Madison Avenue

Has anyone else ever been annoyed to the point of disliking a manufacturer.because of lame commercials?I particularly disliked the older Jeep and Saturn commercails and the new Chevy commercials,dont like people throwing off on others bread and butter.Just my rant for the day-Kevin

The Nissan commercials are so dumb they really stand out.

The greatest of all car commercials were the Volkswagen Beetle ones of the 60s. Very clever and imaginative! It sold Ameria on the legitimacy of small cars.

The greatest of all car commercials were the Volkswagen Beetle ones of the 60s.

Like “How dose the snowplow driver get to work”

True they were inoffensive-Kevin

Yes. The new Corolla commercial where the runaway dog keeps running away from the annoying dog toys bothers me even more than it does the dog. It implies that the drivers are too stupid to just feed the dog. Who wants to be associated with people that can’t figure out their dog’s basic instincts? “Corollas are for Knuckle Draggers” is not an appropriate message for prospective buyers.

Yes, that one was actualy filmed in NEW ZEALAND because it was made in the US/Canada off-season.

The one I like best is the funeral one where the rich guy leaves his $400 million fortune to his son in law, who of course, was wise enough to buy a Volkswagen.

"My name is Ram. My tank is full."
Now THAT is annoying!

Yeah, I’m no fan of the new Jeep campaign either.

Lincoln has also stopped telling about their cars…or even showing us anything about them.

There seems to be a trend toward trying to create a mood rather than selling a car. Even the brochures tell little about the cars. Perhaps I’m just old fashioned, but knowing something about the car is much more enticing to me that seeing some distorted flashy image shooting through my screen with thumping music and flashy lighting.

One of my favorites too.

The thread we had concerning the Chrysler 300 ad which was really well done and executed and seemed to go over the heads of Chrysler heads themselves. It’s really bad to remind people in an ad how poor the previous generation of your car was. That was a great ad for me in that respect.

I agree…as “Joseph E. Meehan” once said, buying a car is an emotional experience for many.

Thanks folks,remember how the VW ads used to promise continous improvements and upgrades-wish they still had a Beetle like the old ones-Kevin

Ditto. My first car was a '61 Beetle.

When I heard some years back that they were introducing a new version of the Beetle I expected something different, basic, inexpensive…a bare bones “peoples’ car”, like what made them famous. The “New Beetle” was s disppointment to me…just another in a long line of overpriced FWD econoboxes.

I guess I just get emotional (desirous) over the technical details rather than a flashy image. I’m never going to blast into outer space in the vehicle anyway (Lincoln) and I don’t want the vehicle bossing me around (Ram), so I guess I just don’t understand the commercials.

Yeah likewise,not to many years ago you could go south of the border and purchase a new Old Beetle(maybe it was a Super Beetle) anyway I was disappointed in the new Beetle. Wish we get some smog exemptions for air cooled engines,the rear engine design gave such good traction,the darn things(wish I had a “Thing”) were fun to work on-Kevin

Mitsubishi’s “Intimidate With Style!” ads for their SUVs.

It appears none are on Youtube. It just summed up everything that was wrong with car marketing AND with the SUV fad. May as well have said “embrace the arms race!”

Kevin. Your question on bad ads reminded me of Edsel’s big mistake (among many) in 1958. They kept it under wraps until nation-wide show day. Leading up to that day, they ran heavy ads about something coming that was new, wonderful, etc etc. Show day came, everyone showed up and then went home - very low sales. They built expectations so high they couldn’t meet them. Do any ad campaigns come to mind that really did a good job launching the brand?

Gosh, what comes to mind,was the hype leading to the segway scooter.Being a fan of good Science Fiction,the 79-80 Ford Futura ads were pretty annoying too.I cant think of any that really did the job,the advertising people have a really tough job at times-Kevin

The newest Chevy commercials with Howie Long and the Honda lawn mower really make Honda look good. Whenever a car company mentions a competitor by name, that competitor benefits.

“When I heard some years back that they were introducing a new version of the Beetle I expected something different, basic, inexpensive…a bare bones “peoples’ car”, like what made them famous. The “New Beetle” was s disppointment to me…just another in a long line of overpriced FWD econoboxes.”

We had 6 beetles in the immediate family at one time so I can relate. I just can’t imagine though, anyone of them passing today’s front end collision test. A Porsche the ain’t.

“Whenever a car company mentions a competitor by name, that competitor benefits.”

I dunno… That comes under the catagory of any press is better than no press. The Chevy/Long commercials, whether Honda or Ford, are annoying. Especially the Silvrado commercial.