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

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  • ineto6ineto6 Member Posts: 161
    I was thinking about a Jag? commercial where the couple's heads are tilted back. The guy gave the key to the valet and the valet thought that the couple was looking snobbish. But once the valet got into the car and drive.... whissshhh.. his head is tilted backward like the couple.

    I guess the commercial is saying that the car is fast and has no head restraint :)
  • bdreggorsbdreggors Member Posts: 143
    Also, the GMC Sierra ad where the GMC tows a Tundra. WWIII with trucks?
  • chevytruck_fanchevytruck_fan Member Posts: 432
    wow I haven't seen the bdreggors, how long ago was that, I would love to see that one
  • roadroachroadroach Member Posts: 131
    You realize of course that company "A" doesn't make light of company "B" products unless they actually view that product as a potential threat. It sounds to me (of course I AM biased) as though GM realizes that the Tundra represents real competition to their bread and butter C/K class of full-size trucks.

    But that's just my take.....
  • chevytruck_fanchevytruck_fan Member Posts: 432
    not if you listen to their commercials, GM, Ford and Dodge only compare against eachother, never mentioning the tundra. interesting
  • ab348ab348 Member Posts: 20,287
    Ads I like:
    - the Acura ads with New Orleans, Palm Springs, etc.
    - last years Focus ad with the big dog and the Lisa Dal Ballo song.
    - the Buick campaign from a couple of years ago that said "wouldn't you rather have a real car?"
    - the Chevy Venture ad from a couple of years ago that morphed an old Corvan full of hippies into today's world.
    - this is sort of corny, but up to about 3 or 4 years ago Cadillac had a song that went "...the only way to travel... is Cadillac style...". I liked those a lot.

    I don't like:
    - any SUV ad that shows the vehicle in the desert, the mountains, the wilderness, etc., since we all know that no one uses them for that anyway. ;-) Since all SUV ads do this, I don't like any of them.
    - the "zoom zoom" Mazda ads
    - the Aztek ads just for inflicting that ugliness onto the viewing public.
    - the latest Cadillac ad showing scens from the 50's and 60s is great, until they start showing the current ugly Caddy concept cars with their Blade Runner front ends. I imagine any Cadillac buyer will run and hide from those monstrosities.

    2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6

  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023
    ...with that guy that looks like Jerry Springer. I can't stand them!! They just look like they were assembled by an ad company full of techno-geek nerds!


    That Jerry Springer-looking dude just makes Dodges sound boring.


    BTW, here's a link to an old Dodge ad, which I think is kinda cool. It almost takes the same attitude as the Buick ad, basically saying quit playing around with toys and go get a REAL car! ;-)


    http://www.dodgedart.org/brochure/67drtad2.html


    -Andre

  • bdreggorsbdreggors Member Posts: 143
    That's actually Edward Hermann. He's not a bad actor, and he's been in a few made-for-TV moview and a few episodes of "Law & Order". LOL...he does look a *bit* like Jerry.

    Chevytruck_fan,
    If my memory serves me, the GMC spot began airing a few weeks ago and is still playing.

    Now, you know what would be really cool? If you could buy a videotape full of these car commercials from the 50s to present-day from Buick, Caddy, Lincoln, Dodge...whatever. I'm sure it would sell more than that other crap they sell on TV.
  • tincup47tincup47 Member Posts: 1,508
    is also a certified car nut. He does the voice overs for the History Channel's Automobile series. He also has restored a very nice pre-war Packard. I've also seen him on several programs on Speedvision about classic cars.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023
    I don't know if you still can get them, but a friend of mine has a fairly old tape with old car ads...lots of stuff from the 50's, 60's, and 70's.


    I think someone mentioned the VW commercial where everything...windshield wipers, blinkers, flashing lights, everything is moving to the groove of a slow techno beat.


    Well, Plymouth did something like that about 30-some-odd years ago, with a groovy little jingle that went something like "the Plymouth win-you-over beat goes on..." and they'd have the lights, turn signals, and other stuff moving to, as Bobby Brady might have said, a really neato out-of-this-world beat"


    I also remember the tape had Chevy doing some obnoxious "Champs of the Alcan run" jingle, and some little European car that hasn't been available here in ages (maybe a Fiat) that bragged about its "city" horn and its "country" horn.


    I'll try to find the name of the video, if anybody's interested. I've always liked DeSotos, but have never seen an old DeSoto commercial. Here's one of my favorite DeSoto ads though...from 1957...


    image

    It's just so downright rude, that I love it! I wonder if their tv commercials from 1957 reflected this bad-boy attitude!


    -Andre

  • scattershieldscattershield Member Posts: 11
    ohhh. Nice picture

    A few years back a camera centered on a full champagne glass while in the background an engine could be heard racing. As the camera view pulled back the glass and liquid, nary a ripple, were shown on the hood of an Infinity??? the RPMs rising. Very effective I thought.

    About a year later the same commercial. As the camera view pulled back the glass and liquid, nary a ripple, were shown on the hood of an Infinity?? the RPMs rising. BUT the camera kept pulling back and the Infinity was off the ground, seated on the bed of a Dodge pickup truck. I howled and clapped the first time I saw that.
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    That ad was for the early 60s Renault Dauphine.
  • wishnhigh1wishnhigh1 Member Posts: 363
    But I remember a number of comercials in the late eighties/early nineties that showed ball bearings rolling down the lines of a car. I never knew why that was so impressive. But I remember seeing more than one ad doing it. I wonder if it meant they had good fit and finish, like a bad car would make the balls bounce or something like that. I dont know...my limited history limits memory
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    That was Lexus' famous ball bearing commercial. I think Nissan or somebody copied it.
  • jkidd2jkidd2 Member Posts: 218
    What they were implying was that all the parts of the car fit perfectly, with no deviation in gap size of the body panels. Thought it was very clever. Lexus has either really great commercials or really bad ones.
  • ludacrisludacris Member Posts: 185
    I thought that was a Nissan Altima commercial with the ball bearing rolling smoothly through the body gaps. I'd like to see what happens if chevy did that lol

    can someone please explain to me the Infiniti commercial from the early 90s with just trees and water? i dont remember it...

    i dont like any ford focus commercials that try to make it look cool. like the one with the booming music while the car is being constructed on some rotating stage. that car is ugly and geeky
  • jkidd2jkidd2 Member Posts: 218
    hope all is well with you.

    You might be right....frankly I can't remember....I'm pretty sure it was Lexus...but someone else mentioned that there was another company that did the same thing...

    have a good weekend!
  • ludacrisludacris Member Posts: 185
    jkidd, i havent talked to u in a while : )
  • panamaltd2panamaltd2 Member Posts: 162
    Love the mazda zoom zoom commercial. It is real catchy and everyone I know likes it. Clever!
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    The Old Joe Isuzu Commercials were pretty funny. Sometimes they show them on TV Land as "Retro Commercials." I remember they had a controversial one where his grandmother is hit by lightning. From what I understand, they're bringing them back.
  • ineto6ineto6 Member Posts: 161
    Lexus had it first for the LS

    Nissan copied it for the Altima - just to show that you can get a luxury car for thousands less.
  • abbanatabbanat Member Posts: 57
    Stupidest current commercial:

    Ford Escape: "Burrito or Fajitas?, Burrito or Fajitas?" What the he** does that have to do with an Escape wheeling around on a semi-dry creek bed? Trying too hard to be '90s creative-cool. Ends up being Really Dumb.

    Best Commercial (I mentioned this one in the Honda shrinking appeal forum):

    Nissan Frontier jumping through a glass wall with the Stone Temple Pilots song exploding just as the Frontier breaks the glass. Makes me wanna crank up the TV and go buy a Frontier. By far the best right now.

    Zoom, zoom, zoom is also pretty good too. Especially for the MPV minivan.
  • ravvie4meravvie4me Member Posts: 110
    Actually, it wasn't ball bearings, it was the "champaigne (sp?) glasses stacked like a pyramid atop the hood while the drive wheels were on a roller and taken up to speed (like some emission testing stations) to show the lack of vibrations" ad that Nissan copied from Lexus. (Sorry, that's the best way that I could describe it)

    The new Acura TL Type-S ads are really annoying. They are on EVERY commercial break EVERY time my TV is on ("You up here on vacation?" Doofus replies "No. Lunch" and the SF/LA trip to meet GF for dinner). Plus the front end of that thing looks like a combo of last-gen Hyundai Sonata and current Toyota Corolla S, but that's another topic.

    That new Hyundai Tiburon commercial is bad too, but only because the car is FUGLY as sin. Having to look at it is punishment enough (ala Aztek).

    I like the new Camry commercial where the guy takes his wifes fur coat and washes his black Camry with it. Sure, it might be a take-off of the Passat commercial ("Get your own Passat"), but it helps to have a car that somebody actually wants, like the Camry, in the ad.
  • jkidd2jkidd2 Member Posts: 218
    I like the "Love is in the Air" commercials for the Camry....thought it was smart...everytime I see a Camry, I start singing that song out loud...which means, I sing it a lot!

    Remember the ES300 commercial with the guy driving around a building over and over, so he could see himself in the reflection of the building? Another good one from Lexus...

    Love the new TL-S, but the commercials are a bit on the pretentious side...I HATE the CL commercial with the couple in Palm Springs!

    I agree the Tiburon is an unattractive car, but I like the commercial where the guy picks up his bud and they try to take it out on the road and get blocked by traffic, etc....remember the "shark" commercials? ...thought those were clever too.
  • ineto6ineto6 Member Posts: 161
    Lexus/Nissan commercials... actually, both of them took place - the ball bearings running along the gaps around the car and the vibration of the engine with the champagne glasses. Nissan marketing copied both for the "new" Altima.

    I like the Camry commercial where the guy thought that "chics dig it".
  • bdreggorsbdreggors Member Posts: 143
    It's a cute commercial, playing on the Camry's bland side.
  • wishbone2001wishbone2001 Member Posts: 12
    The print ads for the 2002 Subaru WRX say, "We're not introducing it. We're unleashing it." Very poignant.

    The 3 tv ads communicate the spirit of rally driving on country roads, and the exhilirating power of the WRX in any condition. These are some of the best car ads I have seen. As they say at the end of one of the ads..."you can't touch this"

    Very well done, Subaru.
  • PF_FlyerPF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372
    I wasn't crazy about the SuperBowl commercial with the car stuck in the tree. I thought it was semi-clever at best!


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  • ls1v8ls1v8 Member Posts: 34
    If the car would have fallen on the marketing vp of VW or Dalmier(who copied the spot later on.)

    Cars are always falling out of trees here where I live.
  • tincup47tincup47 Member Posts: 1,508
    Interesting article on Auto ads


    http://www.auto.com/industry/goodcarad17_20010417.htm

  • jkidd2jkidd2 Member Posts: 218
    The new Frontier commercial where it breaks through the glass ROCKS!
  • kostamojen2kostamojen2 Member Posts: 284
    Ya, the WRX commercials are the best car commercials on the Air right now... Mostly cause its just the car FLYING around realistically with REALLY cool sound effects :D
    What more do you want? :)
  • ineto6ineto6 Member Posts: 161
    Gotta love that Nissan Maxima commercial
  • abbanatabbanat Member Posts: 57
    Nissan has got it with their truck ads. I even liked the "Dogs love trucks" ad.
  • PF_FlyerPF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372
    With visions of those Nissan "Enjoy the ride" commercials running through my brain, I thought... why not pick the best car commercials/ads of all time? (We can start on the postive side and get to the Clunker Awards after)

    So let's throw open nominations for Best Car Ad/Commercial ever...

    The GI Joe/Barbie ad ranks right up there for me... and I recall (I think it was) a Duster TV spot from the 70's where a guy's mother is talking about the car with the "torsion barbers for the superspension"...LOL

    But it should be intersting to see what everyone thinks!


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    Pickups & News and Views Message Boards
  • ineto6ineto6 Member Posts: 161
    Giving me some flashbacks to those old Mazda commercials - "Just one look" - yeah, I'll nominate those.

    I also nominate the car ads with Janine Turner :)
  • tincup47tincup47 Member Posts: 1,508
    "Dogs love trucks" commercials, Dogs didn't buy the trucks (and neither did their masters).
  • abbanatabbanat Member Posts: 57
    No commercial has ever made me buy a vehicle. Their only purpose is to create an image and let consumers know the vehicles exist.

    I never understood why Nissan trucks haven't sold as well as Toyota. They seem like good trucks, though I don't know that much about them.
  • ls1v8ls1v8 Member Posts: 34
    Where it is stomped flat by a large shoe. It slowly does a "Christine"... tire by tire, and shakes it off. Then continues to do figure eights on a white background.!! Forgot the tagline now. But it was memerable.

    My favorite ever is, and GM only aired it a handfull of times, the New 1998 Firebird Trans Am spot. It devorours an exotic car at a stop light...then Burps.!

    Didn't help sell any F-cars either. But it made me buy one!
  • jkidd2jkidd2 Member Posts: 218
    Is the VW Jetta add with the couple putting the tape in while driving through the French Quarter and every thing around them moves to the beat of the music. "That was weird"....There was a long and short version of the commercial. They rarely showed the longer version, but it was really cool

    I also liked the "Da-da-da" Golf commercial.

    Neither made me want to run out and buy a VW though.
  • roadroachroadroach Member Posts: 131
    Remember the old "black bird" commercials ('97?)for the TA before the one where it devours the red Lotus (?) at the light?

    I took part of in focus group for the marketing firm doing the new TA commercial for Pontiac in '98. They showed us three commercials: one was a continuation of the "black bird" theme and completely forgetable. The second was a takeoff on the "Godzilla" theme which was big at the time (tag line was something like "size DOES matter"). We thought it was kinda stupid. The third commercial was a lone TA at a light in the middle of nowhere. TA just sits there idleing ominously (rumparumparumpa) with the driver drumming his fingers on the wheel. Gooses the throttle (ROOOOMMPAAAAA rumparumparumpa ROOOOMMMMPAAAA). Light goes green and....well, you can guess the rest.

    We voted for number 3. I think the TA eating the red exotic at the light grew out of that one....
  • ls1v8ls1v8 Member Posts: 34
    "Almost Scary" 1998 (SuperBowl Ad)

    http://www.commercial-archive.com/data/p/pontiac00.html


    It was the pedicessor to the burp. But looks like the one your focus group saw before the final edits!

  • roadroachroadroach Member Posts: 131
    Pretty close. The one we saw didn't have the voice over. The tag line("muscle car lives..." etc) appeared as text at the bottom of the screen. The ONLY sound was that of the car. No announcer.....none of that "boo" junk.....just exhaust noise.

    Every guy in there kept wanting to crank up the sound on the TV. It almost sounded like a commercial for flowmasters....8^)
  • chevytruck_fanchevytruck_fan Member Posts: 432
    I just saw the latest CRV ad, the expect to sell cars with these ads? If its suppose to make a brand image they shure did it, boring.

    For cadillacs turnaround with their new products they should bring back Cadillac style theme song. What do you think?
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    Dinah Shore's "See the USA in your Chevrolet!" That was a very catchy, confident and powerful jingle. I sometimes catch myself whistling it from time to time. I've heard it used in recent Chevy commercials, but it is too muted with a male country-western voice. I wouldn't mind hearing it sung by, say Whitney Houston or Aretha Franklin, in a manner reminicent of Dinah Shore's style.
  • ls1v8ls1v8 Member Posts: 34
    can sell more cars than any media ad campaign. ;)
  • roadroachroadroach Member Posts: 131
    You mean like Smoky and the Bandit?

    8^)
  • ineto6ineto6 Member Posts: 161
    Yeah, kinda like that new movie to be released.. The fast and The furious - makes kids/kids-at-heart want to buy fancy sports/sporty cars. Just like Top Gun made some kids want to join the Navy/Air Force
  • hiwaysanityhiwaysanity Member Posts: 216
    get back aboard just one more time to watch a launch/recovery cycle.
  • ls1v8ls1v8 Member Posts: 34
    "And don't go home, and don't go to eat, and don't play with yourself. It wouldn't look nice on my highway."

    The only Carrier I was ever on/in was the Lexington. I was pulling 12 hour shifts. 6 pm to 6 am working in the engine/Boiler room. (Civilian contractor) Late at night, I would head up to the flight deck, from the bowls of that old WWII vessel. The ghosts and history of that place was humbling.
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