The Spoof in Advertising

[tama z71]

The Spoof in Advertising

“What the hell was that?”

A Tama Article

September 4, 2006

To most folks, advertising is an accepted, albeit annoying, part of everyday life. In fact, we Americans are so heavily bombarded by the advertising juggernaut that we now subconsciously filter it all out. What would be considered an offensive amount in other countries, we consider normal.

But to a company, advertising is vital. It is the face of your business that is broadcast to the entire buying public. If played correctly, it can shape your corporate image contrary to any shred of reality. If done poorly, the effects are the same.

Knowing that perception is 90 percent of reality and one-hundred times more vital, it would be logical to assume that advertising should be produced with the same quality as the cars being advertised, no? Why is it then that automotive ads have become so damn laughable? I give you my five candidates for Worst Displays of Automotive Advertising 2006.

Mr. Opportunity

Mr. Opportunity was the first car commercial that made me scratch my head some years ago when he debuted, and when Honda brought the little guy back a few days ago, he again made me pause and ponder.

If you’re not familiar, Mr. Opportunity is the cartoonish (literally) figure who annually reminds you that now is the best time to buy your new Honda. Like Punxawtaney Phil, he’s the goofy little bastard that pops up at about the same time each year to answer a question you never asked.

This isn’t the Japanese automaker’s first attempt to sell cars with cartoon characters. Who could forget when Yosemite Sam got together with the naked-silver-silhouette girl for the Ridgeline spot during Superbowl XL? I certainly won’t – it was the first time I ever envied a cartoon.

The point I make is Honda has been a professional, multi-billion dollar global company for years now. The aim with the ads certainly seems to be to tug the nostalgic heartstrings of those who remember the time when anvil-dropping was good clean cartoon fun, but Mr. Opportunity should be efficiently removed at the first opportunity – say this time next year?

Just Dumb

Thankfully, General Motors’ Chevrolet Avalanche and fellow GMT-900 platform-mates have been a critical and sales success, snapping up more of the full-size SUV market that is already 60 percent GM’s and earning praise from critics who seem notoriously anti-domestic at times.

Where the new trucks picked up in build quality and overall competence, Chevrolet advertising certainly did not. When the Avalanche was still a preproduction vehicle, GM placed an early-release photo of the Avalanche on their website, driving through a field of baby cornstalks, heavily enough photoshopped to have passed for The Daily Show. Such photography raises several important questions.

1. Who the hell drives their truck through a cornfield?

2. The Avalanche is every bit as long and heavy as a Chevy Suburban, one of the largest vehicles available for purchase. Even though it is inexplicably driving through a field of baby cornstalks, would it not at least leave some tire marks? Anywhere? They weren’t there.

3. Who the hell drives their truck through a cornfield?!!

The photo, featured on GM’s website, was likely rendered to further implant the idea that the new trucks are e-85 capable and that GM is at the top of this important new technology. However, the photo was poorly executed and built on a premise that was questionable at best. A small detail, but photos are often the first thing a buyer will seek out on a website. Therefore, bad advertising.

Bobbleheads

What better way to promote the head-scratching-good Jeep Compass than with a slew of commercials that raise as many questions as the vehicle itself?

The Compass has already been bludgeoned by the media for the questionable niche it is trying to carve out, while simultaneously diluting the vaunted Jeep off-road persona. While it is true that no brand can survive as solely a niche nameplate in today’s crowded market (a good debate always), many have questioned Jeep’s 180-degree spin from outdoor-conquest to urban doll-chucking.

Either way, the commercials raise more questions than they answer, and not in the way a company would like. Whatever the fate of the Compass, let’s hope that a new round of advertising can come to bear before the car sees its end.

Dr. Z

So far, Chrysler’s run of “Ask Dr. Z” ads have been something of a mixed bag. On one hand, my first reaction to the ad was “hey, not bad.” But, after having read a few articles about the series on the interweb, I found that almost every auto journalist saw the ads as knocking Dieter Zetchse’s credibility rating from “aspirational” to “laughable.” But on the other hand, a recent study shows that 14% of polled consumers would consider a DCX vehicle after having seen the ads. But on the other hand, many consumers have also been noted as believing that Dr. Z was actually a fictional character and not really the CEO of Daimler-Chrysler.

So where does Dr. Z really fall? Somewhere between overly-critical auto analysts and passive television viewers, Dr. Z has really fallen in the middle of the field as a “standard” series of ads – kind of like playing a game of poker in which you win back your buy-in and go home with as much as you started.

Toyota’s Americanization

Perhaps no company in the world levies its success on the domination of its PR department as Toyota does. From a series of billboard ads that display their economic contributions to America to producing the most politically correct vehicle ever in the Prius, Toyota has built a public image that is unquestionably polished.

There is no wrong in displaying your achievements in the country in which you are operating, but there is a point where respectable contributions become over-spoken flag-waving. In fact, some auto analysts are now questioning the validity of Toyota’s unending campaign of Americanization, and how well it will endure in the Texas truck market, quite possibly the most die-hard, buy-American, brand-loyal group of buyers in the market. This concern was offered most bluntly by Peter DeLorenzo of Autoextremist.com –

“…I can hardly wait for the Toyota advertising campaign that will attempt to convince everyone down in Texas - the largest pickup truck market in the world - that Toyota somehow has become "Native Texan" through a miracle of osmosis… …Make no mistake, Toyota's "aw shucks, we're just regular folks trying to be good citizens making a living" hat-in-hand approach will be severely tested with the marketing of the new Tundra.”

Toyota’s record of domesticity-inducing advertising is lengthy and far too numerous to pull out any one quote for this article. But for every cry of “they’re creating American jobs!” it must be remembered that profits are not, not, they are NOT staying in America. If you need some real proof of this, consider the country of England and their domestic auto producers who no longer exist. When a foreign company makes a home elsewhere, the profits, the engineering, and the aspirational positions within the company will stay in the home market, in Japan, where they always have.

Remember, Toyota’s Japanese headquarters resides in Toyota City, Japan. There is no Toyota City, Michigan, but if Toyota’s PR juggernaut continues its near-fictional roll, there may soon be.

[Variance]

The Honda "Mr. Opportunity" ads are just plain annoying. There's just something that irritates me about something that tries to be amusing but fails miserably.

The Avalanche photo thing was just as you said: a matter of poor execution. In addition to what you noted, IIRC the Avalanche looked grossly disproportionally larger than the field it was in. It looked like it was the size of a blimp in comparsion to the field in was in (or on, rather).

The Compass ads are really out there. What the hell are bobbleheads symboling? That would have to be one to buy that thing?

The DCX "Dr. Z" ads are my favorites out of the ones you list. Zetsche IMO, came across as pretty amusing with his overall "jauntiness": his jaunty German humor, jaunty German accent and of course, his jaunty German moustache. I don't have a problem with these ads themselves but rather the confused message they send to the public (touched on in my previous article).

I actually think the Toyota ads touting the American features have cooled. It may be because they don't have any really brand-new product currently but at any rate, I think they may be backing off on that a tad.

Nice write-up, Tama.