Another great article, and thank you for the tip of the hat. I enjoyed the Seventies so much I’m re-creating them.

“if they put that badass new 3.0 from the A6 into the A4, my interest might be piqued.”

They have – it’s called the S4. The A4 3.2 is dead for 2010, so there will be the A4 2.0T and the S4, which will now directly compete with the 335i. It shows just how far Motorsport and AMG have moved the power game on, it used to be the S4 vs. the M3 and the C43/32/55 AMG. Now the RS4 has to battle those cars.

The Polo terrorist viral advert a couple of years back was both cheeky and cute.

Officially, VW had nothing to do with that ad, even threatened to sue its creators, only to say then that they cannot locate them to serve the complaint. A little later, VW settled for an apology by the creators. That was in the UK.

At the same time, Volkswagen fired its old ad agency in the US, and signed on Crispin Porter + Bogusky, well known for their viral campaigns …

I was asked about where the waste in advertising is, not what sells cars. In fact, advertising plays only a small part in car sales. To get great sales, you need a great product, great distribution, great service, great quality, great customer satisfaction, great resale value, and many other greats. I don’t buy into the “rational” versus “emotional” story. A car purchase of any kind is a mix of both. We always had this picture of an angel and a devil sitting on the shoulders of the customer, whispering their version into the customer’s ears. If the devil had a good argument, the customer turns to the angel and shouts: “Shut up!”

True dat…:)

But at the same time, I’d say that the amount of “rationality” in a car purchase is almost directly inverse to the car’s price and style niche.

Audi advertising would have to be less “rational” – i.e., less concerned with the practicality and usability of the vehicle – and more focused on massaging the potential buyer’s ego. Let’s face it, anyone who’s buying an Audi is most likely buying a more expensive VW, so rationality isn’t what you WANT to sell, lest the buyer figure it out and spend twenty large less.

By the way, speaking of the 4000, the car led to the first of many vehicular run-ins with my parents. They were test driving one for my mom, and while they were returning it to the dealership, I snuck my dad’s pride-and-joy BMW 730 out for a little test drive of my own. Who cared if I was only 15?

Long story short, as I was blasting down the road we lived on (speed limit 35; my speed, at least 60), sunroof and windows open, blasting Donna Summer on the stereo (no laughing, please), who should I find coming down the road on the other side? Yep, Mom and Dad in the 4000…they’d forgotten Dad’s wallet.

Let’s just say the 730 had really good brakes for the pre-ABS era.

They passed on the 4000, and my dad eventually traded the 730 for a 5000, which may have been the worst trade since the Oilers gave up Gretzky. The 5000 was a fine handling car, but it was an EPIC dog – you had to turn off the A/C to pass another car on a back road. That turned me off to Audis for years, but if they put that badass new 3.0 from the A6 into the A4, my interest might be piqued.

Did I ever. I saw my first Quattro 1978 in the design studio in Ingolstadt. Nosy BS opened the door – and ripped the two trim strips off, which a designer had just carefully applied to the whole car. Herr Treser himself ripped me a new orifice.

1984, I came back from the USA to manage the whole agency. My car was an innocuous looking Audi 100 (Audi 5000 in the US) with all the chrome and insignia removed. At the inside, it was a Quattro with the racing engine. It was fun creeping up pn Porsches in an Audi 100 on the Autobahn. Put your high beams on and blast by them – especially when the road was wet. Wet roads always made Porsches wag their tails a bit.

You are kidding, no? If you can’t see the stars, then there are clouds. Pretty simple really.

A great read – thanks.

Did you ever have anything to do with the mad men in Ingolstadt Ur-Quattro rally motorsport, or was that after your time?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbcADoSz9bg

BMW’s xDrive ads from a few years ago were pretty clever, but their whole “company of ideas” thing was flat out CRAP.

I can’t remember a single memorable M-B ad since the “falling in love again” spots from several years back. I also can’t remember a single memorable M-B product since then, so maybe that has something to do with it.

The ad where the guy calls his blind date. He tells her that is at her building, and in the silver Camry. The lady looks out the window and claims that she doesn’t see any Camry outside. Guy eventually get mad and drives away, girl then remarks “Oh nice car!” as she notices the Toyota badges. The message is the new Camry is so stylish that people won’t recognize it. Maybe not an “edgy” ad, but not exactly choked full of relevant information either.

And Toyota did have those commercials where the salesmen accidently gets maced after selling a Camry. Those were kind of edgy, but they dealt more with a sales event than the car itself.

I was asked about where the waste in advertising is, not what sells cars. In fact, advertising plays only a small part in car sales. To get great sales, you need a great product, great distribution, great service, great quality, great customer satisfaction, great resale value, and many other greats. I don’t buy into the “rational” versus “emotional” story. A car purchase of any kind is a mix of both. We always had this picture of an angel and a devil sitting on the shoulders of the customer, whispering their version into the customer’s ears. If the devil had a good argument, the customer turns to the angel and shouts: “Shut up!”

Michael: The biggest waste in advertising is to hire boring agencies, and to kill every bit of creativity in endless layers of people who can only say no, not yes. The Buick disaster is a perfect example. Advertising needs to be noticed. It needs to make you laugh, cry, get mad. The best advertising is when people talk about it: “Have you seen this ad?”

That’s an age-old argument, and as pertains cars, I think the truth of it depends on the product and the niche. If all it took to sell cars was distinctive, memorable advertising, then Isuzu would still be in business in the States, and VW would rule the world.

For better or worse, cars are a rational purchase for most buyers, and they buy rational vehicles. For most vehicles, advertising needs to be more informative than edgy. For example, can you imagine an edgy ad for, say, a Toyota Camry? For that matter, can you remember ANY ad for that car? And, yet, it’s the best selling car in the country.

Luxury cars tend to be less rational purchases (let’s face it – spending $60K on an upscale sedan isn’t rational when a $20K Camry will perform the same task), so their ads tend to be less informative and more ego-driven.

Witness the Lexus ad that shows the yuppie driver manipulating traffic with his nav system. Or the Infiniti ad where the car creates a spash that becomes the stars. Yeah, whatever, guys…

Thanks. That trick would have saved us a lot of sleep. Cityslickers ….

Bumpy’s Helpful Hints: if you look up at the sky during night and see the Moon and/or stars, that means it’s not cloudy.

Now you mention it, there don’t seem to be very memorable car commercials lately. The most recent memorable one I can think of is the Kia Soul Hamsters ad. Great story, great music, impossibly cute, and it hits the Soul’s “A New Way To Roll” tag perfectly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ-CDE_r_wg

BTW, great story as always.

Excellent writing to say nothing about the stories. The best writing on this website and miles ahead of RF, no insult intended. And coming from a German (writing in English)…

I always say Germans do everything well and I don’t even like them (as people).

DEZ

Michael: The biggest waste in advertising is to hire boring agencies, and to kill every bit of creativity in endless layers of people who can only say no, not yes. The Buick disaster is a perfect example. Advertising needs to be noticed. It needs to make you laugh, cry, get mad. The best advertising is when people talk about it: “Have you seen this ad?”

Sometimes, the best advertising is born out of a lack of money.

Since you know where all the waste is, would you also know how to eliminate it? Or would that kill all the fun?

You are still making it difficult for reviewers of Rick Wagoner’s upcoming autobiography, though.

It is after all the autobiography of BS.