One division of the Automotive industry which doesn’t seem to be suffering from creative or financial strains is advertising. Millions of dollars are still being pumped into car ads – especially as we reach Super Bowl Weekend. But are consumers paying attention to these strange ads? Who is even watching television anymore – when you can barely afford to flip a light switch why bother turning on your Sony flat screen? Still, ad companies are spending their dough on unique ways to grab viewer’s attention.
Audi’s latest ad features a Q5 crossover built origami style out of cardboard. Oh, if only it were that inexpensive to build. Audi has promised to go 100% Green, after all. Featuring a fantastic folk song (Woody Guthrie’s “Riding in my Car”) this ad is already causing a positive stir online, and will be a great lead into the Jason Statham, action packed Audi Super Bowl Ad Feb. 1st.
French Auto/Bicycle maker Peugeot is also taking a hint from modern advertising trends, slipping pop music into their funky ads (see any recent Apple ad for examples). Peugeot also goes along with the cardboard box vehicle at one point, as this little wagon battles lumpy robots through European streets – by the way, why don’t we have Peugeot cars in North America? They look like fantastic little cars.
Some of Peugeot’s recent prints ads are targeting either the young professional female market, or clones.
The Honda Fit enters a CGI themed race with gas-sucking (and American made) classic automobiles. The car-mosquito ad is witty, but isn’t it a bit harsh pitting a new, fuel efficient car against vehicles that were built long before gas mileage was considered an issue? Maybe that’s the point…
Another stab at the oddball marketing comes from Volkswagen – which has been an advertising hit with its recent string of talking VW Bug and Brooke Shields spots. When a South American team needed to promote a new VW model, they turned to amateur genetic engineering to show a loving bond between man, his car and his fish dog…or dog fish.
Of course the old saying “sex sells” works today more than ever – but a Scottish Mitsubishi commercial takes a different approach to the Birds and the Bees to show off their new Lancer.
In the end, does any of this weird advertising work? Are companies justified spending millions touting new cars that no one is buying? Well, we’re here talking about it, along with many other automotive and advertising blogs, so these spots do work in one instance. But would a Nissan Versa fighting dinosaurs or ninjas, or ninja pirates riding robotic dinosaurs, cause you to actually go out and buy one?
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