I stole the title from someone who posted that ad line in the jingles thread. Thanks Actionmage. I know I changed "your" to "my," but I own a Chevy so I ran with it.

One of my favorite car ads is the one where the girl is pissed at her boyfriend so she pushes his Toyota truck off of a cliff and then gets foiled because the truck is so awesome that it didn't die.

And then there's the one, and I think it's Chevrolet, where the guy parks his truck on the beach to go canoeing. The tide comes in and bashes the truck all over the place. Then the tide goes back out, the guy comes back and drives off in the truck.

Miss Alli's suggestion that one of the new VW commercials must have been written by Paula Abdul seems about right. Really now, what's with this Deutschland über alles campaign? That sells cars?

The ones where they smash up the tuner cars? Crazy German Guy? "V-Dub in da house!?" I LOVE those! I don't have a thing for VW's but I hate tuner cars and those commercials crack me up every time.

Vord, effulgent, vord! I love how he does the VW symbol with his fingers like a wanna-be gangsta.

But, then again, I'm willing to love any car commercial that doesn't feature someone driving down a winding mountain road while some idiot blathers on in the backgroud about 0 APR and no financing until 2007. Gah, puts me to sleep every time. I'll take cheesy and stupid over trite and boring any day.

I really crack up at those VW ads because of that nutty Peter Stormare! (Adore him on Prison Break!) I don't think it's an 'Uber alles' kinda thing. The tag line says it all: "Time to un-pimp the ride!"

Of the three, I like the pink car the most- the one with the car trebuchet! Yet I like the gal's lines in the green one; "Ya, it's sucking alright." I also like in the blue car one where she takes the 'F' from "The Flame" and sticks it on the guy. I can't remember how the line goes, but she's about as fun as Stormare.

What leaves me scratchin' my head is the red glow-in-the-dark Infiniti. Is there a switch so NORAD can't track you sometimes? Is it a force field? Does it come on when you drive too fast?And then? I got over Lexus. Again, some more.

And bettymojo, I'm glad you were able to use it!

edited because supposedly there's a difference between a Lexus and an Infiniti.

Ok. Ford? "Life in Drive"? Yeah, that's stupid. Let me tell you what life in drive is like: stop. go. stop. go. Get cut off by jerk in SUV. Tolls. More jerks in SUVs and souped up cars. Stuck behind old person in Buick Riviera who's driving 2.4 miles per hour. And that doesn't change no matter what car you're in.

I can't remember which manufacturer it was but I am seriously bugged by this commercial that starts off with some doom-and-gloom guy commenting on the problems of over-population in the US and how it can all be attributable to the new saftey design of their car. And I'm thinking, so, if we want to solve over-population we need more unsafe cars? Its just so stupid it baffles me.


Tenderfoot, I think VW is a german auto manufacturer, and I imagine one of the reasons they chose Stromare is because he's a native Swede and probably finds faking a german accent easy. His accent still slips through on Prison Break as well.

I just wanted to say that I love the Lexus commercial that talks about all the different types of moments (Moments you'll never forget, moments you've already forgotten...etc) and squeezing everything you can out of every last one. Everytime it comes on it captures my attention.
I don't even like to drive and generally walk to work even though I have access to a car, but based solely on that commercial, if I had the money, I'm sure I would now own a Lexus.

Coach K is shilling for Chevy. Awesome. My two loves in one place.

The VW ad with the trebuchet is probably my favorite too. Not just for the trebuchet, which is awesome, but because when he says "time to unpimp ze auto" he gives it this feeling of barely contained glee, it just cracks me up.

Oh, I know that VW is a German car, KeyOui. But that's exactly what bugs me about the ad campaign. Why make your spokesperson an arrogant German engineer, when Volkswagen has struggled for years to overcome the fact that the company was founded during the Nazi era? And has had to deal with stories, legends, rumors, etc. about whether the Beetle was designed by Adolf Hitler, whether the company used slave labor in manufacturing, and so on? I guess the fact that most people think the campaign is funny -- and I admit I do get a kick out of Stormare's performance -- means that I'm in a minority that finds the premise somewhat disturbing.

Not really crazy about the new ads from VW except for this particular moment. My favorite were the late 90s/early 2000s with Pink Moon and Moby.

The best, however, is for the Passat when there was an ariel view of someone driving the car and parking in the outermost reaches of the parking lot. Why, you ask? That could be a replica of my husband parking our Passat!

What's the deal with the currently relentless ads for Chevy - have they decided to go for broke with the lesbian demographic? And who is that dykey woman in all their ads, with the spiky hair and the navy-blue pantsuit, and the squinty eyes?

(not that there's anything wrong with it, but it's just....odd)

It's for Toyota. And it might not be quite as misleading as it looks, since Jeremy Clarkson on BBC's Top Gear - in a segment which almost certainly inspired the commercial - did indeed try to destroy an old Toyota pickup by letting it get washed away with the tide. When the tide went out again they found it half-buried in wet sand, but they still got it running again.

The "meteor-proof" ad in the same series is over-the-top (I'm not sure even a Toyota could survive that), but very well done.

Trivia note: that annoying "Zoom Zoom Zoom" song was recorded in the early 1990s for a forgotten action movie (Only the Strong), long before Mazda started using it. (When a friend of mine bought a Mazda Protege a few years ago, it came with a CD containing the song. If the artist and songwriters had a halfway competent agent, they must have made a fortune in royalties.)

I am pretty sure this was a car commercial, but I don't know what make. I just started paying attention because there was a dog, in the backseat with his rear out the window. I thought he was farting out the window, but I guess he was supposed to be mooning another dog they were passing. I don't know, it was weird. Anyone else seen it?

One of my favorite commercials of all time has to be the VW wedding one.

A guy is obviously nervous about being late for something while driving and then we see a girl in her wedding dress surrounded by her bridesmaids, we switch back and forth between the two and he's finally made it (after a bunch of things to slow him down: being behind a motorhome, a long train while he waits for it to pass) and he parks the car right outside the church.

He dashes in and there is the woman at the end of the aisle, the ceremony is in progress and there's another guy with her. The woman looks at him and her eyes dart away, the groom is absolutely astounded that the guy is there, the bride looks at him again and sighs. And the commercial ends with the tagline "Fasten your seatbelts."

I love everything about it. The visuals, music, the twist at the end. I have been waiting for years ever since it came out for Volkswagen to put another one out showing who she picked. I was rooting for the James Spader look-alike.

I remember that when VW was first coming our with its Driver's Wanted campaign, my freind was working for the ad agency here in Boston that came up with it. Apparently someone sent in a spy to try to find out what the campaign was, and leaked out to the media that the campaign was actually, Driver's Want It. Ever since then I just giggle when the tag line comes up, because somesone did a really bad spy job!



Hee! But seriously, I do hate ads when they choose such a generic line that doesn't describe anything unique to their product at all. Like you are saying, what makes Life in Drive have anything to do with Ford, and not say, Toyota?

For over 40 years I've hardly ever seen a VW commercial or print ad that I didn't like -- quite a record! As far as I'm concerned, their first misstep was those scary, obnoxious "fast" ads, but, mercifully, they seem to have disappeared rather quickly.

Anybody remember when Suburu first came out and they ran those commercials where people with the names of other cars would sing about liking Suburu? Susan Ford (Gerald's daughter): "Ford likes Suburu" or the Cadillacs (a 50s group): "Cadillacs like Suburu." It was kind of clever, but obviously had limitations.

I saw a pair of commercials last night that really shocked me. I think they were for Jettas. The first one featured a guy and his buddy talking while driving down the road, then WHAM! they slam into a truck that pulled out in front of them. The next scene shows them standing outside their mashed car, and the driver says, "Holy..." and then the slogan "Safe Happens" pops up.

The second one was similar, but showed a side-impact collision.

SnowDog, They are for the newly redesigned VW Jetta. They are absolutely horrifying because they are completely real looking.
I hope that these are the only two Safe Happens commercials that VW will make.
The first one had the two couples talking about a movie they had just seen. Then, the driver apparently runs a red light and they are T-boned by an SUV.
The second one has the two buddies talking about some ski trip story. Then, the driver rear-ends a truck backing out of a driveway. The driver has very convincing air-bag chemical burns after the accident.
Is VW trying to tell everyone that if you don't pay attention and cause an accident the car will still protect you?
I was in an accident a year ago that was, thankfully, not as serious.
Both videos seem so real that it causes unpleasant memories that I'd rather not re-live.
Thanks for the unnecessary mental scarring VW.

Yeah, chancellor, we've been discussing it in the "Horrifying Commercials" thread. I didn't realize that there were two of these commercials around...until thirty seconds ago. Seriously, VW, we. get. it. Either I buy a fugly-ass Jetta, or I die. Thanks.

I keep seeing the commercial for the new Toyota Yaris and...I just don't get it. There's a car. There's a piggy bank. Some kind of robotic arm comes out of the car and goes to great lengths to break open the piggy bank, then takes the pathetic single penny that's in it and swallows it.

The only message I'm getting there is that the new Toyota will break your bank and take all your money.

And what kind of name is "Yaris" for a car, anyway?

They killed the pig :(

Re: Yaris:

There's another Yaris commercial where a bunch of gas pump nozzles form a spider, which is crushed by the car. A hose then comes out of the car's tank to suck up the gas/blood from the gas spider.

So the car sucks up a lot of gas? Seems like the opposite of the intended message, which is that the car is rated at 40 mpg.

Yeah, those Yaris commercials don't make much sense. And the car itself? Pretty fugly.

Fortunately, I haven't seen any more of those Ford Fusion commercials where they say it's a car that makes energy--when I first saw the commercials, I thought it was for a hybrid. Imagine my surprise when I found out that it's not a hybrid. That's when the commercials went from mildly interesting to flat-out stupid.

Saw the Yaris commercial last night. Cute pig - hmm, cute idea...doesn't break the bank. Wait - they killed the pig? Thought the same as you Actinolite - the car breaks the bank?
Pig was cute too - bastards.

They are real, according to The Wash. Post:

*shudders*
Well, that's pretty darn scarring!
They did an excellent job though...

There is a Mercedes commercial that shows an SUV in a side-impact test and the rammer thing hits the SUV and then jumps off the tracks and flips over the SUV without doing any damage. That ad bothers me. I know there is a "reasonable man" standard for these kinds of things but it still seems like false advertising.

The dishy Patrick Fabian (Hey, it's that guy) is in the Hyundai commercials. I have no idea what he is saying, but, damn, he still looks awful good. I don't know if that's that they are going for.

The Passat ad where the woman honks the horn from the passenger's seat and an angry wrestler-type gets out of the car in front of them has "Closed course. Road rage is not good." (Possibly "not cool") in fine print at the bottom.

I'm beyond sick of the car commercial with the Kelly Clarkson song. I don't even remember the brand, but I know that I never want to hear that screechy voice again.

I do like the GM commercial with the Everclear song "AM Radio." It's an older song, but I like it.

Now that I've read in Wikipedia that Dustin Hoffman appeared in a VW ad when he was starting out, I wonder if that was an intentional homage. Also, in 2004 Hoffman starred in a much more on-the-nose Graduate homage for Audi called "Just Like Your Mother". (This Audi ad won a couple of awards.)

I've said earlier and elsewhere how much I loved UK Honda's "Cog" ad from a while back, so I'm glad to see their new work (with W+K UK) is still pretty nifty: "Choir". A large choir of vocal Foley artists provide all the SFX for a car commercial. In terms of conveying information, it's a total zero, but there's just so much charm in it.

VW has the honor of holding top spots in my "most loved" and "most hated" ads list. I loved that wedding one. I mean, I loved it so much that when I found out the guy in it was going to be on Judging Amy, I actually started watching that show! Ok so it was only for 1.5 episodes, but that's 1.5 more episodes than I would have ever seen without him.

But now they have those scarring sudden crash ads and the "Zero Ego Emissions" ads that make me want to flip off every VW driver I see. I have a feeling that if they were making that wedding ad now, it would consist of the guy being mistaken for a yoga instructor and then while he rudely denies it, a train crashes into him.

I love the wedding ad. I've been crushing on Kevin Rahm since he was on Jesse. Er... did I just admit to watching Jesse? Oh well. He was also in another commercial for a camcorder or something where he got married (again) on a beach.

I am totally baffled by the Volvo ad that starts off like a newscast talking about plastic surgery and wrinkles. Then they cut to a woman who talks about Volvo with a look of wrinkle-free surprise on her face. What the hell does all that have to do with Volvo? It's just freakin' creepy.

I think the premise is that they're so safe, people are worrying less and getting less wrinkles or something like that. Stupid. Plus I hate commercials that pretend to be newscasts.

*sigh* That would be for Dodge. As an employee at a Dodge dealership, I am properly ashamed.

When oh when oh when are they going to discontinue the Toyota Tacoma "guys who own them do this" ads? As a differently-gendered person who owns one, I'm seriously offended every time they imply that just because I lack a specified set of chromosomes I can't possibly have as much fun in my Tacoma as a guy would. And that it may possibly be illegal for me to own one in the first place since I have such a pathetic boring female life that I'm not worthy of the high-clearance four-wheel-drive that has helped me to keep my job over the past six long cold snowy winters. Hey, Toyota... steady paychecks? They're fun.

I've seen that and the equally stupid fairy one in strict rotation during tonight's hockey game. Dodge? It's still a little hatchback, albeit one with an ugly grill.

Dear Chevy, Ford, Dodge, Toyota, and Honda,
Just because I live in Texas and watch basketball does not mean I need to be bombarded with spots for your trucks every commercial break. And, just because I live in Texas, it does not mean that I wear a cowboy hat and boots, need an automobile "as big as Texas", and have a boat/horse trailer/cattle car that I need to tow. Not everyone in this state is one big cliche, as your ads seem to automatically assume.
Yours in annoyance,
emma675

I hate the ad where the minivan is being described as spaceship by the kid(Hyundai?). It's so annoying. It's this year's model of Minivan, not the Saturn 5 rocket. Speaking of annoying, let's go to the Ford "Bold" ads. So you're "bold" if you drive one, huh? Stupid and unnecessary.

Every time I see that VW "zero ego emissions" ad, I can't help but think they stole that idea from the South Park episode in which every South Park-er bought a hybrid and their "smug" emissions led to the development of a huge cloud of "smug" over the city that eventually created the perfect storm that almost destroyed the world.

ETA: The "smug" emissions of the South Park-ers came from their self-satisfaction (and their farts, heh), not their cars. Just wanted to make that clear.

I liked the VW "zero ego emissions" ad, but hated the VW stereotypes ads. On one hand, if my life is ruled by ads, I would totally buy the VW because I enjoy being "uncool." On the other hand, if I happen to be male, I wouldn't want to buy a car that says I can to yoga and can dance really well.

My brother just started at VW as a mechanic, so I seem to be paying attention to their car ads more.

Hi all - long-time reader, but this is my first post! Yay! My voice shall be heard! :)

I can't stand most car ads. The ones I dislike right now are the VW "stereotype" ads...pretty much because some of the most un-hip people I know drive VWs.
Another series - the Honda FIT ads. My friend just got a FIT and it is a great little car. But the silly pictures and the robotic "the FIT is GO" voice...grated. That, and they hardly even showed the car! I had to wait until my friend came back from Montana (we live in Texas) to actually see it.

Oh, and - a bit off topic - but one day I was sitting on the floor watching TV and the VW "low ego emissions" commercial came on and caught my dog's attention. When the final megaphone guy started talking, my dog - who is a Corgi, not a hound - started HOWLING! I laughed for 5 minutes...guess he didn't like the commercial.

WTF did I just see? This woman is picking up her cleaning at the drive-up window. She spots a hot guy waiting in the car behind her, so she pays for some of his shirts and leaves her calling card with the clerk to give to the guy! I am not making this up!

OK, so maybe she's not trying to pick up a stranger, a stranger with whom she hasn't even exchanged pleasantries. Maybe she's supposed to know who he is since she obviously knows that he's picking up shirts, as opposed to clothes for his wife and kids [or maybe she doesn't care]. Maybe she's supposed to know who he is and therefore that he is not some psychokiller.

But I don't think so ...

This has great potential for the Serialized Commercials thread - in the next spot, the enraged dry cleaner lady hurls her scalding coffee in the whore's face that tried to pick up on her adoring husband, who was coming through her line to drop off her forgotten lunch.

The latest WTF? Jack in the Box's ad, where the kid is sitting at the drive through speaker, slackjawed and glassy-eyed, unable to make a decision. Jack suggests keeping it simple and staying with the classics. Tacos, he proposes.
The kid slowly and confusedly wonders now how many tacos (he's alone in the car).
When Jack suggests 30 of them, he gleefully says, "that's what I was thinking!"

There is no other possible interpretation other than that this kid is stoned out of his mind.
Which actually could have been funny, had he been standing on his feet and not sitting behind the wheel of a large car.

OK, maybe I need to cut this and put it in the Angry Up the Blood thread...

For some odd reason, it was a "goal" of mine to own a VW Jetta since high school. When I could finally afford to buy a brand new car, that is exactly what I bought - it was a fun little car with a bit of status to boot. I love my little car but I do not love the direction VW has taken with their advertising. The the safety ads horrify me; the "un-pimping" ones disturb me; and the stereotype ones and the low ego-emission ones are just dumb. For years they've had great ads both on tv and in print (who can forget the Jerry Garcia tribute ad?). I hope they get these bad ads out of their system soon!!

THANK YOU!! I swear, if I hear one more of those stupid "It's bigger in Texas, better in a Dodge!" jingles or anything else with turbo-charged nu-country twangy guitar action and overtestosteroned vocalizations, I will smash in the first megatruck I come across.

OTOH, I love the VW "lowest ego emissions" commercials. And I want to defend the Jack In The Box stoner dude commercial by pointing out that people who are stoned are less likely to get into an accident than people who are drunk, but that's not going by any kind of personal knowledge, so. (Plus I love their tacos. They're greasy tidbits of yumminess, even for a half-Chicana.)

(edited because I made minor booboo)