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

ateixeira

Yeah, that one's just plain dumb.

-juice

fintail

The Passat commercial where people check themselves out in the reflection of a mirrored building bugs me...because I do that! Especially in the fintail. Well, I check the car out more than myself, but same thing.

loncray

Must be a local thing, because I just saw that same commercial twice yesterday (6/6/06) and the 'Silly Little Fairy' line was still there. I think it's pretty funny actually.

john_324

I kinda like the new Jetta ads where someone gets mad because they think others are stereotyping them based on Jetta ownership...

Though I wonder if they might also have the effect of putting off some people (who are unaware of the stereotypes) from buying one..."I thought this was an affordable European sedan, not some metro-wimp car! Hand me that Dodge Charger brochure! 'Hemi', eh?"

andre1969

where people are driving around in their trophy cars chanting stuff like "because Daddy never loved me" "I'm overcompensating for my tiny petey" etc was pretty funny.

ateixeira

What stereotype is that? I'm curious.

I believe most Jetta buyers are young females.

-juice

john_324

Well, judging by the ads I've seen, they like to go hiking and have good dance moves (both male).

I don't know how many of ads are in the series though, so there may be more.

fintail

I'd say it is a 50/50 split in my area anyway...new Jettas seem popular among the recent college grad crowd

ateixeira

I see more females in Jettas, more males in Golfs. The hotter the model the more likely it's male. Cabrios are almost all female. New Beetles, too.

-juice

fintail

I'd say that is fairly representative...although the girl who parks by me at my apt has a GTI...she's a big anomoly. I've never seen a male in a (new) Beetle Cabrio...a couple in normal Beetles. Passats are pretty evenly split too.

au1994

guess they would not have considered having the Passat drivers shout "somebody please call a tow truck, somebody please call a tow truck" :P

carlisimo

haha!

drummerdude

with a 300C driving into a parking garage, then it parks, and the announcer says "It's hot" and then the camera zooms in to a sprinkler above the car, and it goes off, spraying water all over the 300C.

i_luv_toyota

Yeah, I've also seen the Chevy Equinox ad that copies it, too.

Of the two cars, though, only the 300C can claim to be hot...

carguy58

like the way the guy who does the voice commentating says something(I can't remember)and than says the Fit is Go! I like that commercial.

Oh yeah that VW ad mocking the 300, Viper and the Mercedes convertible. The Passat is not even a competitor to the Viper or Mercedes convertible and yet VW is trying to mock those 2 cars with the Passat. Its just an off-beat commercial in my opinion.

I always like Hyundai's commercials of the past 5 years. At least their commercials tell me something in terms of detail of their product and what Hyundai offers you over Honda and Toyota.

Mazda's commercials have gotten alot better the past few years.

ateixeira

Saw a couple of VW ads in the background today, while my wife was watching the cooking channel.

One had the Passat, in one of those ego ads. I walked in half way through, but it looked like the Passat owner honked, and the guy in front gets out of the car to confront him but walks right by to a truck behind him. Something like that, I didn't catch the whole thing.

Boy, that's a real stretch of the low-ego concept.... :confuse:

Then I saw a Jetta one, but I guess it stunk because I can't remember anything about it!

-juice

toomanyfumes

If I hear that Subaru commercial with the Sheryl Crow song one more time......

fintail

Indeed, they've overdone it. Bad marketing.

john_324

Agreed.

But there's a print Subaru ad that I've seen in the subway where I live that I kinda like: just words on a solid background that say "Airbags save lives. AWD saves airbags. Subaru."

Pretty catchy.

anythngbutgm

Oh I could listen to the Sheryl Crow one till my ears bleed before I could put up with another "Freedom that drives you, Subaru" jingle just one time. It is like nails on a chaulkboard how bad that one is.

anythngbutgm

And the Jettareport ads are as obnoxious as they get. I caught the "Not all Jetta drivers are into Yoga so don't assume that they are" waste of airtime last night.

ateixeira

Subaru does that a lot. The Tribeca ad with "Dust in the Wind" was clever at first, but they WAAAAAAAAAY overplayed it. Now I can't stand that song.

They should do a series of ads, not just one single one and play it over and over.

-juice

lemko

...has anybody seen the ad for the Honda Ridgeline featuring the chrome naked lady silhouette and Yosemite Sam? The announcer says something like,"Those who are around trucks all the time have never seen something like this."

carlisimo

That one dates all the way back to the Superbowl...

PF_Flyer

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andre1969

They should do a series of ads, not just one single one and play it over and over.

I notice that alot nowadays, that too many ads seem to be just a one-trick pony. Might be amusing or interesting the first time you see it, but it wears thin fast. It's almost like they try too hard to be cute/funny.

Another thing I've noticed is that commercials in general seem to get repeated a lot more nowadays. Seems like not that long ago, you might see the same commercial a couple times per day. These days, often it's a couple times per half-hour episode!

alpha1phi

Does anyone know that commerical where they have a panel of cartoon characters reviewing a truck?? And the last one says,"Frankly, it scares the *BEEP* out of me". I've been trying to find it on the internet...can't remember which company it's for. It's not on very often...only seen it 2x.

kyfdx

Dodge Caliber commercial, if that helps...

carguy58

Ford's new theme on their commercials 'bold moves" just doesn;t seem catchy at all especially when you compare to their older theme "have You Driven a Ford Lately" which was very catchy I thought. I like when the lady in the voice-over said have you driven a Ford lately. Than Ford has Kelly Clarkson in a new commercial for the Mustang. How is Kelly Clarkson(the singer) a target for Ford buyers especially the Mustang? I like the Mustang commercial with Derek Jeter and Spike Lee which is shown in only NY/NJ markets probably.

i_luv_toyota

Yeah, those Jeter/Lee ads are shown here in southern Connecticut, too.

john_324

Must be the "commuteable" NY area then...here in D.C. we don't get them.

ed_scott0013

Well, at least I find it funny.

A customer is sitting in a Honda F1 racer (or something to that effect) and is revving it up under the supervision of a sales person. After reving it a few times, the customer is all pumped up...

Guy: Whooo weee!
Salesperson: She's something, isn't she...
Guy: How much?
Salesperson: Five million.
Guy: Oh... but... does it come in blue?
Salesperson: No.
Guy: What about that one? *points to another Honda*
Salesperson: Yup.
Guy: Yeah... *nods head in excitement*

The commercial has something to do with how Honda puts their racing experience in the design of every Honda vehicle, or something.

Another funny one (don't know if has been brought up already) is the Honda Element commercial featuring the crab. :shades:

john_324

"Another funny one (don't know if has been brought up already) is the Honda Element commercial featuring the crab."

I like those ads, though a lot of people here don't seem to. They're just so inspiredly strange in a Simpsons sort of way...

"So, do you hang out with surfers alot?"

"I pinch"

ateixeira

Element ads, I remember those.

-juice

i_luv_toyota

That's my favorite one...

"I've got some melted butter and some tongs back here..."

"No pinch, no pinch."

Love the crab's accent.

odie6l

My father use to have a front license plate on an off-road modified CJ-8 Scrambler that read "Have You Driven Over A Ford Lately!", what was so funny about it was my father was a hugh Ford man.

Odie
Odie's Carspace

notatest

I don't know if anyone has already mentioned it or not, but I saw this car commercia (dunno what it was for) that showed a whole bunch of cars with different colors running down the screen and the song kept saying "I love you, I love you" and I think it sounds awesome but can't find it. ;-;

john_324

Might be just me, but I think that Mercedes "Summer to Remember" ad strike a false note...the one that mimics an "American Grafitti" style cruising night.

German luxury sedans don't really go with drive-ins and cruising the strip. Not to mention drag racing (I guess since the ads/cars are targeted at aging baby boomers, it's okay to promote using ones' car for such things...can you imagine the uproar if Honda showed people in Civics doing it? )

Esp. funny is the one guy with his hood up, checking the engine...despite the plastic engine cover that all but totally obscures it.

The same ad style, but filled with Chargers and Magnums would have made a lot more sense and been pretty effective.

fintail

I've seen the new Rabbit ad about 10 times in the past day.

It's mildly amusing...I was thinking about why the name is back, as so many people have a negative association with it. But, I realized that for people under 35 or so, the association doesn't exist. It's just a cute old car name.

stickguy

my son (he's 15) mentioned the ad to me last night. He liked it, so that's probably a good sign for VW! He actually seemed to like the song more for some reason.

I happened to see it later on. I thought it was clever, and in keeping with old-style VW advertising.

You really do have to go back though to find people with personal experience with newer Rabbits, and even many of them were positive. Besides, you think many of the other options at the time were better?

Anyway, given the fact that they are appealing to Gen XYZ (or whatever people late 20s/early 30s are called these days) it might be better to get away from Golf and try something (relativly) new!

lemko

Hmmm! Maybe that's what "American Grafitti" would look like had Lucas filmed it in current day Greenwich, CT or on the Main Line near Philadelphia. I'm sure the Pharaohs would've had fun tying one of these pretentious yuppie snobs to the back of their chopped Mercury and dragging him.

carlisimo

"But, I realized that for people under 35 or so, the association doesn't exist. It's just a cute old car name. "

Yeah, Rabbit is a somewhat legendary name for us. I guess a lot of our parents had one at some point, but we were too young to remember any bad things about them. Nowadays some of my friends laugh at me when I say I like hatchbacks, but they always make an exception for old Rabbits (which I can't explain at all). Golf was not a cool name though. And the Rabbit logo is.

lemko

...girls who owned VW Rabbits would refer to them as "Bunnies."

fintail

I think for a lot of people not old enough to own the cars new, Rabbit is just a cute old car...many people I knew had them in high school, but by then they were already old and well-worn, so expectations were low...and many were tuned and driven hard. I was skeptical of this re-name when I first heard about it...now I think it's not a bad idea. The "Golf" name is dull indeed, this will attract attention.

anythngbutgm

Since, the Rabbit has a so-so image, why not just use the European name POLO? Kinda neat name with none of the baggage...

lemko

Ralph Lauren might have dibs on "polo" in NA. I remember a Dodge called the "Hang Ten" and the garment manufacturer got upset - not nearly as much as the religious zealots over "Demon."

ateixeira

Me too, didn't really get my attention like the Unpimp ads did.

-juice

ateixeira

What do you guys think?

I think it's strange to see a company that used to say "Buy American" all of the sudden have a guy with a thick accent as the spokesperson.

Proof that it's all about salesmanship.

-juice

PS Blog link: http://blogs.edmunds.com/Straightline/1207

rockylee

Dr. Z is getting jocked way to much. He has alot of work to do with quality before he can gloat. DC's quality is the worst out of the Big 2.5

The cool thing is Ghosn will squash him like a bug :P

Rocky

carlisimo

Polo is a smaller car than the Rabbit, and there's a very real possibility that the VW Polo will eventually make its way here. I think VW needs to leave that possibility open, now that subcompacts are experiencing a slight revival and the Rabbit's gotten so enormously big.