Notice how more premium brands have superior ads.

I love you TTAC.

Never put down or slag off your competition to the person you are selling to.

Why?

Because the person you are selling to may have been using this competitor for years, so if you say your competitor is run by muppets and only produces lousy products, you are also implying that HE is a muppet for having previously choosen them!!

To do same on a Subaru, you twist a couple of fasteners and slide out an access panel from said undertray.

Less time, less money, fewer mistakes for home or non-dealer oil jockeys.

So much for German engineering.

aren’t they parked outside the red light district for the 30 mins when the owner is ‘finished’?

You must really be racially hung up if that’s what you see in this commercial. The libs have you trained well, I think. For crying out loud, it’s a commercial for the service department, and not a commentary on race relations. It seems that political correctness has created a nation of people who just can’t wait to engage in self-criticism. Welcome to the new improved American Cultural Revolution.

At least the Chrysler ads are optimistic and try to relate the attachment people have to their cars.

Misery loves company. My 02 A4 cost me about half that in the year and half between when the warranty ran out at 80km and when I dumped it at 120km. “German engineering” my ass.

-fast forwards his DVR-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic0UejzZDZ8

Audi has finally found their ad mojo – the Meet the Beckers ads especially were great.

I wonder what future M-B ads will be like now that they are drastically cutting their prices on all new models. M-B – sure it’s crap but its now cheaper than a BMW!

I never would have guessed Balki, though. That show was hideous.

I could just see ANYONE who drives a Mercedes ghanging their own oil. They don’t even realize what oil is much less where they would drain or install it, unless they work for Exxon. (Another story for another day. Gas is up a dollar over 3 months. They just couldn’t stand it, could they?)

The Acura TSX commercials touting: “this is a car for a person who starts a company, sells it, and starts another one” luxury and they show the “brash entrepreneur” in the TSX arriving at some nightclub where he makes eye-contact with some plain-looking chick. Please- someone who starts a company and then sells it isn’t going to drive an Acura, let alone a TSX.

Also the Lincoln MKX commercial featuring Harry Connick, Jr eating crawfish with some poor New Orleans people seemingly devastated by hurricane Katrina

Marketing agencies were the first to realize that 50% of the population is below average in intelligence.

It’s creepy.

Here’s a couple that stand out in my memory:

“Like a Rock.” You couldn’t cram more homoerotic imagery into a commercial if you tried (huge sweaty men throwing massive hay bales or construction materials into steel monstrosity of a truck, driving off into the sunset). Would have been vastly improved if they just hired the Village People. In fact, for years (decades) the “mine’s bigger than yours” theme of truck commercials has prevailed.

GM’s ‘overnight test drive’ using Meat Loaf’s paradise by the dashboard light as a soundtrack. Sure they just used “will you love me, will you love me forever” but the song is about what? A teenager begging his girlfriend to have sex in his car, she gives in, and then they both wind up regretting it (“I’m praying for the end of time, so I can end my time with you” is how the song ends). Maybe some GM owners feel the same way. (got screwed, regret the choice, try to get past it)

Saved by Zero, mentioned above.

“That thing got a Hemi?” Puhleeze, we don’t need any more reinforcing of the stupid redneck stereotype.

Bad car commercials are nothing new. At least Joe Isuzu admitted to lying :)

All that said, I wonder how an autobahn tunes suspension would do on the potholes and gravel roads around here.

If I was Chevy right now I’d be saying “why not?”

That said, I don’t know how much impact these ads have on truck buyers and their ultimate decisions.

We could debate all day whether it was the automakers or the customer’s fault (or: chicken and egg) that pickup purchases now involve more than “utilitarian” considerations, but I see the light-duty truck market as the last vestige of the industry where people are passionate about their possessions, as (non-sporting) cars are, well, really bloody boring.