Ah the power of advertising…
Like just about anything in life, advertising that is clear, concise, and straight to the point is likely to offend no one. While it may accomplish its basic mission, advertising that is dry and strictly informative is also unlikely to stir emotion, discussion, and memorability of either the ad or the product. And while sometimes a product is truly spectacular enough that it sells itself, as often the case, some creative advertising must come into place to generate excitement and opinion of it. As Don Draper always said, “If you don’t like what they’re saying, change the conversation”.
Now in terms of memorability, nothing is more effective than an advertisement that brings humor and even varying degrees of ridiculousness. Relating to cars, there are many humorous and ridiculous commercials from over the years that stick out in my mind, even after all these years. Among them, is this 1998 Plymouth commercial from my childhood. I guess it proved an effective ad, as even after nearly two decades, I still remember it like it was yesterday.
This was just one of the most memorable off the top of my head; there are many more I can think of. What ridiculous car commercial from over the years sticks out in your memory most?
One commercial that I remember from when I was a kid was for the AMC Javelin in 1969. It showed one that had mag wheels & a 6-71 blower sticking from the hood & a kid telling his father that he “improved” the car.
I still remember the original Javelin commercial from the fall of ’67. It’s being driven by an absolutely milquetoast kind of guy (the stereotype of the average AMC owner at the time), and at every traffic light the car that pulls up to him wants to run off the line. He’s constantly making excuse after excuse, and finally quietly arrives at the parking lot. Where he turns the car over the parking attendant.
Who promptly lays rubber taking it to its parking space. Closing shot is the owner wincing.
The ad really made it’s point well.
Found it. It’s the second commercial in this clip. Of course, the first one with Richard Dreyfus is a hoot, too.
Love the Javelin, love these clips!
Haha….that’s the guy who plays Dorothy’s ex-husband, Stanley Zbornack on “The Golden Girls”
Thanks, he looked familiar but I couldn’t place him.
Nice one wheel peel in the second one!
Surreal at least… Grace Jones advertising the Citroen CX
Out. Standing.
It’s a BX
I remember that ad. It was one of those things I saw one of those “Worlds Weirdest Ads” shows they run on New Year’s Eve or some such thing. I think it fit the parameters completely.
Two words: Trunk Monkey.
+1. Oh, heck…+100.
Does a combo of “unintentionally funny” and “creepily silly” make the grade? This one drove me NUTS when it was run over and over and over back in the day. Ford unashamedly suggested that potentials should consider a Granada because it aped the Mercedes S class… which it did poorly.
Of course, the ad didn’t invite you to drive the two and then compare.
I wonder why?
Excellent example of a disconnect between Ford’s marketers and engineers, and the advertisers.
The American Granada was never intended to be a Mercedes competitor (although the unrelated European Granada was).
I was 11 when these commercials started, and even I could see how ridiculous and transparent the comparison was. But frankly, plenty of commercials of the day played to the lowest common denominator, so the advertisers probably thought it would reassure the insecure budget – conscious buyer that the inexpensive Ford Granada was not shamefully outdated and cheap.
Given that it was meant to be the next generation Maverick, it certainly is a disconnect.
No crack back then, wonder what Ford was smoking.
There wasn’t crack, But, LSD was still a “thing” in the mid ’70s ?
Actually, the Granada was specifically deigned to emulate the Mercedes when it was introduced for the 1975 model year. I don’t know what the “code” name was for the Mercedes of the generation that ended in 1976 (not the S class), I distinctly remember reading about it in the car magazines back then; Mercedes was becoming more mainstream and popular. Of course they couldn’t copycat it, but the general shape and lines of the Mercedes were followed. It’s hard to see it sometimes, but GM copied the lines of the Jaguar XJ when they redesigned their full-size lineup in the early 90s, too.
What I found most ridiculous about the Granada/Mercedes adverts was that the Granada didn’t look anything like a Mercedes. It looked like a shrunken LTD.
This 1966 Chevy commercial is memorable.
I remember that ’66 Chevy ad, I was 5 then and was my earliest memory of fall new car introductions. I had just learned what a ’65 Chevy looked like and asked my older brother why are the ’66 cars out so soon? Told me “they always do that”.
“May we build one just for you” – In 10 years Oldsmobile will.ask this… Seems right for the Sloan ladder!
Can we consider product placement in a movie the equivalent of a commercial?
If so, using AMC products in the James Bond movie “The Man with the Golden Gun” pegs the ridiculous meter.
The obvious one to me is the Renault Megane “shakin’ that ass” ad. The car had… a fat ass, and the ad featured people… shakin’ their ass.
It reminds me of a TV ad I saw in childhood, and the memory is so faint I’m wondering if it was all a dream. It was for Lada, it was extremely low budget, the point was that they were offering “rock bottom” prices, and featured female dancers shakin’ their asses.
It may have been for a local dealer chain, as there was also a zero budget ad for Yugo around the same time, with a laughable jingle which name-checked the dealer.
On a related note, this ad came out in Australia roughly around the same time as the classic Megane/ass commercial. It’s always stuck with me, the dorky German scientists trying to be sexy cracked me up then and cracks me up still. “You know you vant it!”
William, there was a spoof car calendar [or layout] awhile back that placed men in skimpy attire in the same stupid poses with cars as they do with women [Low rider magazine and motorcycle rag [as well as others] style].
Classic. Makes one almost throw up in the mouth a little, but funny
Pretty girls always helped advertisers trying to sell something hopeless.
Here’s a series of advertisements for the ridiculous, slow, cramped and noisy 2-stroke Subaru 360.
I would feel more enthusiastic about the pretty girl if she didn’t look so much like my sister.
It goes some places the big cars can’t go . . . yes indeed. When I was in college (late 70’s), there was a guy who had one. There was a path on campus blocked with two bollards to keep vehicles off it. The “Little Su-BAR-u” fit right between them . . .
Is that an approved gasoline container at :45? 🙂
So what was the deal with that weird pronunciation of “Subaru”? When did they start saying it in their commercials like they say it now?
It left me wondering if the Megan’s rear used to wobble at speed like my unlamented old Morris Ital
hmmm….so the Plymouth ad in the OP is saying “you don’t want a Plymouth”. Is that what they intended?
Fortunately, most of the really hideous ads have been purged from my memory. I do recall one that was supposed to be from the west Michigan Olds dealers in the 80s that was a takeoff on “Mystery Science Theater 3000”: the video of an Olds ad was running with the silhouettes of, presumably husband and wife in the bottom of the frame. The husband expresses interest in the cars and the wife mocks and denigrates him in a screechy voice that made Selma Diamond sound light a nightingale. Olds, like Plymouth, is now defunct.
Oh, wait….I remembered the hideous Volkswagen ads of a couple years ago. There was a string of ads with these old women in them. Looking at this ad, if the gender roles were reversed, there would have been a torrent of complaints about the person looking at the car being “objectified” and the three making “inappropriate comments”..
Another one. If it were three men making those comments to a woman who was trying to look at the car, VW would have been sued.
I’ts amusing to imagine the reaction to the OP’s Plymouth commercial, if it was the wife on the leash!
Happy Motoring, Mark
Anything with Joe Isuzu.
…but everything he said was the truth!
The first ad that really struck me as ludicrous – back in my impressionable youth – was an 80s Camaro spot. It seemed to take place on Mars, for who knows what reason, and tried to show off the car’s sporty handling by having it dodge levitating, glowing balls. Even as a kid, that one was too much.
There are these Mercedes of White Plains radio ads featuring Chazz Palminteri which have been airing on the radio in NYC. They are always a WTF.
https://youtu.be/xOY-pEFFKhM
Good luck getting this one out of your head. Youre welcome.
If there was an award for the biggest gap between hype and reality, that one would win.
Another reason to hate ’80s music. But the Duster with a 2.2/ 5 speed was pretty quick for the day.
Well, these and at least one of these, but we mustn’t conclude today’s symposium without mention of Joe Isuzu:
Thank you Daniel,
You are obviously a connoisseur of fine commercial art and what we in the know call, trust-me-ism.
I always wanted a car faster than a speeding bullet, but none seem to work out during live testing.
Even in the race, Joe checks his hair before taking off.
More amazing than a remodeled Chevette being faster than a speeding bullet is a handgun that can launch the whole cartridge (not just the bullet) like that!
The Toyota Saved by Zero commercials were HORRIBLE! The bane of my existence.
All current “real people” Chevy commercials!
Lord, yes. I hate those with every fiber of my being.
They’re great, if only for inspiring this:
grounded to the ground
Wow, could her grating voice and his knuckledragger “uhuhuhuh…rims and ground fx…huhuhuhuh…schtick be any more irritating?
Ha! Yeah a lot of people remember the specific grounded to the ground quote from that commercial but the whole thing was cringe inducing.
Those Kia Sportage commercials featuring Zam’s Swamp Tours down in the Bayou…
Welcome to de swamp! Who needs roads?
https://youtu.be/lO0Aoy16HiU
Guaranteed to void your warranty in 30 seconds or less.
My fav, VW in a tree ad.
That one is great. VW has a lot of great ads that we rarely if ever see in the US. I like this one almost as much as the Miata ad that came out a couple years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0aXK2SAw7Y
But this thread is more about the stupid, tasteless and outright offensive ads instead.
The commercial that plane bugs me the most is GM’s volunteers (minions) driving in a “snow storm”. Nobody, I mean NOBODY can call that driving in a snow storm. The whole thing is as fake as a 3 dollar bill.
The splitting diamonds in a Grand Marquis of 71 was phoney but not insulting the human race. Actually I still smile thinking about it!
Habbout the ad for the Chameleon XLE?
Here in Quebec, Canada, we got our share of ridiculous car ads like GM Service Goodwrench.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNOuzxF4JZM
Or this tagline used in the first half of the 1980s “On fait route ensemble”(approximate translation: “We do road together”).
From Down Under, let’s add the memorable “Hey Charger!”.
The splitting diamonds one reminded me of another.
Anyone remember the Pacer and the submarine sandwiches?
“Let Hertz put you in the driver’s seat” —
But, you have to wait until the end…. when the driver & passenger fall out of the sky into various generations of Impala convertibles….
https://youtu.be/M30XXrrK3lY
Not a car commercial as such, but a Hertz rent-a-car commercial from 1962 or so.
I must be suceptible to advertising because from now on every time I see a Charger that jingle will be playing in my head. Hopefully I can avoid the embarrassment of yelling “hey Charger” to someone, that may constitute as harassment these days lol
Is it just me or do the wheels in the first ad look very similar to the 80s Chevy rally wheels?
Actually, the Chevy is a ’64.
The Ford Ka seems to get quite a few strange commercials
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VcFgXc_fPAw
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1GqBBr4iU0g
And then there’s the 1975 AMC Pacer
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cFpguJjjEvA
The one with Andrea washing her Saturn while her folks are watching and giving commentary is pretty ridiculous….
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=61rc-LS6PF0
Oh good, quick search for Festiva on this page (as of 1819 hrs, PST, 11/22/17) and it wasn’t found. Surprising.
This advertising is ridiculous in it’s slap-stickityness. All I remember is the car with it’s flapping doors and the sung line: “Fehhhsteeevaaa!”
Watching it again now makes me chuckle in how they crunch an old Towncar Limo as well. Good times, good humour, those late 80s
At least their quality control division was on top of it!
What? No mention of FINE CORINTHIAN LEATHER yet? I thought for sure it would be mentioned by now, heh heh heh. Plus, this land yacht being called “the new small Chrysler” was indeed a small Chrysler at that time, but compared to the barge that is the Newport and New Yorker et al, that ain’t saying much……
Early Infiniti ads were a bit out there…
I was scrolling just to see when those damned Infiniti ads were gonna be mentioned!
I liked the Joe Isuzu ones and found them really funny.
The ones that I find irritating are the overly sentimental Subaru commercials running today. No, “love” doesn’t make a Subaru.
Another car related ad is the Liberty Mutual one where the woman praises the insurance company for getting her son’s flat tire changed. Hey, Lady, what kind of helpless kid are you raising? How about he learns to change it himself!
I do like the Dodge ad with Vin Diesel. I never get enough of watching that Demon lift the front wheels!
Oh gawd those newer Subaru ads! They’re horrible… The one where they drop off the Forester in the middle of a field as if that were a responsible way to dispose of an unwanted car… The dorky one where the ADD driver loses his sunglasses in his hoodie and he and his companion drive around for hours looking for them… Or the one where you get to show how much you care about a certain issue by purchasing little badges for the tailgate of your car, like the charm bracelet charms you buy for little girls… How clueless…
I always thought those commercials Lexus runs around Christmas time where someone surprises their spouse with a new Lexus with a giant bow on top were kind of silly. I mean who makes such a major purchase as a car as a surprise gift? I imagine a more realistic reaction would be the wife saying “You spent HOW MUCH on this car? And you didn’t even consult me?” (I know, the demographic they’re targeting maybe wouldn’t consider spending that kind of money a big deal, but still). I also used to think the giant bow was kind of silly because, come on, where would you get a bow that big? Then I learned the giant bow is an actual accessory you can purchase from your Lexus dealer.
It must work, because as you say they run the commercials every year. If it didn’t work, I’m sure they would much rather waste the money on a stock buyback or dividends than a commercial that doesn’t work.
I recall the Ford Maverick commercial from 1969 in which several stewardesses assembled their very own “Simple Machine.” Absolutely believable. Or not.
I seem to remember that the Maverick was pushed as “The New Model T”; an everyman’s simple transportation that you could work on at home. It was supposed to be an answer to the VW Beetle in its simplicity. The Stewardess ad seems to play into that memory…but I can’t find much on the web to support me beyond this print ad
It was, Lokki. The brochures and ads of the period validate your memory..
Motor trend said the Maverick wasn’t a true VW competitor but a $2000 Mustang for those who couldn’t afford a $2600 one.
Granny had the first Grabber in the Chambersburg PA area in the same color as the one above, but that one is a 71.
I wish someone would build and market a car that was simple. The Saturn S Series was probably the last one offered.
Not all that long ago I thought that Volkswagen’s commercials for the GTI which featured Dieter and Helga were bizarre and absurd, but I couldn’t stop looking. Like a train wreck.
I loved those commercials! They were snarky and funny without being totally idiotic like so many other attempts at humor. Even better IMO was the use of Peter Stomare (of Fargo fame), while not German, looked and sounded German enough to make the gag work.
https://youtu.be/rSvQHOgihOA
I can’t believe no one mentioned (unless I missed it) the Ford Granada ads where it was using Mercedes as its yardstick. I was 19 at the time and even then I knew it was BS.
The old radio commercials from the late 1960’s in which the very young-sounding announcer deliberately mispronounced the name of the Plymouth Baracuda as Bacaruda.
I always find it rather disgusting the blatant sexist bias in commercials. It’s supposedly ok to treat a man like a dog and even have him tied to leash in the front yard. Just imagine the outrage if it were a woman portrayed in the same commercial?!
Still remember these Su-BAR-u commercials like they were yesterday. Of course the pretty girls and being age 13 probably had a lot to do with this!
I have to wait to watch every one of these…
-Nate
Cadillac’s Seasons Best ad from a few years ago. Played till the eyes and ears bled.
And how does a security guard walking in front of a closed Cadillac dealer help market the cars?
The television ad that rang false to me, and maybe Brendan Saur will remember it, as it seemed to be aimed at New England buyers. It was a Toyota Venza ad, showing two couples arriving at a hiking trailhead, one casually well-dressed, well-kempt couple in their Venza, and the other couple, dressed sloppily with the husbands hair is uncombed, he’s unshaven and wearing Birkenstok-like sandals, driving their Subaru Outback. Pretty shocking attitude coming from Toyota(or their ad agency), whose usual course is to not offend any car buyer by singling them out as not stylish enough to be driving a Toyota. Fortunately, the Venza is no longer being sold while the Outback is still popular in its niche market, and I hope the dunces responsible for this ad are admonished never to falsely assail another competitors product because the Subaru customer today could very well be the future Toyota buyer tomorrow.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QOsLdT4slsk
This one.
How about the ads from 1996-97 for the Catera featuring Cindy Crawford and an animated duck. Along the hokey tag line “The Caddy that Zigs”:
Let’s not forget how the commercials ended with a voiceover saying, “Lease a Catera! (Who is Lisa Catera?)”
This led to a character named “Dr. Lisa Catera” being introduced on the TV medical show, “Chicago Hope.”
“Catera, the Caddy that zigs” …. was truly stupid!!
I love the final gen Trans Am. I remember the first time I saw this all I could think was: WTF?
https://youtu.be/WCtipr5B0Hk
I can remember seeing this one as a young kid…
https://youtu.be/6QmYgpqLlsk
CANYOOOONERRRRROOOOOOOO
outstanding!
A fairly recent one…
GM knocking Ford’s aluminum pickup bed by dropping a die-block reinforced tool box to demonstrate how easily damaged Ford’s aluminum bed is. Meanwhile, GM is implementing aluminum like crazy and pedaling hard to develop more advanced techniques for same.
GM advertising Creates mythological automotive ideals. Then they create a plot. Then find fake people to act like real people and teach them to bob their heads like robots and follow in fake snow storms. What’s not to like…
Late to the party but my favourite is this Spanish ad.
The guy basically praises his new Dyane 6: trouble-free car, great stability, can go anywhere, practical and comfortable, low fuel consumption – hey, just 6 l/100km!
His patient wife answers “Everything you say is ok with me, but can’t you just wait for two days until they deliver it from the dealer?”
“Look how it takes curbes”
“But it is not even registered yet!”, she answers in despair.
“But I can’t wait! Understand me! I want a Dyane”…
Finally, the slogan “Dyane 6, for charming people”
One more that goes with my handle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUKzeiKlzPU
Basically, random attributes with words ending in -ción… Just to say that it is the newly injected model (inyección in Spanish, get it?), with an upbeat version of a famous disco song of the era, called…. People from Ibiza!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KXe4qUvD8s
So cheesy it hurts!
Two more!
Renault 11 “plays hard”, imitating the so 80s fronton tennis frenzy of the era