Ads of the Weird : Cars and trucks

Nothing comes between Brooke Shields and a minivan

Allison Linn — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Brooke Shields has come a long way since declaring nothing comes between her and her Calvins, but the child star turned sitcom staple still has a canny eye for picking an ad that showcases her talents in the best light.

A new campaign for Volkswagen’s Routan minivan features Shields pretending to be a humanitarian worried about the plight of yuppie parents who are having children simply so they can have an excuse to buy a Routan.

"Have a baby for love, not for German engineering," Shields opines, ignoring and discounting the confused pregnant women and their husbands as they attempt to explain that, of course, they are not reproducing as an excuse to buy a new car.

Volkswagen (Click image to view ad)

Of course, you only need to think about the premise of the ad for a millisecond to question it.

If you really want to be able to afford a nice, German-engineered car, clearly the best decision you can make is not to have children, who tend to drain your bank account, ruin your car’s upholstery and require you to think about things like whether you can cram a couple car seats in that back seat.

But let’s face it, a good ad doesn’t need to be logical, and this one works because it’s offbeat and funny -- in other words, precisely because it doesn’t make sense.

That’s mostly thanks to Shields’ earnest, deadpan delivery, which is both a smart parody of her fellow actors' humanitarian efforts and a subtle jab the selfishness and materialism that sometimes accompanies a decision to have children.

Nevertheless, it’s tough to say whether even Shields and a smart campaign can help Volkswagen sell a minivan, in an era when minivan sales are slumping, the economy is weak and gas prices remain high.

Click here to watch one of the ads, or click here to go to the Web site and see the whole campaign.

Chevy shows some skin

Allison Linn — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:01:00 GMT

We’re guessing a new commercial for Chevrolet’s Traverse crossover vehicle is meant to appeal to a woman who fantasizes about having the "perfect guy" – he’s hot, he’s romantic and he does the housework!

Frankly, that kind of reverse gender stereotyping is offensive enough to both men and women, not to mention outdated. But alas, if only the ad were just that tacky.

Instead, it’s tacky, nonsensical and weirdly evocative of pornography. It’s the type of ad that viewers have noticed, but often only to ask, "What the heck was that about?"

Chevrolet

In the ad, a guy -- who at first appears to be naked but later is revealed to be dressed only in jeans --is seen making dinner reservations, ironing a dress and, in the final shot, on his knees cleaning the toilet.

The tagline reads: "It’s everything you’ve ever wished for … and then some."

That’s followed by the usual car ad fodder: gleaming pictures of the vehicle in question.

With every car company in America trotting out commercials focused on fuel efficiency, we’re guessing Chevrolet felt it had to do something totally different to shock people into paying attention to its Traverse. After all, this is the type of big vehicle that has fallen far out of favor among many consumers.

But instead, they’ve confused viewers, who either don’t get what the guy is doing or don’t understand the connection between the guy and the vehicle.

We’ll concede that the commercial is memorable, but not in a way that makes us want to buy a Chevy.

Click here to watch the ad.

Honda's new pitch: Old naked guys

Allison Linn — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT

When it comes to selling cars and trucks, most people are familiar with usual bag of tricks: beautiful scenery, beautiful women and brawny vehicles. A recent commercial for Honda’s Pilot takes things in the exact opposite direction, and it’s a refreshing change.

In "Ballooning," a middle-aged man and his teenage son are driving down the road when they come across an older man peeking out of a grounded hot air balloon, apparently in need of a ride.

Only after inviting the balloonist to hop in does the driver realize that there are actually a group of men in the balloon’s basket -- and they’re all nudists. While the ad is remarkably tasteful, it’s safe to say this is a group most people aren’t interested in seeing naked.

Honda

The punch line is that the driver is able to use a rear-view camera mounted on the dashboard to back up, saving him the embarrassment of looking over his shoulder at the group of nudists. It’s a cute trick because it makes the technology memorable without having to tout it as a safety feature, a tactic that often leaves car makers looking staid and preachy.

The gaggle of men also serves to remind viewers that the car is roomy enough for a crowd, without overtly bragging about that type of feature.

The ad really works because Honda resists the urge to overdo it. The sparse dialogue is witty, and the flummoxed expression on the driver’s face pretty much says it all. While a lot of car commercials fail for being too in-your-face, this one is subtle and surprising enough to make you want to pay attention.

Still, in an age of $4 (if not $5) per gallon gas, it’s not clear that even the wittiest commercial will be enough to sell Americans on a big vehicle like the Pilot.

Click here to watch the commercial.

BMW bores us, then lies about it

Allison Linn — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Here’s the thing about people living in the age of the DVR, the Internet and the cell phone: They don’t have much patience.

Why take two minutes to make a phone call when you can text in about 10 seconds, and save yourself some pleasantries? A 30-second TV commercial? Sorry, many people would rather pay extra to fast-forward through it. This article? We’ll try to keep it short and snappy, because we know that, at this moment, you are being distracted by all manner of other bright and shiny technology.

The makers of BMW apparently think that we have time for them, and lots of it. A promotion for the company’s BMW 1 Series takes the form of a meandering “mockumentary” about the German town of Oberpfaffelbachen’s attempt to help promote the new car.

BMW

The elaborate ruse -- much of which is in German, with English subtitles -- follows a fake filmmaker’s effort to understand the existence of a large ramp that has been built at the outskirts of town. Since this is a car promotion, no one should be surprised to find out that the idea is to launch a car off of it.

The problem is that the joke is on the company, not us. “The Ramp” feels too much like an actual boring, meandering documentary, right down to the moody shots of farmers at work and extraneous asides not related to the subject at all.

BMW gets the details right: the dialect and feel of the small German town is spot-on, the translations are accurate and the mockumentarian even does a pretty good job speaking German. But getting everything right just serves to make the whole thing feel more boring, not more amusing.

BMW does have a shortened version of the mockumentary; it’s still not that interesting, but at least you get through it quicker.

And that’s really the rub about “The Ramp.” An elaborate joke is all well and good, as long as it sells cars. “The Ramp” doesn’t do much to make you care about the ramp, much less the car it’s seeking to promote.

That’s not all. After releasing the film this spring, BMW denied for months that it was behind it, only confirming it a few weeks ago in an article in The Wall Street Journal.

The Internet does allow advertisers to come up with new rules of engagement, and one can argue that there was little harm done in lying about this. Still, we’d like to hope that top-tier companies like BMW would adhere to a higher standard than blatantly misleading customers.

Click here to watch the full-length version of “The Ramp.” Click here to watch the condensed version.

We're a lot like Pemco says we are

Allison Linn — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Even if you don’t live in the Pacific Northwest, you probably have some stereotypes about us lurking in your head. Well, here’s a dirty little secret -- for all our talk of individualism, all of your stereotypes about us are true.

We are a region of smug hybrid owners, recycling fanatics and recumbent bicycle commuters. We love to broadcast our beliefs via bumper stickers. Before we moved here we may have been more fashionable, but now we see nothing wrong with wearing socks with our sandals, preferably paired with those pants that can unzip to become a pair of shorts should the weather improve. If we want to get fancy, we might throw a fleece vest over the whole ensemble.

Pemco

Our region is home to many long-haired, caffeine-addicted, socially challenged software geeks. Far too many Pacific Northwesterners are still sporting the bad hair and flannel shirts of the elsewhere long-forgotten grunge era. The only thing we love more than using our rain barrels and compost bins is boasting to our friends about them.

The regional insurance company Pemco Insurance knows all this, and it’s created a brilliant ad campaign around it. Using the tagline “We’re a lot like you,” Pemco manages to poke fun at residents of the Pacific Northwest without offending us. (Of course, if you live in the Pacific Northwest, you know most of us would be far too passive-aggressive to say anything even if we were offended).

People who don’t live in Seattle or its environs may not get all of the company’s spot-on “Northwest profiles.” But chances are anyone can laugh at “The Super-Long Coffee Orderer,” “Gluten-Free-No-Refined-Sugar Lady,” “Accidental Tech Millionaire” and, most notably, “Confused East Coast Transplant.”

Also, you don’t have to live in the Northwest to see your friends -- or yourself -- in “Your Friend Who Won’t Stop Talking About Real Estate,” “Art Gallery Crawler” and “Walla Walla Wine Wine Woman Woman.”

(By the way, the editor of this blog has self-identified as “Too-Late-For-The-Grunge-Party,” while yours truly admits to being “Obsessive Compulsive Recycler.”)

In an age of when mergers have folded so many regional stores into national behemoths, and every mall seems to carry the same clothes from the same stores, it’s refreshing to see an ad campaign -- and, by extension, a company -- that’s focused on one part of the country. Better yet, it’s nice to see a local company making ads that are any good.

Click here to watch the television ads, listen to the radio spots, peruse the profiles and even submit your own.

Thick, buttery … insurance?

Allison Linn — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:00:00 GMT

If you’re a has-been celebrity looking for work - and what has-been celebrity isn’t looking for work, by definition - the good news is that there are other job prospects out there besides lame reality television shows. There’s also Geico.

The insurance company has for some time now been employing the likes of Little Richard, Joan Rivers and even Charo to “interpret” real people’s stories of how well Geico dealt with their insurance claims.

Maybe the well of real D-list celebrities is running dry, because now the company is turning to … a syrup bottle.

In a new commercial, Mrs. Butterworth editorializes as a Geico customer recounts her tale of woe - or, actually, her tale of getting a nick in her windshield repaired. It’s not very compelling stuff, but Mrs. Butterworth makes the best of it, intoning, “Oh, dear, broken glass sends shivers down my bottle!

Mrs. Butterworth isn’t as funny as Little Richard or as annoying as Joan Rivers , and she likely won’t be as provocative as Charo, whose ad got the company in hot water when the Connecticut attorney general charged that it could have left the false impression that the insurance company can fix cars directly.

Still, the talking syrup bottle gets points for nostalgia. But what’s funny about the ad – and all the others in the celebrity spokesperson series – is that the “real” customers all but completely ignore their celebrities’ wacko antics.

Also, whereas Little Richard et al appeared comfortable sticking to the insurance pitch, Mrs. Butterworth can’t resist the opportunity to hawk herself.

“It was a piece of cake. Or maybe more like hot pancakes,” she says of the claim process.

And when all is said and done, she declares, “Now I feel rich. Thick and buttery, too.”

Not surprisingly, the Geico ad comes as The Blackstone Group, which purchased Mrs. Butterworth’s and other brands last year, is working to revive the syrup brand with an ad of its own that offers a trip down memory lane.

It’s interesting to see a montage of cute kids through the decades, but when it comes to pancakes, we’re still sticking with real maple syrup.

Click here to watch’s Geico’s ad.

GM pushes the envelope

Allison Linn — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:00:00 GMT

In many ways, you can’t help but feel sorry for the U.S. auto industry. For years, they thrived on making vehicles that were bigger, brawnier and boasted ever more cup holders. Then, gas prices shot past $3 a gallon, Al Gore put out a little documentary and suddenly SUVs the size of urban studio apartments didn’t seem nearly as cool as a cute little Prius.

Detroit knows it can’t sell a hybrid like it stereotypically sells its biggest vehicles – stunning images of big tires plundering over once-pristine terrain might not strike that right tone. But different isn’t always better.

General Motors’ recent ad for the new Yukon Hybrid, which the company shelled out major bucks to air during both the Super Bowl and the Oscars, features a zippy line drawing of a man pushing a boulder up a mountain, which turns out to also be made of the same boulders.

In case you don’t get the inspiring message, it’s accompanied by a voiceover that says, “Why push? Why change? Why grow? Why dream? Questions you don’t have to ask yourself when you never say, ‘It’s good enough.’ When you never say, ‘It can’t be done.’ When you never say never.”

GM deserves credit for breaking out of the stereotypical car commercial mold, and the ad manages to be both understated and eye-catching. Still, the inspiring tone ends up sounding dangerously self-congratulatory, and for what?

Yes, GM has produced that oxymoronic creature known as a hybrid SUV, but this “green” Yukon still only gets an estimated 21 miles per gallon in the city (compared to 14 miles per gallon for the non-hybrid version). What’s more, prices start at around $50,000, compared to around $36,000 for the regular Yukon -- not exactly in most family’s budgets.

Also, let’s not forget that GM only decided to push, grow, dream, etc. years after its competitors started seeing success with their hybrids. GM may yet find its footing as a viable hybrid competitor, but for now the earnestness of this ad leaves the company more open to being lampooned than lauded.

Click here to watch the ad. You can see all the Super Bowl ads here.

Even criminals can experience Fahrvergnugen

Allison Linn — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:00:00 GMT

Apparently the new line of Volkswagen cars is so cool that people don’t want to steal them.

In a recent ad for the German carmaker, a suspicious-looking guy walks down the street looking for a car to heist, finds an unlocked convertible Volkswagen -- its key conveniently stashed behind the visor -- and takes off.

Pretty soon, he finds himself stopping for pedestrians and waving at the elderly, and before you know it he’s turned around and decided to return the car to its rightful owner.

vw.com

“When you get into a Volkswagen, it gets into you,” a voiceover says.

Laura Soave, marketing manager with Volkswagen of America, said the implication is meant to be that the car is so inherently good, it’ll make you a better person.

“The vehicle itself changed his mind,” she said.

Perhaps that’s what happened, but the cynical person might wonder whether all that happy-go-lucky contact with strangers just made our ne’er-do-well car thief feel uncomfortable. Maybe your average car thief wants to be seen as the dark, handsome bad guy, not the man who stops diligently so children can safely cross the street.

(The really cynical person will actually wonder, don’t people who leave their car doors unlocked, with the key inside, practically deserve to have their vehicles stolen?)

Soave admitted that the spot made her legal department a bit nervous, but she said the company has found that traditional car ads touting things like monthly car payments or engine power don’t resonate with its customers.

“What the Volkswagen customer is looking for out of the Volkswagen is an emotional message,” she said.

Perhaps more notable to music fans, this is one in a series of VW ads featuring music from the latest Wilco album, “Sky Blue Sky.” The band’s delicate sound is perfect for the highly stylized ads, and members of Wilco have said that they see such ads as a way to get their music out in an age when traditional radio play is growing scarce. Still, one has to wonder, what would Woody Guthrie think?

Watch the ad here, or click here to see a longer version.

BMW's car-less swipe at the competition

Allison Linn — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 08:59:00 GMT

It’s no secret that many automakers have been struggling of late. Perhaps the biggest sign of these woes was the recent split of DaimlerChrysler, the much-vaunted, but ultimately failed, marriage between the makers of Mercedes and Chrysler cars.

It’s not the only problem marriage in an industry that has been rife with acquisitions -- and divorces -- in recent years. BMW has largely stayed out of that fray, which is a fact they aren’t shy of using as a selling point.

BMW

“To be better than the competition, you can’t have them as your parent company,” a recent BMW print ad boasts.

The simple text ad is striking not just for its message, but also because there’s no car in it. Patrick McKenna, manager of marketing communications for BMW of North America, said it’s part of a broader strategy to use the story of BMW, as well as the product itself, to sell cars.

“We think that companies that are owned by parent companies have to compromise in some way or form,” he said.

It’s worth noting that BMW Group is a parent in its own right -- it owns the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands. But the company clearly sees that as different from the complicated partnerships many of its competitors have entered into. Another ad in the same series matches BMW’s upscale competitors, such as Audi and Lexus, with their parent companies.

McKenna insists the ads aren’t intended as pot shots.

“It has more to do with BMW being proud than throwing stones at the competition,” he said.

Nevertheless, it’s hard not to think of DaimlerChrysler’s unraveling when you see the ads. Does that make a person want to buy a BMW? Well, that’s a trickier question.