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

i_luv_toyota · March 2005

Speaking of Mitsubishi ads, if you thought yuppie couples were annoying, the ones with the friend are just as bad.

This guy brings his friend along with him to buy a new Eclipse. "So your finally buying a chick magnet" the friend says. The buyer brings up the engine, to which the friend replies "A V6 chick magnet!"

The buyer gets tired of the "chick magnet" references and walks away from his friend annoyed. The friend says something, while stroking his eyebrows, and a Mitsubishi service technician (mechanic) whispers "chick magnet" to him.

Why there was a mechanic in the showroom, I will never know. Mitsubishi ads sure are odd these days...

anythngbutgm · March 2005

Funny, because the Eclipse is more of a chick car than a Chick magnet... At least they are trying I guess.

gambit293 · March 2005

Lately I've been seeing Saab commercials about maintaining your individuality. While I admit that Saabs are not the most common car out there, I absolutely DESPISE all advertising that claims that buying/using/wearing/driving their product somehow makes you more independent or individual.

ab348 · March 2005

I may be alone in this, but the Mitsu ads from a couple of years ago with the modern music (like the one with the girl dancing in the passenger seat) were really pretty good by comparison. Wish they'd bring those back.

orangelebaron · March 2005

I go forward and reverse
forward and reverse

I go forward and reverse
forward and reverse

I go forward and reverse
forward and reverse

Kitty litter

orangelebaron · March 2005

The customer wants the safest car for his daughter he tells the salesman while they're sitting in what is obviously a CR-V (I can tell from the ugly seat fabric) and the salesman tells him to go to the Toyota dealer.

Oh yeahhhh.... RIGHT.... the RAV4 is so much sturdier and safer than a CR-V. THEY are BOTH TIN CANS!!! They are only as safe as what you get hit by!!!

If he's that concerned he should get her a Hummer so she can crush us while she talks to her friends about American Idol on her cel phone!

i_luv_toyota · March 2005

I actually do agree with you. I have always kind of liked their previous ads, especially compared to the current ads they have out. These current ads are almost Hyundai/Kia warranty-centric.

As far as to bring them back, that's debatable...

i_luv_toyota · March 2005

"Oh yeahhhh.... RIGHT.... the RAV4 is so much sturdier and safer than a CR-V. THEY are BOTH TIN CANS!!! They are only as safe as what you get hit by!!!"

Yeah, but they have a ton of airbags available to help combat that. They are both probably equal on the safety scale. My 2000 RAV4 feels safe to me, so I would think the later models would be at least a little better, considering the generational change.

And with a teenage daughter, that's especially important considering how they drive, LOL!

orangelebaron · March 2005

"Maintain Your Identity" ???

Ummmmm... first you get bought out by GM...
Then they get rid of your hatchbacks
Then they stick your name on a Subaru
and they tell us you still have an identity???

badgerfan · March 2005

Has anyone happened to notice the Pontiac G6 TV ad which shows the pretty young, tight business suit clad woman get into her G6, with an audio commentary as if she is about to launch it like a NASA space flight? She turns the key, hits the gas, and the ad shows both the Tachometer AND THE SPEEDOMETER nearly peg themselves. Just how do you manage to get your speedometer to peg when the car is sitting in the parking lot and hasn't moved even an inch, except in a rigged ad?

PF_Flyer · March 2005

Hey, this must be our St patrick's Day eve chat!!!

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The MEMBER to MEMBER Chat is on tonight. Hope to see YOU there! Check out the schedule

speterson1 · March 2005

Lexus gets my vote as the weirdest ad lately - a lady in black spandex descends into a room on a wire system a la Mission Impossible, then a translucent spider web type thingy opens up and she pushes an ignition switch, which then takes the viewer to the same switch in the new Lexus.

Car looks nice, but I can't imagine what point they're trying to get across. The new Lexus is a spider which will suck you in? International superspies and cat burglers - this is the car for you? No idea, strange ad.

pillager · March 2005

Hey Cousin'

The race between Grand Cherokee and BMW must have been like a turtle vs a panther, enit? Awesome. Hope to see volcano ash soon.

tmart · March 2005

where black cars start entering a traffic circle and fill it up. Camara pulls back and it becomes a phono turntable, complete with tone arm. Don't really care for Chevys, but the ad is awesome.

badgerfan · March 2005

Only problem with that ad is that a lot of the younger generation hardly knows what a record looks like unless their parents showed them.

davem2001 · March 2005

good point!

tmart · March 2005

typo on camera.

andre1969 · April 2005

the "Fake Mini" commercials yet? I first noticed a flyer that came in the mail, warning that the market was getting flooded with a glut of impostor Mini Coopers. At first it looked all official and such, but then I opened it up and they showed all sorts of hysterical stuff like a 1974 or so Dart with "Mini Cooper S" lettering pasted on the back. The copy underneath read something like "At first glance, this is a very close replica of a Mini Cooper S. But the astute observer will note that the Mini Cooper S has two exhaust pipes, not one. And they are at the center of the car. Not off to the side. Or dragging on the ground."

They also had an old Lincoln Mark IV with a big Mini Cooper badge on the front, and the copy read "sometimes an oversized logo can make a large car appear to be smaller. This particular example almost slipped past un-noticed, until an observer happened to take a tape measure to it"

The other night I saw a commercial, and it was pretty funny. They tried to back some big 60's battlecruiser into a parallel spot that, in all seriousness, a real MINI would probably have a problem with, and it took out one of the parked cars! Then they showed a MINI zipping through a slalom course of road cones. Then along comes the Mark IV, and it just plows them all down.

Pretty cute overall, even if it is poking fun at the types of cars that I love! :shades:

i_luv_toyota · April 2005

I find these latest commercials featuring these kids making parents feel guilty if they did not by a GM car with OnStar very annoying.

One part of the commercial that annoys me the most is when one of the kids says, "Who's gonna tell you if the Check Engine light is something serious, or nothing at all?" The reason it annoys me is for one, why would a kid care about what lights up on the dashboard, and two, a CEL means nothing but a loose gas cap like 99% of the time anyway. It should be a "Check Gas Cap" light instead.

But, yeah, I'm all for the elimination of using kids in car ads all together. Glad Mazda got the memo, apparently GM must have lost it...

gambit293 · April 2005

Yup... reminds me of those JIF peanut butter commercials. "Moms that care pick JIF..."

Talk about exploitive.

john_324 · April 2005

...of being a performance car fan...I never notice any ad that features minivans, children, the words "3rd row seating" or any talk of how many cupholders the vehicle contains...

On the other hand, my first thought when seeing the new Pontiac G-6 ads was "can the exhaust note really sound that good??"

lhess · April 2005

where the couple competes to see who can get ready for work first and drive the Mariner (I think that's the right vehicle - the car does nothing for me, just think the commercial is cute). She sleeps in her work clothes one night so when he hops in the shower, she's in the mariner...It's lighthearted, no whiney kids in the commercial...fun for a change!!

seminole_kev · April 2005

http://counterfeitmini.org/

utter · April 2005

That is a good one. I also enjoy the VW ad that has the man dancing through the street to the "singing in the rain" rip-off. Pretty entertaining.

loncray · April 2005

My favorite car ad to this day, some 6 or 7 years later, is that Jetta ad in which everything starts working in synch with the Jetta's windshield wipers. It was simple, quiet, no kids, and fascinating!

Of course, I grew up with those Doyle Dane Bernbach VW ads - like the two tire tracks in the snow, and 'How does the snowplow driver get to work?'. I cannot name an ad campaign, for any product, that is as quietly effective as those.

utter · April 2005

Sounds so familiar...wish we had some linkies.

"My favorite car ad to this day, some 6 or 7 years later, is that Jetta ad in which everything starts working in synch with the Jetta's windshield wipers. It was simple, quiet, no kids, and fascinating!"

gambit293 · April 2005

This much I can tell you:

The song was Da Da Da by Trio. (in the Jetta commercial)

seminole_kev · April 2005

I really liked the "wedding day" ad they had for the Jetta a couple of years ago. Had great music (was by a guy who goes under both "Spy" and "J.Ralph") and was just very interesting.

It's in a serious tone and you think the guy is late to his own wedding (giving marketing a chance to show the Jetta's power) but when he finally gets there, it appears he's trying to interupt the wedding because he loves the girl. Of course you could probably see it a couple of different ways, but that was my take on it.

Great commercial.

fintail · April 2005

The Tacoma commercial where the guy has this small truck with a lawnmower engine is pretty funny...just for the little trusk used. The outright admission of overcompensation as a reason to buy the Tacoma is lame, but that tinny little truck cracked me up...I think it was a converted Yugo.

anythngbutgm · April 2005

What's the deal with the G6 commercial claiming it has "more standard Base V6 horsepower than a Nissan Altima"??? The "Base" VQ6 is at 240 and the SE-R is 255. The G6 is 200?

Sorry, the G6 wouldn't stand a chance against an Altima (or Accord for that matter). The Nissan would run circles around that hunk O' garbage without question.

davem2001 · April 2005

They must be comparing a "base" G6 to a "base" 4-cylinder Altima which has 175hp. Any company has lawyers, fact checkers, etc.. review an ad before it goes on the air, they aren't going to blatantly lie about something that is factual.

loncray · April 2005

No, the Da Da Da music was a different commercial - the two college kids with the little plastic puppet thing, and the chair they pick up by the side of the road, then drop off. The music is I think called 'Synch', and I've seen the music linked on the VW website, but I can't find the commercial itself anyplace.

i_luv_toyota · April 2005

Those ads focus mostly on gimmicks like the remote start and the multi-paneled moonroof. Many people can live without these features, which seem so important to Pontiac ad execs.

Another OnStar annoyance, the HotButton. I am particularly aggravated by the one where the person working at a space station ready to launch a space shuttle by pushing a button, but then stops just before actually pushing it. Then the announcer says something like, "Save that push for something really important" and then goes on about a lease deal on a lame base-model Malibu. Like leasing a car the government already has plenty of is more important than launching a space shuttle. Gimme a break, please.

And the song, "Push It" by Salt n Peppa (yes, that's how it's spelled) doesn't help matters much either, as the song was annoying when it came out more than a decade ago and still is to this day.

i_luv_toyota · April 2005

Those late '90's VW Jetta ads were probably the only ads I've actually ever liked, especially the one mentioned with everything being in synch with sweeping wipers and blinking turn signals. Ah, I'm sad those days have passed.

My favorite ads now are the "Moving Forward" truck ads by Toyota, in particular the one where they get a Tundra and the boat in tow airborn. The ads for their cars aren't nearly as good.

davem2001 · April 2005

You get posts like the one above (#2385)- they hate a brand so much that even that brand's advertising is terrible - yet, I'd say to the average person, all car ads are pretty much the same, and not too much different from an ad for beer or toothpaste or deodorant. They all have music in them (of course "my brand" has good music and the brand I hate doesn't! LOL!). They sometimes try to have humor in them.
People forget, the car companies don't make these ads. They hire an ad agency...maybe the same ad agency that makes that terrible commercial for the brand you hate maybe also makes the great ad for the brand you love.

lemko · April 2005

...Mitsubishi had pretty good music in some of its recent ads but I wouldn't be caught dead near any Mitsu dealer. Nissan had the clever toy 300ZX commercials about ten years ago. Cadillac's ads really work well as I like both Cadillac and Led Zeppelin.

lhess · April 2005

I think Caddy has some of the best ads out there. I really liked the one where the guy traveled through time and saw all the past cars and when it got to the current, the butt-kickin' music cranked up. I won't be caught driving a Caddy until I'm about 80!!

gambit293 · April 2005

Well...it's not as if a car manufacturer has nothing to do with the ad creation. The maker still greenlights the ad and/or lays out the theme for a large national campaign.

davem2001 · April 2005

sure, whatever ----"My" car company makes great ads and the ones I hate just coincidentally make terrible ads...

danf1 · April 2005

commercial pulling the Escalade and boat out of the lake is a good one. I'm not a fan of Lincoln, but I like the ad.

anythngbutgm · April 2005

A similar one existed last year for the F250 pulling a Chevy pickup out from a botched boat launch.

Girl in Ford: "Wow, that sunk fast"

Guy in Ford: "Like a rock"

andre1969 · April 2005

that VW "Da-Da-Da" commercial came out the same night that Ellen Degeneris did! :P

Hey, speaking of old VW commercials, wasn't there one where that had Speed Racer in it? IIRC, he traded in the Mach V for a new Jetta, and they showed him racing around with Spritle and Jim-Jim in the trunk, which was much more commodious than the Mach V's? I kinda remember him knocking the Scooby gang in their Mystery Machine off the road in a fiery wreck, but I might be getting a VW ad and a Cartoon Network plug mixed up! :shades:

gambit293 · April 2005

I'm not sure exactly what you are referring to. I was commenting on a car maker's role in advertising.

If you are saying that I am biased against and for certain make's commercials, that's not true. I bash many lame commercials equally!

Or are you referring to I_luv_toyota's post? If I recall, he/she has bashed toyota commercials repeatedly in this forum.

lemko · April 2005

...I remember that Jetta ad. Pretty clever! The Jetta was drawn in the same style as was the Mach V to match the animation.

tmart · April 2005

where the diver swims through a shaft and pushes a start button or the one where a climber drills through a wall of ice and finds and pushes the start button. The car is nice, but I just don't get the commercial.... :confuse: Oh well.

john_324 · April 2005

Speaking of incomprehensibility, anyone remember those odd-ball first Infiniti ads (when the line was first introduced) that featured only pictures of rocks, trees, water, but not of the cars/people driving them?

utter · April 2005

"commercial pulling the Escalade and boat out of the lake is a good one. I'm not a fan of Lincoln, but I like the ad."

Saw that the other day. I agree, cool idea.

gambit293 · April 2005

I wasn't quite paying attention, but I think I just saw a Chevy commercial comparing the Equinox to the Lexus RX.

It talked about having more rear-room in the Equinox and ended by saying the Equinox is 11k cheaper. What an inane commercial! Nothing against the Equinox (actually I like neither the Eq nor the RX) but who would honestly be cross-shopping these two in the first place?

Please correct me if I misheard the models.

anythngbutgm · April 2005

Oh I've got to see that one... Putting an Equinox up against a Lexus RX is definitely stretching a bit.

Also noticed they modified the G6 ad to "You won't find more standard horsepower in an Altima 2.5". And for 6 grand less I wouldn't expect to...

hiker25 · May 2005

commercial shows guy putting phone down next to exhaust of his car, then going iunto the car and revving the engine...then comes out and says into the phone
" cool, huh ?! "

kinda nice...and to the point.

Like the ad in some magazines, that shows a sexy girl, who says

" I have needs too" and it is an ad about Triumph motorcycles...
oops...it is about motorcycles, not cars...welll...sorry.

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

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