Disappointed that this commercial made it to air, as it is not in keeping with the quality of work BMW usually puts out. There are plenty of ways to illustrate "accept no substitute," without resorting to this.
Ungrateful child shops with mom for a toy train. He will only accept the top-of-the-line expensive train. Flash forward to his teen years and the 80s bedecked ass has his eye on the Les Paul when his dad wants to buy the less expensive guitar. Now he is an adult and growing up rich and demanding has taught him that he will accept only that which he has set his greedy, little childish heart on.
BMW isn't known for doing humor, but they've done it well in this ad for their "pre-owned" vehicles. Wish I knew the agency, not that it matters. And for all I know this is an old ad, though I'd never seen it until this morning. Rather, I wish I knew the writers. They've sold the lasting value of a BMW while poking fun at the prestige. I'm not sure of the relationship between the dad and the scout leader in this spot, but they could be taken for exes as her contempt for him seems born of familiarity.
'Course, I'm predisposed to like most things BMW does, as I've always lusted for their cars. They just seem...I don't know...tighter?
If you watch Mad Men, there's no mistaking the voice now heard as the pitchman for Mercedes. Whether or not it's as good a voice as their former epic-sounding guy I don't think is even debatable. The previous guy lent a weight and authority to Mercedes that the actor Jon Hamm lacks. (Some say the former VO guy was Richard Thomas, aka John-boy Walton.) Hamm sounds wimpy in comparison, like he's not even sure he believes in this product, sort of like he's playing that wishy-washy Don Draper, who just bumbled into the studio when the real voiceover guy was sick and volunteered to read the script. And the scripts aren't helping him at all. I heard one last night where they actually used that lamest of lame lines, "The question is not whether you can afford to drive a Mercedes Benz, but whether you can afford NOT to," with, naturally, an image of a child in the backseat. Translation: "Drive a Mercedes or your kid DIES!"
My first car was a Toyota, a hand-me-down Celica from my Dad. It wasn't mine for very long before I fell asleep at the wheel and rolled it on I-5 in San Diego early one morning. I promptly replaced it with another used Celica, this one a little newer and with one more gear. Since then I've owned two more Toyotas and there's one in the driveway right now. I've been a loyalist I suppose, and have always trusted the company to make long-lasting, reliable vehicles. If I could afford to, I would pay way too much money to own one of the original Land Cruisers, before Land Cruiser got all snotty and shiny and became the preferred truck of snotty, shiny women carting their kids to school.
So now they're recalling how many cars? 8 million? And deaths can be attributed to some manufacturing flaws? How do you rebound from that? Toyota is all over the news in the most embarrassing way a manufacturer can be in the news, with many wondering if they'll ever recover from this blow. In Japan it is being seen as the prelude to the country's post-industrialization era. And while I agree with the company's policy of public apology, (very Japanese of them) I don't like this spot much. They want to "restore your faith in our company" says the voiceover guy who received the following direction: "We need you to sound like you're very sorry, like you're almost crying, like a married politician who got busted having an affair."
Nonetheless, I don't know how you could've done this ad better. They tell the story of a company with a heritage of quality that majorly fucked up and is now working like dogs to fix their fuck-ups and get out of the doghouse. Well, you might've given your voiceover guy a little less simpering wimp intonation and let him read it differently, but whatever, voiceover guys are a dime a dozen. They can easily replace the audio track.
When you search Toyota on YouTube, you'll find the company has bought the top listing. Another wise move. And leave it to the YouTube comment "community" to let Toyota know how they feel:
"...you can not hide 20 deaths and call your product HIGH QUALITY."
"BUY AMERICAN!"
"Remember Pearl Harbor!"
I can see a day when this bad season is behind Toyota and they are back in form, winning our trust again, but it's going to take something really awesome, like an electric car that goes 500 miles on a charge. Or a jetpack.
Too often, advertisers for cars don't even try anymore. Find a song you like and put some images up. Done. For instance, Spoon for Jaguar. Or more currently, Phoenix's "1901" being used by Cadillac. Lincoln is triple dipping these days, putting Shiny Toy Guns cover of "Major Tom" to work for the MKZ, Cat Power's cover of "Space Oddity" for the MKS, and here's one for the MKT, trying to get into the heads of people who remember this song.
It is a good song, but this cover by Sia is a little on the anemic side.
Here's the real one, from The Church, 1989. I'm glad these long forgotten Aussie boys are making some coin from Lincoln, but I wish I'd never seen their video for the song now. They're doing that gross, 80s stare at the camera thing while telling a disjointed story about a girl walking around with a gold frame, a style perfected by their far more successful countryman Michael Hutchence.
Anyway, now that that trip through the glory days of Australian rock is over, I don't think this sells a single car.
The old "Dude, be a man!" angle applied to the car that has always attracted men with insecurities. This one attempts to mock the dolts who drive sedans, station wagons and economy cars. Original copy, mostly. I've edited the third column.
Damn this Internet! A random thought pops in your head like, "car ad" and you do a fast image search and very quickly you're lost on some faraway site. This one is for Puget Sound's Corvair lovers, the car that gave Ralph Nader his start as a consumer advocate and all around pain in the ass. And you're quickly lost in another time.
From the old days, when graphic artists were actually artists, and a car brochure was something to see, hold and drool over. Look at that interior rendering. No seat belts! Read that copy. "Frisky". (That is one dumb word to describe a car.) And look at this image. Taken from a photograph? I don't know, but it almost looks like the watercolor filter from Photoshop. Some hilly city in Europe during springtime, a pretty brunette contrasting with the old tourists around her as she gets out of Chevy's new car. Barefoot! Nicely done.
I wonder what it was like to work in the place that designed that brochure. I'll bet it smelled of cigarette smoke and bourbon, toxic markers and hair gel. And though they were years away from being online, I'll bet they still found ways to procrastinate a dreaded job.
All Your Cameo Roles Are Belonging to Will Ferrell
If, like me, you like your comedy wrong, rude, over-the-top, disgusting, completely inappropriate and yet surprisingly subtle at times, then you will enjoy HBO's new show Eastbound & Down, starring the mulleted special effects guy from Tropic Thunder, Danny McBride, and produced by Will Ferrell. It's the sort of material that makes you cringe and laugh at the same time, with McBride playing a washed up baseball star with no shortage of ego. It's not for everyone. Says one commenter at Entertainment Weekly:
ya always funny to see two idiots snorting coke, and what about the way he treats females & children? If you all think this is the funniest thing you've seen, then this world is really sad..
Why so serious?
Here's a non-broadcast bit featuring Ferrell as a Shelby, NC BMW dealer, mocking the local car dealer commercials we all know too well.
They’ve likely ripped you off by a few thousand dollars, and yet you allow them to stick some ugly nameplate on your car as you drive off the lot. At the very least, they try to mount a tacky black plastic license plate frame to the rear end, complete with the dealer's URL and phone numbers. Or vinyl lettering. Whatever. And off you go, advertising this dealer for free everywhere you drive.
Unless you work there, or have a friend or relative who works there, or in the unlikely case that you really did enjoy your purchase experience so much that you want everyone to know about your friends the car dealers, why are you offering your vehicle up as this dealer's rolling outdoor signage?
Insist that if your vehicle is to carry one of these, you expect to be compensated. Otherwise, make them take it off.
The copywriters working on Chevy's print ads have been phoning it in lately, relying on lyrics from rock music to do the talking for their cars. This one features a line from a Motley Crue song. Another ad sports some throwaway line from AC/DC.
I thought I'd help them out and create their next ad for them.
Back when we were kids, the advertising people told us that "in the future" we'd all be free from disease and living in peace, flying around with our own jetpacks. The future is now...and we're still waiting.
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