Ad Fail
There’s some buzz about the ad below from Audi:
Now, some folks are rather upset about that ad for fear of a police state or because it displays environmentalists as fascists and a whole other host of reasons that I’m not going to talk about. I’m going to talk about why the ad ensures I will not buy that car. The ad shows people violating what I presume are green laws and those people being arrested, harassed, and having the police state come down on them. The compliant people suffer no such fate. That is, the sheep are left alone. The ad says that, by virtue of buying this car, you will be a compliant citizen. In essence, you’ll be a better sheep. Fuck that.
The commercial should have ended with a guy in a big ass Ford Earthfuckertm that gets 5 miles per gallon with seats made from baby seals blowing past the roadblock billowing smoke. And, for effect, the driver flips them off. I’d buy that car. Not this little compliant pansy car. You appeal to Americans in an ad by showing rebellion and general orneriness. Not passiveness, compliance, or sheepishness.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Here here! It pissed me off too. Glad I wasn’t the only one.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:01 am
I agree. One point though–with all the lib-eco-nut reaction about how that world is an OK place to live, and we should all suck it up, they miss one thing: it’s a diesel. VW is slippin’ one past the ‘huggers.
Gaia — The Original MILF
February 9th, 2010 at 11:04 am
can’t*breathe* omglmfao!
First Unc makes me cry with the Ford Earthfucker, and then Johnny comes in with the killshot: “Gaia – the Original MILF.”
February 9th, 2010 at 11:21 am
Anyone notice these “green police” aren’t armed with anything more potent than mace? Good luck trying to confiscate my gas-guzzling Chevelle, Jackboots.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:34 am
Probably a terrible, earthy mace derived from paprika or something at that.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:41 am
I am not a advertising genius, but I know that pissing people off with what are basically irrelevancies and red herrings is not going to sell your product. Audi lost sales with this nonsense.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:42 am
Send this idea to Ford. If they use any version of it, it will SELL Fords like hot cakes.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:45 am
I agree.
I like to burn gas and gunpowder.
And I don’t intend to let the global warming hoaxters dictate my values and behavior.
February 9th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Yeaqh, that one got my pressure up as well, for all the reasons mentioned above.
Why couoldn’t I come up with the Gaia = MILF thing? Pure genius.
Unc, I thought Hummer made the Earthfucker?
February 9th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
The commercial should have really ended with the TDI pulling out of the row and smoking by the others at 130 mph. With the line “fooled them again”.
February 9th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Can wa add twin belt fed .50s to the truck to lay waste to the overlords army and maybe a Don’t Tred on Me flag? I am all for it!
Glad i was not the only PO’s person. Have to admit my first thought was if they bust into my house they better be ready for a fight. . . .
February 9th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Ford Earthfuucker had me rolling. I though of something I read a while back about Mother Earth–can’t take all the credit
I Recycle…Brass
February 9th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Ass, gas or brass…noone Earthfucks for free.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
What IS that weird little animal the eco-copette is holding the leash for next to the semi? A sloth? I didn’t notice it until the still for that video stopped on it..
February 9th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
One of these?
February 9th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
It’s not Mace, it’s Patchouli.
February 9th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
I think you have it , Unc – makes me wonder if there is a joke buried there, or they just chose something wacky-looking.
February 9th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Was it Mae West who said there is no such thing as bad publicity?
If you want your commercial to be remembered you can be funny, controversial, or novel. Personally I think this one hits all three.
I was laughing at the thought of the EPA forming a uniformed police force with natural fiber bulletproof vests and biodegradable bullets in their guns.
It was controversial with the enviroloons fuming at the mockery of their shibboleths and people like us furious/worried about the fact that there will soon be something like this if they get their way.
It was novel because….well…the anteater sniffing for whatever it was at the checkpoint. I don’t care who you are, that’s comical.
As for the car in question, you know who drives one? Tony freaking Stark. You take the good with the bad.
February 9th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Folks:
I thought the commercial was poking fun at the whole “green” movement and how fanatical about silly stuff most of them are.
The commercial does not incline me to purchase an Audi product. It gives exactly the wrong message, with the SWPL metrosexual dweeb getting one over on the proles. Screw that. I guess in the fantasy Audi commercial world the 2nd doesn’t exist!
Having said that, I’ve owned a VW Jetta TDI. It’s tough to debate against 50+ miles to the gallon in a vehicle large enough to haul a family of four or five comfortably, with room in the trunk to pack for an extended vacation. It’s also not one of those itty bitty plastic Japanes cars that looks like it will be the size of a sardine can after a serious accident.
If you really want to screw the Marxist Sumbitch in Venezuela and the towel-heads in the Mideast then run your VW turbo diesel on biodiesel fuel produced entirely in the USA.
Folks who enjoy reloading shouldn’t be intimidated by taking the extra steps to make their own biodiesel in the garage at home from used restaurant cooking oil.
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html#start
It’s the old school way fuel your vehicles. I highly recommend it!
February 9th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
No they didn’t. Those of us who got pissed off by this ad aren’t the type of people who buy Audis anyways. When you sell refrigerators, you don’t have to care if your ads offend eskimos.
February 9th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Where do I put in my order for the Ford Earthfucker? Does it come with heated seats?
February 9th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
The seats are heated with coal fired boilers. And the catalytic converter is really a clamshell grill with a bacon tray.
February 9th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
I really wanted to see the cop at the end get out of his car, taze the greenie, walk back and plug the taser into the little electric car then get back enjoying his coffee as the greenie lies writhing on the road.
Ford could use that ad with only an addition at the end. Once the Audi gets clear, have the F-1050 EarthFucker race in from cross-country with a bump-bump where the Audi used to be.
February 9th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
I totally want a pet anteater.
February 9th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Green Police useless in actual eco emergency but a Hummer comes in handy
February 9th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Canyonero!
12 yards long, 2 lanes wide,
65 tons of American Pride!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
February 9th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
I think you missed it Uncle. This is for Audi buyers. Not the general public. It is high satire. What Audi said was you can have it all. A cool car that gets great mileage, good performance, is political correct, and has great smug factor. This was about having it all.
Audi buyers don’t care about greenness. They care about German engineering. They are oblivious to Global Warming. It was an inside joke.
Short answer, it is a double entendre. It has more than one meaning.
This was my favorite ad of the Super Bowl.
February 9th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Number9 you must be as nuanced as the campaign managers for Martha Coakley.
Advertising is to increase sales, not just sell again to Audi fans. It may have been funny to Audi uses, but from the looks of the comments here, it was a car wreck.
February 9th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
I think Denis Leary put it best when he said:
You know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna get myself a 1967 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, hot pink, with whale skin hubcaps and all leather cow interior and big brown baby seal eyes for headlights. Yeah! And I’m gonna drive around in that baby at 115 miles an hour, getting 1 mile per gallon, sucking down quarter pounder cheeseburgers from McDonald’s in the old-fashioned non- biodegradable Styrofoam containers! And when I’m done suckin’ down those grease ball burgers I’m gonna wipe my mouth on the American flag and then toss the Styrofoam containers right out the side, and there ain’t a God-damned thing anybody can do about it. You know why? Because we got the bombs, that’s why!
February 9th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Number9, you nailed it.
Nylarthotep, you don’t understand advertising at all.
There is a certain demographic that Audi aims its advertising at. People who don’t get this ad won’t buy an Audi even if they could afford one.
February 9th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
(first that was an ant eater, i have been wondering all day)
ad rubbed me the wrong way too. glad i am not the only one. The giving in part was the part that got me.
February 9th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Sooo, a German auto maker making jokes about a police state?
Wasn’t Audi once part of Auto Union?
February 9th, 2010 at 7:15 pm
There is more than some people see in this.
Niche marketing, I didn’t learn it in school. Because they didn’t teach it.
February 9th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
Don’t laugh – they’re coming to the Cali Looney Bin sooner then later.
Our idiotic legislators have already proposed State Environmental Police and Drought Police forces. With the power to arrest for spilling gas at the pump or overwatering the lawn. Armed, in order to facilitate the arresting power. The Drought Police act got frighteningly close to passage.
February 9th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
I did not see the ad and I have not read most of the other comments but I have this to say. You should be free to drive what ever you want but keep in mind on 9/11 a Saudi man planed an attack that was carried out by a Saudis. Where do Saudis get there money? Selling us oil. Gas guzzlers support terrorists.
February 9th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Right on, Uncle.
“It’s the old school way fuel your vehicles. I highly recommend it!”
Uh huh, and how many of these people can one McDonalds supply with fuel? Two? Three? What’s that term that the Left is always trotting out? Oh yeah: “unsustainable”. We’d have to increase our fried food consumption by about 10,000%, methinks, to supply as much restaurant-supplied fuel as we consume.
“Gas guzzlers support terrorists.”
Sorry lgl. but; WRONG! Restrictions on domestic oil production support terrorists. Get your chronology right. Likewise; Prohibition supported gangs, as do current vice laws. The differences between current vise laws and Prohibition are; a) Prohibition was passed with the understanding that it required a constitutional amendment, and b) Prohibition was understood to cause an increase in gang activity and gang influence, whereas today we’re oblivious to such things, as your comment indicates. Freedom does not support terrorism, restrictions do.
February 10th, 2010 at 1:31 am
In Germany, Green Police means Ordnungspolizei, the local constables who’d come round to the house and send a family off on a train trip. How likely is it that Audi management does not know this?
Audi does not write its own advertising. No big company does, any more. You can go to your job every morning for decades, engineering away, and suddenly find out one afernoon that you have been working for some cause that neither you nor your manager recognize. Some coked-up Californian with odd sexual habits, hired on a whim by a company representative you’ll never meet, has been tasked with re-branding and putting a fresh whiff of youthful hipsterism on your life’s work.
This person will never see you, or the city you work in, or care to. This is our Creative Class. They hate us, to the extent that they have to acknowledge our existence. Yet we cannot live without them. Just ask.
February 10th, 2010 at 2:52 am
Makes me glad I bought a 350Z instead of a TT.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:49 am
Timmeehh, Well you must be another nuanced member of the Audi regime. I showed that little add to our marketing director and they said it’s wonderful for those who love audi’s but does nothing to expand markets, which in the US is a problem that they’ve been having for a few years.
She also mentioned that for the sectors that this add would alienate, there would be a lasting ill effect that would continue to hold even as parts of the sector increased their wealth.
But hey, you subtle marketing guys must know better.
February 10th, 2010 at 10:12 am
Timmeehh, Well you must be another nuanced member of the Audi regime. I showed that little add to our marketing director and they said it’s wonderful for those who love audi’s but does nothing to expand markets, which in the US is a problem that they’ve been having for a few years.
What does your marketing director sell?
The feel in this thread is the ad did not “expand markets”. Wonder how it played in major markets? This isn’t Audi country. It is Ford country.
I think both you and your marketing director missed the last part of the ad where the Audi driver doesn’t have to wait and hits the accelerator and the Audi unwinds while the people that didn’t have cool cars have to suffer in line. The engine sounded great and the feeling is this guy was special. He didn’t have to wait for the politically correct police and he has the road to himself. A feeling of freedom is what you missed.
My guess is the ad will result in an increase in sales because it created awareness. Which is exactly what this kind of ad is for. Prior to the ad did you know this product was available? Most people think diesels are slow and smell. I saw a fast desirable sports wagon that gets great gas mileage. What did you see?
February 10th, 2010 at 11:07 am
A lot of people are saying that the kind of people who buy Audis will like this ad. Baloney. I was installing fluorescent lights before there were CFLs, I started using cloth bags when you could only buy them at organic groceries, I bought an Audi for my wife, and this ad pissed me right the hell off.
Audi has had some real marketing successes, like Tony Stark driving one in Iron Man, but this ad was made of fail. Car marketing is largely about the self-image of the car buyer, and I do not want to be like the compliant little fascist enabler driving an Audi in the ad.
Number9, that’s what you missed. There is no freedom in the ad, the Audi driver is privileged by compliance. Once the Green Police are introduced, freedom can only come from defying them not complying with them.
February 10th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Number9, that’s what you missed. There is no freedom in the ad, the Audi driver is privileged by compliance. Once the Green Police are introduced, freedom can only come from defying them not complying with them.
I saw the guy out smarting them, not complying.
It works like this, if you take the ad literally you miss the metaphor. It is black humor.
Think of it another way, torque is like girth. This car has lots of torque.
This ad is not positioned against F150’s. It is positioned against pussy Priuses. It costs about $1,500 more than a windup Prius. It has an engine that sounds cool. It will move. And its got torque. Prius got torque? Prius got no torque.
From the ad agency that created the ad:
February 10th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Lyle @36:
The point of my comment about homebrewing biodiesel from used vegetable oil was to compare it with reloading. An activity many non gunnies, and even some gunnies, feel is unnecessarily risky and something better left to “the professionals”.
My point was say “screw those cowards”, this is something that can be done by an average american with average mechanical aptitude, if they can follow simple instruction. Most folks can do homebrew biodiesel.
Commercial biodiesel fuel in the U.S. is mostly made from soy bean oil. I know there isn’t enough fast food waste grease produced to supply biodiesel to the entire country…
Some hand wringers worry that the push into bio-fuels has raised the cost of staple grains, mostly corn, to which I reply: How many tens of thousands of acres did the Agriculture Dept. pay farmers to leave fallow this past year to prop up the price of rice, wheat, corn, soy, etc?
How many tens of thousands of acres of productive land sat fallow in California’s central valley this past year because some tree hugging judge decided the poppulation of delta smelt, a two inch long fish, required the fresh water from the Sacramento river instead of farmers?
We could supply most of the U.S. current demand for diesel fuel with biodiesel if the FedGov would change policy to pay farmers to grow oil palm groves and soybean fields instead of paying them to leave fields fallow to prop up grain prices.
I’d like to see the FedGov change the rules, and let OPEC stick it up their collective asses!
February 10th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
I don’t care for ethanol gas. Have not bought any in the past five years. Which isn’t easy, I have to go out of my way to find real gas. But I do like bio-diesel. Not crazy about hybrids so a quite fast diesel is an compelling choice for a new car. I much rather have the Audi than a Prius. I think that was what they were aiming for.
February 10th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
Well #9, they certainly seem to have hit their target market in you. So I guess we have to give them credit for that.
February 11th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
@comatus
If by “target market” you mean people who are smarter than you.
February 12th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
What a disgusting submission to Orwellian Super Nanny State.
February 12th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
This commercial was satire.
This is what you are concerned about looks like.
If you can’t tell the difference, we are really fucked.
February 13th, 2010 at 12:39 am
I’ll try to get pics of some of the trucks people drive to the rigs I work on for you.
In case you were curious there are Ford, Dodge, Chevy, and even Toyota Earthfucker models in existence.
February 13th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Number9 @48:
Yup! The current administration really is pushing hard to win that more fascist than…… label aren’t they.
That faint high pitched shriek heard all across the D.C. metro area emanating from the South are the combined revolutions of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson spinning at redline in their graves.
Can you imagine what one of the Adams’s, or Paine, or Patrick Henry would’ve said about this?
I keep wondering when my grandparents, granduncle and all the other honorable dead interred at Arlington are going to rise up and stagger into D.C. to massacre all those participating in the ongoing desecration of our Constitution.
I guess it’s time to ditch the cell phones and break out the hand held HAM or marine band radios. I’ll go ahead and confine my burst transmissions to PGP or one time pad encrypted text sent from palm pilot to palm pilot. Transmitting encrypted data over amateur or marine radio is illegal, but since the statist scum in D.C. is blithely trampling all over the highest law of the land why should I worry about violating FCC regulations? Screw ‘em!