Saturn Ditches All-American Image
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As you probably know, TTAC is an R-rated site. After a discussion with our readers, we decided to allow swearing on both sides of the editorial curtain, subject to existing anti-flaming regs. In this Brave New e-World, the fall-out from our "no bad word left behind" policy has been… non-existent. Even so, you can hardly expect our good friends over at G-rated, AOL-owned Autoblog to allow 'effing and blinding (although flaming and trolling doesn't seem to be an issue). So it's no surprise that John Neff's blog on a swear-laden "That's a Saturn?" ad provides some unavoidable comic relief. "Steve Hall at AdGabber found a different version of the commercial, which we'll call 'That's a f@#$% Saturn!'. It seems after they had gotten the footage that Saturn's ad agency requested, the actors, director and production crew had some fun and made a different, rated R version of the commercial that probably more closely resembles reality than the canned responses in the original commercial." Reality? Aside from the Sky (anyone remember the Sky?), no one's ever done a verbal double take on a Saturn. More importantly. this is not a bunch of bored actors "goofing off." It's an officially-sanctioned viral-ready production (mission accomplished) designed to get slackers to "rethink" Saturn's flag-waving, American-as-apple-pie image. Call me a fucking hypocrite, but I liked "The Different Kind of Car Company's" picnics, honesty and just plain folks approach. The swearing Saturnalia may make industry insiders chuckle, but this will not play well in Peoria.
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I think it's stupid to ask whether this ad will play well in Peoria, because neither the ad nor the cars are for Peoria. It seems very obviously more towards the more edgy people on the coasts. The younger car buyer there doesn't go for the whole Brady Bunch wholesome teamwork picnics with smiling plastic car builders singing Kumbaya shit Saturn was about in its early days. The brand didn't resonate with the right people. Why alienate their "core"? Because their core was small and their former image was either nonexistent at worst or hokey at best. Why not dump the lot and try again?
CarShark:
Why not dump the lot and try again?
Because you can’t.
The only thing more difficult than launching a new brand is redefining an old one. In the same way people still think of a VW quality-engineered German car– despite a whole load of evidence to the contrary– you can’t get people to “unthink” the old happy clappy Saturn horseshit.
Ask any martial artist: the best way to beat your opponent is to avoid or deflect their force. Head-on confrontation is the worst possible strategy. Especially if your opponent is you.
"If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck..." My reaction was "so what?", is that what the creators intended / hoped for? Nothing ground breaking there, it's the year 2008 folks.
why the fuck do they show an '07 Vue? Fucking idiots. Also, best part of the ad is the Saturn salesman saying 'fuck yeah' at the end.