were intentionally cheesy. And they were made for international use - no vocals other than the jingle, so it could be aired in many countries.

I think the Fit and Yaris ads are intentionally made to seem a little dorky or "off" - I think there's a considerable demographic who likes that kind of thing.

I will say they are more entertaining than most ads I see, esp the tiring GM ads which always tout onstar, and the Chrysler "fight song" ads which got old 5 years ago.

Plaid seats were found in the original GTI, were they not?

ateixeira

Finally saw the Passat ad you guys have been talking about for the last month...

It was interesting, definitely gets your attention, but I think it's almost too much "in your face".

-juice

john_324

It's hard to understand what the girl in the red convertible says as well...

john_324

While some of the Bold Moves ad series seems kinda dumb (the one with the girl paying for the dry cleaning of the guy behind her comes to mind), I do like the one with the striped Mustang GT in a deserted parking lot at night.

The car is doing some tire-roasting burn outs. When it stops, the camera then focues on the passengers, a young guy driving with presumably his father beside him. The father says sternly "you can see...it's not a toy." as the son nods deferentially.

The dad then deadpans "wanna do it again?" :shades:

fintail

I've noticed Toyota is really ramping up a campaign featuring All-American looking manufacturing workers in its ads. One can debate the legitimacy of this, but I have to admit it is a shrewd plan.

I read more print ads than I see ads on TV...I've noticed a local free car rag has the same little comments that dealers repeat over and over. "Dream of a Lifetime", "Love the Freeway", "Go First Class", "Bargain Beauty", "Drive To Impress"...this blather is repeated through the book by many different dealers. It irks me.

I also noticed an ad for an old S-class that said "look like a gangster"...or a drug runner, I suppose. Might not be the best slogan.

ateixeira

It's hard to sell big luxury cars used. Their value drops much quicker than small or medium sized luxury cars. Interesting demographic they're marketing to, that certainly won't help residuals...

:sick:

-juice

andre1969

on the Dodge Caliber commercial where the fairy turns that thuggy looking dude into a tu-tu wearing panty-boy at the end, that they cut part of it out. The guy still points at the fairy and laughs, but they cut out the "Silly little fairy!" comment.

I wonder if someone got offended? :confuse:

ateixeira

Dodge is like a bull in a china shop in terms of finding ways to offend people. Remember the Lingerie Bowl?

-juice

i_luv_toyota

Makes mimes talk.

Uh...Okay?