Old people can parallel park in Volkswagens
In this German spot (posted below) by Grabarz & Partner for Volkswagen's parking-assist feature, a granny deftly parallel parks a Passat. Or does she? In the middle of the process, the plucky senior morphs into a stubbly-faced young guy in a granny wig, then changes back again. Gramps in the passenger seat seems surprised. This commercial probably passes for a laugh riot in Germany, where droopy bratwurst on a Saturday night is considered real funny stuff. Actually, the ad scores because it's quirky enough to be memorable, without being ridiculously forced or over the top. For that, the Germans have Rammstein. Via The Denver Egotist. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on December 8, 2009 | Permalink
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Kia hamster show begging for a few nibbles
The six episodes in Kia's "Moochie" branded-content Web series have garnered a combined 100,000-plus YouTube views in about two months. So, there must be some tired click-fingers over at ad agency David&Goliath, which created this sub-sitcom about three goofy twentysomething quasi-losers and their wisecracking, animatronic hamster. (Matt Lenski of Epoch Films directed.) The first spot is posted below. If you think the premise sounds stupid, you're right. It's stoopid with a capital "stoop." That said, even as my precious few brain cells squeaked, rodent-like, in agony, I watched the show all the way to the end, because I had to know if Moochie gets a heart transplant and lives! C'mon, no episode of House has been worth finishing in the past three years! (You know, come to think of it, there could be crossover possibilities, as shaggy, beady-eyed Hugh Laurie looks like a hamster at times.) The opening image of Moochie rising from a sea of cheeseballs gave me nightmares, but at least I finally remembered to clean those old glue-traps out of my kitchen cabinets. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on December 8, 2009 | Permalink
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Michelin Man a friend to roadkill everywhere
The bulked-up Michelin Man gets really superhero-like in this new spot (posted below), the second in a new global campaign from TBWA\Chiat\Day, following the earlier "Gas Pump ad. This time, Bibendum saves a purple bunny from getting smooshed on the pavement like its less fortunate forest-mates. The Psyop-animated spot says Michelin tires stop up to 14 feet shorter than those of the competition. ("At what speed?" you might ask, but get no answer.) Frankly, the way that rabbit struts out into traffic, he had it coming. Bibendum is almost godlike here, reviving the crushed critters—which look more like gremlins than woodland creatures—so they can continue to dig up gardens and get snared in hunters' traps. Thanks, Bibendum! That's his name, it's true. I would've guessed Frank.
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Published on December 7, 2009 | Permalink
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Nissan's hamster-wheel guy is going places
How does the guy in this Nissan spot from TBWA Toronto (directed by Mark Ziebert) get from place to place in his giant rodent wheel? It's clearly stationary, not a mode of transportation at all. Does he take it apart and reassemble it in various locations during the day? If it's a metaphor, that's even worse, because I always interpret metaphors incorrectly. Let's see, his soul-crushing struggle with the wheel means he's … I dunno, happy? Whatever the case, he'd better get ready to really fly. The giant hamsters from the Kia Soul ad are in hot pursuit. They want their wheel back. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on December 4, 2009 | Permalink
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My name is Ram, and my ad is too repetitive
The old Dodge Ram is now simply called Ram. You may or may not have gleaned this fact from the spot above, in which we learn, via a little personification poem, that yes, the truck is named Ram. The ad is courtesy of The Richards Group, and the voiceover is supposedly Stan Richards. The whole thing defies your average truck-guy stereotypes in a number of ways. For instance, I was unaware that manly truck guys enjoy Walt Whitman-like free verse. (The whole thing is rather close in spirit to Levi's new "Go forth" campaign.) And then there's the still photography. I would have thought truck guys would want at least one shot of the Ram actually moving. Maybe hauling some crap? Plowing through some mud in slow motion? There are moments of great inspiration here, but the problem is the repetition. "My tank is full" is repeated a full four times. Multiply that by six commercial breaks, and tell me if you don't want to apply something directly to your forehead. And is the fullness of the tank even something you want to harp on? At 14 mpg in the city, it won't be full for long. —Posted by Rebecca Cullers
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Published on December 2, 2009 | Permalink
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With no Interstate battery, you're on thin ice
In a new campaign, Firehouse positions Interstate car batteries as "outrageously dependable." But the spots aren't really outrageous. By today's wacky standards, they're pleasantly restrained. The "Pinball" spot (below) makes good use of its minute-long running time to build suspense and get viewers hoping that maybe, just maybe, the dude can get his car started and avoid the seemingly inevitable collision with the vehicle sliding his way. Even if, like me, you were rooting for a crash (after Black Friday, I have no goodwill left toward men), the ad's still effective. Same goes for the second spot, which shows a hippie/IT type guy struggling to get into his car, which is sandwiched into a parking-lot space. Life clearly let this guy down. The last thing he needs is his car doing the same.
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Published on November 30, 2009 | Permalink
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VW driving rival engineers to seek new jobs
These Canadian Volkswagen ads from Palm + Havas use understated humor to tell the tales of auto engineers driven from the business after being unable to compete against the VW Golf. The model's back, much to the dismay of these type-A personalities. Yurie (above) seems a bit unbalanced at the hotel she opened in Japan, obsessively arranging colorful origami cars, one of which she angrily crumples up as she glares at a Golf that tools by. I'd check in somewhere else, just to be safe! Also bearing grudges: Enzo (below), who sails tourists around Italy, and Nigel, who owns a bookshop in England. Look, these sore losers all have saner, lower-stress lives since leaving the car business, so they should be thankful, not bitter. And frankly, if their designs couldn't beat out that middling machine, they must've been crappy engineers! Via Ads of the World.
Previously on AdFreak:
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Published on November 19, 2009 | Permalink
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So, tell me again why vampires like Volvos?
Of all the inexplicable tie-ins, I would never have guessed Volvo and Twilight. The rationale is that Volvo keeps you safe, and vampires keep you safe! Well, not vampires in general, just Edward the Shiny. And how does Edward keep you safe? Well, he cares enough to drive a car meant for middle-aged women. Now, I'm not a Twi-hard or a Twi-hater, but this is possibly one of the worst collaborations I've seen since My Own Worst Enemy turned out to be GM's worst enemy. When the Twilight commercial I thought I was watching magically turned into a Volvo commercial, I knew it was going to be bad. I was right. They directed me to a Web site, WhatDrivesEdward.com, where I stared into Edward's sulky eyes and was asked to solve a six-part puzzle for a chance to win the same Volvo he drives in the movie. At that point, it was over between Volvo and me. But I wish Volvo (and agencies Euro RSCG 4D and Arnold) lots of luck in their attempt to convince moms to make major purchases based on the lust-crazed whims of their teenage daughters. —Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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Published on November 16, 2009 | Permalink
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BMW goes balls-out for 5 Series teaser spot
This teaser spot for BMW's redesigned 5 Series is subtle, beautiful and surprisingly shot right in the automaker's own museum without CGI trickery. It was created using the BMW Museum's kinetic sculpture installation in Munich, an exhibit designed by Berlin agency Art + Com and awarded best of show at the One Show Design awards earlier this year. To see more than just a silhouette of the new sedan, you'll need to wait until Nov. 23, when BMW will broadcast the unveiling live on BMW.tv. —Posted by David Griner
Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on November 11, 2009 | Permalink
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1993 Taurus a great car for today, says Ford
Great fake press conference here from The Onion, in which a Ford exec explains why the '93 Taurus is the best vehicle for today's cash-strapped consumers. If the $650 price tag doesn't grab you, surely the free cassette tape of Primus's Sailing the Seas of Cheese will. Via Consumerist. |
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Published on November 5, 2009 | Permalink
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Ford pushes balloons-for-clunkers program
The balloon-boy saga brought to mind the 2007 commercial above from Ogilvy London for the Ford Mondeo, showing people across London (a city made bleaker than usual by the Michael Andrews song "The Artifact and Living") attaching balloons to their crappy old cars and send them skyward, preferring the snazzy Mondeo instead. The ad has a nice spooky vibe, though the physics seem questionable. The spot aired in the U.K. but was also exported to New Zealand—where JWT, not Ogilvy, had the Ford account. In a cheeky move, the JWT creatives responded with their own video, posted below, in which two dudes attempt to float their own junker away with a bunch of helium balloons. |
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Published on October 16, 2009 | Permalink
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Italian car fights space-invader oil creatures
Continuing today's somewhat unintentional Columbus Day theme of ads from Italy (the birthplace of the man himself, whose achievements we cannot otherwise celebrate because we are working), here's a spot from agency Saffirio Tortelli Vigoriti for the Alfa Romeo MiTo, an automobile that performs at its best when battling vicious oil drums and gas pumps advancing in Space Invaders formation on the tops of skyscrapers. It's impressively shot, and the laser-cannon headlamps certainly are a nice product feature. It's recommended that you purchase two MiTos and drive them side by side, for increased firepower during the bonus round. |
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Published on October 12, 2009 | Permalink
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Ford faring better than Skoda out in the wild
Automakers Ford and Skoda take somewhat similar approaches in new print campaigns for the Ranger and Yeti models, respectively, but the results are markedly different. Ogilvy London's pulp-magazine-style work for Ford (above) is fun and over-the-top but not forced. You can imagine the vehicles taking part in the action. On the other hands, the Skoda campaign from Italy (below), by agency Cayenne Milan, unwisely links drinking and driving with its "Love it on the rocks" headline and scenes in a martini glass. (You could wind up stranded on a floating block of ice after a few too many, and no yeti will come to your rescue!) Also, Skoda tries to have it both ways, presenting pristine mountains, ice floes and cutesy animals in ads for a carbon-belching truck. Ford seems more honest, portraying the Ranger as "taming" nature and generally running amok in the wild. Plus, King Kong could kick some polar-bear butt any day. Via Ads of the World.
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Published on October 12, 2009 | Permalink
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The perfect car for enormous love monsters
About 15 seconds into this commercial for Spanish automaker Seat, by ad agency Atletico International in Barcelona, I was feeling a lot of love for the advertiser. This is a kooky, almost magical spot—a tad long, perhaps, and hokey, but riveting and heartfelt. And I must admit, I never saw the big musical finish coming. Best of all, it's not just entertaining. It actually communicates a brand message, distills product attributes and addresses potential buyers' specific concerns (like having enough room in the car for growing families). I'd buy a car from Seat's giant puppet monster over GM corporate puppet Ed Whitacre any day! Via Ads of the World. |
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Published on September 16, 2009 | Permalink
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Subaru protects you from gimpy hitchhikers
Channeling The Hitcher (the good version from the '80s), this Australian spot by Leo Burnett for the Subaru Liberty GT is more setup than payoff, but it still offers some good dark-night, deserted-road, that-limping-hitchhiker-is-a-maniac fun. I never saw the punch line coming. That's not to say there's an OMG/WTF twist. There are no motorcyclists dropping from the skies. (That only happens in Norway.) Here, we get an effective denouement in keeping with the tone of the ad: The scary drifter gets spooked and won't climb in the car. Did I spoil the ad for you? That's OK. Imagine what will happen to the non-Subaru driver who stops to pick the guy up. Like the tagline says: "Not for the faint of heart." |
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Published on September 10, 2009 | Permalink
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Re-ignition spot is no giant leap for Cadillac
Modernista! blasts off in this Cadillac commercial called "Re-Ignition" to launch some new cars, including the CTS Coupe, which is available next summer. The cinematic spot is extremely well executed. The problem, at least for me, is a conceptual disconnect. Caddy is touting sleek, high-tech vehicles, so why use 1960s Apollo-era concepts in its ad pitch? Heck, the ad's even a month late in capitalizing on the 40th anniversary of the first manned moon landing. The morphing cars mimic the stages of a rocket blasting into space; but I doubt most folks, even from my generation, will remember that. And if they do, it will make them feel old, or maybe wistful at best, but probably not like buying a new car. The space program was hip in the Mad Men era, and for pop-culture and marketing purposes, became obsolete shortly after it was used to sell Tang. Sigh, I'm old, gray and ancient. Like moon rocks. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on September 1, 2009 | Permalink
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Don Draper covetously eyes BMW's 3 Series
Because the world needed more people talking about Mad Men, BMW sponsored the season premiere and put together this classy, mostly period-accurate ad for Vanity Fair, from GSD&M Idea City and photographer Anton Watts. But as Jalopnik points out, Don Draper drives a Cadillac Coupe de Ville. He certainly wouldn't drive the car featured in that ad. That thing might as well have been a spaceship in the early '60s. Of course, we could see these kinds of anachronisms more often if BMW gives the show any more money. Mad Max Men, here we come! See also: |
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Published on August 24, 2009 | Permalink
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It's always a long, strange trip in a Peugeot
Yeah, this Psyop-crafted Peugeot spot by BETC Euro RSCG in Paris is one mellow trip. You lose touch with reality, believe it's a warm and sunny day when it's actually cold and stormy outside. You groove to a tune on the radio that, despite its mid-tempo mediocrity, winds up pleasantly lodged in your head all day. Ultimately, you drive in circles, creating a visual joke that seems off-point for a car commercial, but kind of cool nonetheless. This is Peugeot. This is your brain on Peugeot. Man, I've got the munchies. I don't even care that they misspelled "responsibility" at the end? Who cares about responsibility? Fried eggs would be perfect right about now. A similarly themed effort by DDB for Volkswagen made me crave lamb chops. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on August 13, 2009 | Permalink
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Enjoy the bright side of life in a Volkswagen
DDB London and director Noam Murro suggest "Positive Thinking" in this musical European spot (above) for the Volkswagen Passat. The song reminds me of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" (below) from Monty Python's Life of Brian. That sing-along by the crucified still seems good-naturedly sacrilegious three decades later. The VW tune's not bad, but the guy in the ad hasn't really had such a rough day, so he just comes off like a whiner doing a bad Michael Caine impression. Or maybe it's Anthony Newley. Our hero can always sell his Passat to pay the bills. Those sheep in the butcher truck have a lot worse coming to them. Positive thinking won't save them from winding up hoof-deep in mint jelly. |
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Published on July 13, 2009 | Permalink
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Fiat makes green pitch via crash-test panda
I'm kind of surprised this (literally) panda-bashing Fiat ad from Marcel Paris hasn't sparked any significant outrage yet. Quite the opposite: It won a gold Lion at Cannes. If they wanted to demonstrate a truly low impact on the environment, couldn't they have given the panda a helmet or football pads or something? As it is, this is just cruel. And kind of adorable. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on June 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Audi does not want your stinking foreign oil
Oh, how I remember those slick Oil Parades of my childhood, when I'd barrel home to gasoline alley. ... OK, that's enough. Let's slam the brakes on the silly wordplay (had to slip in one more) to consider this "Oil Parade" spot from Venables Bell & Partners touting Audi's TDI diesel-powered cars. There are oil barrels, lots of them, shown rolling down the country roads and city streets of our great land, onto a tanker that will apparently transport them back across the sea to where they came from. Yes, we'd be free from the tyranny of foreign oil. Still, I'll be sad to see them go. Drums are the best part of any parade. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on June 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Attractive women quite adept at selling cars
Speaking of suggestive, car advertising sure was filthy in the 1960s. Jalopnik has come up with a list of Ten Highly Suggestive Automotive Print Ads, and most of the (dis)honorees are from the era when the standard of female beauty was Nancy Sinatra and copywriters could get away with saying things like "she costs so little to keep happy" while comparing a car to a woman. There's also a German Matchbox ad in here, which shouldn't count as an auto ad and frankly weirds us out because Matchbox cars are for children. But at least that ad features a girl who's sexier than the car next to her. Big hair and heels can't compete with the Jaguar E-Type. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on June 24, 2009 | Permalink
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Mercedes gladly smashes up own museumThis Mercedes-Benz ad from Merkley + Partners is extremely well edited and directed. Almost the entire 30 seconds are a prelude to the 2010 E-Class crashing through the clear wall of the automaker's museum in Germany to "take its rightful place" beside vintage models. The museum looks intriguingly retro-futuristic from the outside. Inside, it's just a roomful of old cars. Why smash through the glass at all? Perhaps it's road rage related to plummeting sales. Flying splinters, screaming treads, a car screeching to a full stop indoors—such havoc could turn off potential buyers. And yet, that makes the spot subversive and edgy, and the car, by extension, cool. So, ultimately, the ad is asking if I'm subversive, edgy and (dare I say it?) cool enough to buy a car that's subversive, edgy and cool enough to be driven through a window. Damn right I am, Mercedes! Hondas are for wimps who like to drive outside on the road. |
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Published on June 22, 2009 | Permalink
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Car ads not lacking for hot 'spokescougars'
Older, sexually aggressive women, known as "cougars," are hot right now. Well, they always have been. But they're also popular with advertisers, who've been using them to shill cars as of late. Jalopnik's selection of the hottest automotive spokescougars features Brooke Shields (who has been hot for most of her professional life), Jill Wagner (who shouldn't even count because she's only 30) and Kim Cattrall (who isn't Samantha Jones, no matter how hard she tries), among others. Our vote goes to the i-Miev Mom, but only because we've never heard of her and, consequently, aren't tired of seeing her already. Plus, there's just something about the way she handles that electrical plug. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on June 18, 2009 | Permalink
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Ad parody gets even more honest about GMApparently, a slick video montage doesn't quite convince everyone that General Motors can claw its way out of the abyss and return to its former glory. Current TV's "InfoMania" show created this spoof (which has a bit of salty language up front) to highlight just how much random window dressing GM puts on an ad that's supposed to be frank and to the point. I'd love to see what clips got cut in editing. I think it could have ended a lot stronger with Mount Rushmore, sad clown, iron girder, Woody Guthrie, gold miner, tombstone, zombie hand. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on June 16, 2009 | Permalink
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