Buick's "Mistaken Identity" Commercial Seems to Mock the Brand's Own Terribly Unpopular Cars

Encore, not Regal. Regal TourX if you please, not the Cascada. No to the LaCrosse, yes to the Enclave. Regal Sportback shunned, Envision approved.

This isn’t an elementary analysis of the pro-crossover/anti-car trends of the marketplace or GM’s China-centric Buick brand. Rather, it’s the message Buick seems to be sending in its own advertising.

Of course, that’s not the official line from Buick PR. But the more you watch the six-month-old “Mistaken Identity” commercial, the more you wonder what Buick must think of its own cars.

Mistaken Identity begins with an upwardly mobile male correcting an allegedly surprised valet. “That’s my Buick,” he says to the valet, who evidently just arrived at the front door of the hotel in a red Regal only to discover that the owner’s Buick was an Encore already parked out front.

The storyline’s already a mess. When did the Encore make its way to the front of the building? Did it ever leave? Shouldn’t the valet, even if only for Buick’s sake in a Buick ad, recognize a six-year-old Buick design as a Buick?

But the bigger question remains: why are we supposed to believe the valet is more impressed by a wannabe-premium subcompact crossover than a rather dashing red sedan? Moreover, is Buick suggesting customers should be more impressed by the $23,200+ Trax sibling than the $39,070+, 310-horsepower, all-wheel-drive sports sedan?

No, according to Buick spokesperson Stuart Fowle. “The purpose of that spot was simply to demonstrate variety within the Buick lineup while staying true to the long-running message that the brand has evolved dramatically in recent years,” Fowle told TTAC. “No insults,” he says, “just a message that we have something for everyone.”

The storyline is no less confusing when it comes to the young female surfers — yoo-hoo, eyes down here — who seem to be looking for a friend’s Buick at the beach parking lot. Requiring a Buick with space for their boards, the surfers aren’t sure how the top-down Cascada’s going to work.

While they’re directed by friends to the nearby Regal TourX, you’re sitting on the couch asking the universe, “Wouldn’t they remember the car they came in? And if they’re leaving in a different car than the car they came in, how did they not notice the tri-shield on the roof-racked wagon they just walked past?”

Fortunately, it’s a lot easier to make sense of the Enclave’s people-carrying ability when a group of young lacrosse players fail to see how they’ll fit in a LaCrosse. Granted, the Roadmaster Wagon’s rear-facing bench is rolling over in its grave, but that’s a subject for another time.

Mistaken Identity concludes with a fourth stanza in which a real live Regal Sportback is overlooked, figuratively and literally, by an Envision on billboard.

By the end, eight Buicks were presented to the car-buying public. In fact, Buick’s Fowle says the broad display of the entire lineup was the “primarily goal” for the 30-second ad. And though Buick will contest our interpretation of Mistaken Identity, the company won’t challenge its own sales figures.

“Customers in the North American market are gravitating toward the SUV part of our lineup, with the Encore, Envision and Enclave representing 90 percent of our sales,” Fowle says. “With the addition of the Encore GX early next year and the end of production for the Cascada and LaCrosse, we do expect that number to only grow higher and are positioning ourselves as an SUV brand.”