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QOTD: What's Your Favourite Automotive Marketing Campaign?
by
Matthew Guy
(IC: employee)
Published: March 27th, 2017
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Last week, Jack opined it’s high time a certain American nameplate needs to start leading itself with marketing — brash, notice-it-even-if-you-don’t-want-to marketing — instead of by the short leash provided when one tries engineering their way into the hearts and wallets of American consumers.Never one to pass up a chance to dive down the rabbit hole of automotive marketing, it didn’t take long for my browser history to be clogged with search terms, finding great car ads I remember from when, as a kid, my grubby little hands would anticipate the arrival of a new car magazine. Porsche and VW have had some great campaigns over the years, with a series of mid-’90s print ads that included the “Kills Bugs Fast” tagline ranking pretty high in my personal top 40. The whole design of the campaign — from the illusion of speed on a static page to the copy itself — set my young imagination afire and led to lusting for an Arena Red 993 Turbo, which remains unabated to this day.
No discussion of great car ads is complete without a mention of VW’s ‘Think Small’ campaign. Armed with a relatively paltry amount of marketing cash, VW hired the Doyle Dane Bernbach marketing firm, who proceeded to knock it out of the park with more than a dose of wit and self-deprecating humor. Full-page ads with acres of white space drew the reader’s eyes, while the creative copy kept them there.Deploying a rock star, weird rocks n’ trees stuff, ads laden with innuendo — there’s plenty from which to choose. What’s your favourite automotive marketing campaign?
Matthew Guy
Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.
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Published March 27th, 2017 9:00 AM
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- Master Baiter I'm skeptical of any project with government strings attached. I've read that the new CHIPS act which is supposed to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the U.S. is so loaded with DEI requirements that companies would rather not even bother trying to set up shop here. Cheaper to keep buying from TSMC.
- CanadaCraig VOTE NO VW!
- Joe This is called a man in the middle attack and has been around for years. You can fall for this in a Starbucks as easily as when you’re charging your car. Nothing new here…
- AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
- ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
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Since previous comments have included fake ads, I nominate Firesign Theater's Ralph Sportsport Motors "We'll sit on your face to make you a better deal".
I don't know about favorite, but in terms of memorable, there was a commercial that showed the grille of a black Cadillac, then the camera zoomed out and there were handles on the sides of the car with people walking on either side of it, suggesting the Caddy was a coffin and strongly implying that you only bought a Cadillac if you were old and buying your last car. I only ever saw it once, and I don't recall who the ad was actually for, but like the 1984 Mac ad, I still remember the imagery.