The Commercial Hyundai Doesn’t Want You To See!

I love emails like that. The brand bans it but somehow magically it ends up on YouTube. Yeeaaaaah. Okaaaay.

(Agency: Fitzroy.)

The 2012 Centigons with bullet-proof bluetooth technology – standard!

“Honey, on the way home don’t forget to stop and pick up some more hollow points.” Awesome protection for the busy CEO on the go.

Introducing the Pontiac Raider.

Enjoy the American desert this weekend, all you Judges.

All 2011 Fords now with pet assist.

FINALLY a Rube Goldberg interpretation that does something a little different. Un chien conduit une voiture! Ford Paris put together an homage to a previous spot as well as man’s best – I SAID HOMAGE. Dig how it plays with perspective and layers as you move through the story, actively parking and assisting! Music is a tad obnoxious but cute pets win out! They always must.

(Via a Live and Uncensored woman.)

“I SHOOT CAR FUEL COSTS IN THE ASS.”

Was it you who needed a whole lotta awesome today? WELL I DELIVER. It’s what I do. Moving quickly to the front of the amazing website line is Lingscars.com. Every click a winner, every headline a keeper. If you can find a better site that loops nuclear proliferation in with a no money down offer, I’ll give you free car mats. Enjoy!*

(Via.)

*The blue in the headline is just me highlighting the text to improve the visual experience for y’all

Mini lust.

It’s got a pan flute, so what’s not to love?

Car chases DO make movies better.

Probably the second best movie-brand tie-in commercial. Hell yeah Dodge Charger.

Introducing the 2011 Chevy Porsche.

You know, they say it’s fast, this one is.

Oh no they dinnit.

I believe I can sigh, because yep, they did. Kia took their product placement segment out of the recent Sprite Slam Dunk contest and made it into a spot with Blake Griffin. Would Jordan have needed to jump a car? No, because he was his own brand. Watching that night as the Kia was brought out, I thought sweet, Blake’s going to jump over the roof. Uh, no. FF >> now and here’s the inevitable milk it for all it’s worth  slo-mo spot with heavy groove trying hard to reach Nike’s rairified air though (ouch).

Except, this could be Ford, this could be Chevy, or any auto. Given the sentiment over the dunk, you’ve associated your car with the hype of the moment, not the quality of the car. It’s a debatable moment though because you are trying to build buzz for the brand, so I won’t kill them for that. Having owned and driven enough Kias though, I’d say the spot is on brand for them then in this case: an okay car for an okay jam.

Interactive adness.

Little by little, getting interactive ads to work within the confines of stream video sites has been limited to a pre-roll of whatever the brand is running on TV. Here with Lexus, their content shows signs of life in terms of playing with the surrounding environment. I saw this :30 on Hulu and dug the way it mimics an interface, instead of just running a straight spot, you could click through various areas of the screen. It’s not cutting edge as far as digital goes, but compared to the baby steps major brands are still taking within the space, it’s a start.

Meet Jeep Jr.

So much borrowed interest, so little time. It’s now the monster that stepped out of its dad’s shadow to become the new Hummer.

Always. Be. Coloring.

In the search for more local ad greatness, I came across a series of spots for local car dealer Frank Parra by the Loomis Agency (of Toby’s new trick fame). THEY SAY NEVER WORK WITH KIDS OR ANIMALS, but the little fella seems to pull off the conventional salesman schtick in a disarming way. (More after the jump.)

Life after sanity.

“I thought you may be interested in learning more about a campaign for the Toyota Prius called, ‘Life After Santa.’

‘Life After Santa’ is a creative marketing program being conducted by Greater New York Toyota Dealers Association to generate consumer awareness of the Toyota Prius, and to support local job training and career development programs that are helping New Yorkers during these difficult economic times. The program leverages real-life interactions with the public, online video, blogs, websites and social media to tell the reindeers’ stories and create word-of-mouth excitement about the Prius, which has delivered superior fuel economy and ultra-low emissions to more than one million owners worldwide for more than 10 years.

You can check out the videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/LifeAfterSanta

Please contact me if I can provide any more information.”

These spots do all that? Maybe they caught me on an off day, but I now want to punch a reindeer.

Road Trips are the new...

Even though I don’t promote Super Bowl hype, Chrysler’s Game On Road Trip sneaks in though. Emulating aspects of Ford’s Fiesta Project, and GM’s hit the road social media project – itself an homage to the Humongo Nation Tour – Chrysler’s twist on the genre is to have auto bloggers take the new 200 and get to Dallas for the Big Game – THEY CALL IT THE SUPER BOWL YOU KNOW. I like using everyday people slash influencers to get the word out abut a product, but honestly, who wouldn’t want to drive a new car for a major brand. That’s not a knock per se, but I bet most if not all of the bloggers in this would do it if a Hyundai asked them. (Check out more vids here.) While I know it’s early in the run for many of these clips, the number of views I’m seeing is extremely low. Efforts like this need serious support from other media, otherwise, I don’t see how the cost to produce it all can be justified. It’d be nice to leverage the 800 lb. gorilla in the room more too: football and the playoffs. I understand NFL licensing rights are costly, but the sport is practically an afterthought here with influencers taking center stage and mostly talking about cars.

The heartbeat of America.

Chevrolet – the heartbeat of America in 1987. What’s changed in 24 years? Not much apparently. Discover it all over again for the first time!

Whatever Happened to Style?

Aka, whatever happened to using a different song than say, four years ago when VW used J. Ralph’s One Million Miles Away. Aka, YouTube is just Communication Arts for the next generation of creatives to draw inspiration from. Because we've changed so much since then, I'm sure it’s taken on new meaning for Chrysler, though. Or has it:

“Not a one single black guy in this ad..LOL -- They all look nicely dressed like Mad Men.”
furiousgtz

(Via Mack.)

Cadillac bleeds luxury.

It just does. Don’t know why, but watching the new Cadillac spot made me think of Harley Davidson. Oh, because of the footage. *slaps head* But, I did like it for that and hope HD goes that route. Music track isn’t very appropriate for the though. But since this about a car, that’s one sexy machine. GET YOU SOME RED BLOODED ACTION.

Flying the friendly skies of MINI.

C’mon, it’s a cute spot. Ironically, the MINI Countryman probably has more legroom than most commercial flights. (Other useless trivia? It’s MINI in all caps when referring to the modern version of the car and Mini when referring to the classic. So there.)

Merry Garbagemas.

Sorry to be an experiential Scrooge, but aren’t tons of paper and plastic wasted every day, not just at Christmas? Hey I know, let’s build a large wood and plastic unit to show people. Cute idea though for Volkswagen Italy: Garbage in, garbage out. Sure my title was a stretch, but I just think the Christmas thing is a bigger one if you’re trying to promote your brand as eco. Year-round kids. Year-round. (No worries – you’d still be able to enter it in the award shows. Where they waste even more paper and plastic.)

HYUNDAI MAKES AMAZINGLY HUGE GAINS!

Thanks to advertising, apparently. It’s less the delivery of Jeff Bridges though that has Hyundai racing up the Brand Value Growth chart at number eight in the automotive section (65 overall). Try favorable dealer incentives, an Assurance plan to cover your out of work ass, and America’s best warranty (10-year/100,000 miles). Things like that tend to help anyone overlook a ho-hum interior. (Sorry, but I test drove one and that’s how it felt.) The more noticeable aspects of the chart is first, who’s still number one, and second, who’s not on it at all: GM & Chrysler. While any chart is open to debate, but how bad are things for those two when Marlboro stays in the top 20 and they don’t even appear anywhere.