QOTD: What Is Your All-Time Favorite Automotive Commercial?

Chris Tonn
by Chris Tonn

Like it or not, advertising is a legitimate art form, studied and dissected just like its sculpture and literature forebears. As the high holy day of the medium approaches this weekend, I thought it appropriate that we discuss some of history’s greatest automotive advertisements.

And don’t worry, we will have a roundup of The Big Game’s best car-specific spots coming soon.

Ideally, an advertisement should sell a car. That’s the point, right? But it seems the most memorable adverts do more than facilitate a transaction — they make a connection with viewers that lasts longer than the 30-second run time. The message stays with the potential buyer for years.

I’ve selected a few of my favorites, and my absolute favorite is at the bottom. But I’m sure you’ll tell me I’m wrong, so feel free to link to your faves.

2016 was a rough one for celebrities, it seems, but in January we didn’t realize just how bad it would get. We’d lost David Bowie, though, and that’s all it took to make this Audi commercial pull at the heartstrings.

1996 was a big year for me. It’s the year I graduated high school, but it’s also the year Nissan killed off the Z for a while. But when their creative team decided to make a memorable advertisement, nothing else on the showroom floor evoked excitement like the 300ZX. So they used a toy Z instead.

I’ll admit it — unlike just about everyone else in the world, I’m not a Star Wars fan. I might have watched one of the films when I was a kid, but the franchise didn’t impact me like most. It took until last summer to get me through all of the films (to that point) with my kids. But the excitement this kid must be feeling when he uses The Force to start a Volkswagen is palpable.

Chris Tonn
Chris Tonn

Some enthusiasts say they were born with gasoline in their veins. Chris Tonn, on the other hand, had rust flakes in his eyes nearly since birth. Living in salty Ohio and being hopelessly addicted to vintage British and Japanese steel will do that to you. His work has appeared in eBay Motors, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars, Reader's Digest, AutoGuide, Family Handyman, and Jalopnik. He is a member of the Midwest Automotive Media Association, and he's currently looking for the safety glasses he just set down somewhere.

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  • MaintenanceCosts It's going to have to go downmarket a bit not to step on the Land Cruiser's toes.
  • Lorenzo Since EVs don't come in for oil changes, their owners don't have their tires rotated regularly, something the dealers would have done. That's the biggest reason they need to buy a new set of tires sooner, not that EVs wear out tires appreciably faster.
  • THX1136 Always liked the Mustang though I've never owned one. I remember my 13 yo self grabbing some Ford literature that Oct which included the brochure for the Mustang. Using my youthful imagination I traced the 'centerfold' photo of the car AND extending the roof line back to turn it into a small wagon version. At the time I thought it would be a cool variant to offer. What was I thinking?!
  • GregLocock That's a bodge, not a solution. Your diff now has bits of broken off metal floating around in it.
  • The Oracle Well, we’re 3-4 years in with the Telluride and right around the time the long term durability issues start to really take hold. This is sad.
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