Mini crafts epic, awesome monster-truck adBy David Gianatasio on Tue Jan 18 2011Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! God, I wish the weekend were here. Mini spoofs monster-truck rallies to the max in this fun clip from Amsterdam shop BSUR. A five-ton mega-truck attempts to jump four Minis. This is presented in slow-mo 3-D in theaters (and 2-D elsewhere). The process was developed by eggheads at MIT, probably between designing micro-nuclear weapons for the Department of Defense and social games for Apple—or vice versa. The slow-mo effects in the pyrotechnic-laced, power-ballad-driven 1:30 spot allow us to savor lots of awesome details that otherwise would have sped by too quickly to be grasped the first time around. You gotta love the frenzied, fanatical white-trash crowd, especially the doughy dude who v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y spills his food all over himself and his drink on the woman in front of him. Other inspired touches include a guy in a chicken suit racing across the arena floor (in slow-mo!) and footage of the daredevil driver in the truck's cab gripping the wheel in abject terror (and in slow-mo!). This ad has me completely sold! I want to buy such a vehicle. A monster truck, I mean. I'd look so damn macho driving one of those bad boys to Whole Foods!
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Filed under Automotive, BSUR, Gianatasio, Mini
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Minis spawn and soar in trippy European adBy David Gianatasio on Thu Sep 9 2010You know that dream where you're driving around in Europe and every car on the road is a red BMW Mini? BSUR in Amsterdam captures that vision in this hypnotic spot for the four-door Countryman. You can't look away, but maybe you should, because other than the impressive visuals, there's scant payoff. The Minis leap and fly, by the way—in the commercial and my dreams. My therapist says dreaming of "Minis" symbolizes a certain type of inadequacy. Then he giggles. That's his idea of a little joke. In my case, very little! |
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Filed under Automotive, BSUR, Europe, Mini
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Mini races Porsche anyway, obviously losesBy Tim Nudd on Wed Jun 30 2010While we were up to our ears in Cannes coverage last week, it slipped our attention that Mini went ahead and raced Porsche at Road Atlanta, without the latter's involvement, having unsuccessfully bugged the luxury brand for weeks to take part. In the end, the Porsche 911 Carrera S beat the Mini Cooper S, though only by a few seconds. Porsche's absence makes the whole thing a bit specious, but they had to wrap up the campaign somehow. See the race footage below. The only remaining question is whether Mini will now race Hyundai, which obnoxiously elbowed in with its own challenge in the middle of Mini's campaign. |
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Filed under Automotive, Hyundai, Mini, Nudd, Porsche
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Mini/Porsche showdown a lot like 'Rocky IV'Posted on Thu Jun 17 2010Mini won't let up with its challenge to Porsche. First, it challenged Porsche to a race (the Cooper S against the 911 Carrera S). Porsche said no. So, Mini flew a taunting banner over Porsche's North American headquarters. That didn't get a rise out of Porsche at all. But now, the tension has reached Cold War proportions with the release of the video below—a spoof of Rocky IV, with Mini cast as Rocky and Porsche in the role of Ivan Drago. It's an amusing parody, though it could use an Apollo Creed character. Maybe Mercury? Via Jalopnik. —Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Filed under Automotive, Mini, Nudd, Parody, Porsche
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Porsche open to Mini's idea of having a racePosted on Tue Jun 8 2010Mini is challenging Porsche to a race. It's launched a Facebook campaign to suggest a showdown at the Road Atlanta course, two weeks from now, between its Cooper S model and Porsche's 911 Carrera S. The amusing part, as Jalopnik points out, is that the 172-horsepower Cooper S has all but no chance against the 385-horsepower Porsche 911, unless the Porsche is being driven by an elderly person. (Should the race happen, both brands will select a driver of their choice.) Anyway, Porsche tells Jalopnik it's actually considering the idea. "Porsche has the most racing victories of any manufacturer out there—28,000 and counting—maybe we should go for 28,001," the brand's media relations manager says. "We just need to see what they're up to." Mini, of course, which would be expected to lose, therefore has little to lose—and just comes off as good humored and fun loving. Check out Mini USA president Jim McDowell's formal challenge in the video below, and the brand's full-page print ad from The New York Times after the jump. UPDATE: Porsche says thanks but no thanks. —Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Filed under Automotive, Mini, Nudd, Porsche
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Expect the unexpected while riding in a MiniPosted on Fri Apr 9 2010Taxi2 in Toronto crafted self-consciously "wacky vignettes" in this Canadian campaign for the BMW Mini. In the best of the three spots, a guy hangs his head out the passenger window of a speeding Mini and "whoops" it up. His mustache and eyebrows fly off his face and on to a gal riding a scooter behind them. Both take this development in stride. The other two ads are after the jump. In one, a fat guy's man-boobs continue to jiggle even after his high-speed, tire-squealing, "Whoop! Whoop!" Mini ride ends. The driver pulls a great "disturbed" face, but I'm betting that deep down he's kind of intrigued. The man-baby buckled into a safety seat in the third spot personifies the target audience: immature, obnoxious men with nothing better to do than tear around town in Minis. —Posted by David Gianatasio
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Filed under Automotive, Canada, Gianatasio, Mini, Taxi
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An advergame shouldn't get you this upsetPosted on Wed Sep 10 2008
I have some issues with BMW's Mini Baby Racer Power Slide Parking advergame. The guys in the game—Hank, Otis, Mike and Pete—seem like scruffy slackers with nothing better to do than tool around in a kid's toy car and disrupt traffic. Sure, we'd all indulge in such arrested development if we could. Most of us can't. At least, I can't. And that's why I hate those four jerks and want them to die in fiery wrecks, rather than "park with precision and style," or what ever the object of the competition is. Oddly, there's a fiery explosion graphic at the start of the game (probably not the best choice for consumers concerned with safety), but the implied mayhem never materialized, at least in the three minutes I spent with the game before drooling with boredom. The experience begs one final question that I can sum up in a word: Otis? —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Filed under Advergames, Gianatasio, Mini
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