Generation Why: The Acura ILX And The Aspirational Advertisement

The ad, like all ads today, is aspirational, not reflective. It is showing you something you want to be, not “a person like you would like these products.”

The rest of the article talks about a sort of “aspirational fantasy” (my term, not theirs). JC Penny is trying to do it in their ad (discussed in the article) and Acura is trying to do it here. The problem is they haven’t quite got it.

The ad shows the middle age female fantasy of home: family, kids, but still retaining decor, cleanliness, fun. Beautiful furniture, nice clothes, well groomed, stable relationship, everyone’s together.

The under-35 male Generation Why fantasy isn’t too far off. Decor, fun, beautiful furniture, nice clothes, well-groomed, everyone’s together. Don’t believe me? Look where the ads are set. A hip hotel/hangout spot and a trendy lounge. The guys are cool, handsome in an without looking like they should star in a fragrance ad, wearing clothes that are stylish and fashion forward without their look coming off as contrived and repugnant. Think GQ fashion spread versus “ Hypebeast“.

I understand that they’re trying to show the duality of work and play for a modern young male consumer, but that cliche is as tired as putting “I like to work hard and play hard” in your online dating profile. We still don’t know anything about the car, just what kind of person drives the car. That works when your brand is as strong as BMW or Audi. When you’re Acura, you still have to let everyone know why your car is better than everyone else’s. From watching this ad, I don’t really know anything about the ILX, that it can be had as a hybrid, that it’s a decent value, that it has any kind of performance or luxury credentials. Which is somewhat representative of Acura as a whole, when you think about it.