Are Ads 'With A Bang' Selling Cars?
Words such as "jarring" and "shocking" are rarely used to describe car commercials.
But at least two major automakers are using shock value, showing sudden collisions in new ads highlighting safety features.
Is the approach working?
One thing's for certain: These aren't your father's car commercials!
On The Early Show Tuesday, Adweek magazine advertising critic Barbara Lippert told co-anchor Julie Chen that Volkswagen's ad showing a 2006 Jetta hitting a pickup truck hard appears to be doing the trick.
Sales have risen and Volkswagen has re-upped the spot.
But Lippert calls the ads "horrifying," saying, "You think it's a normal Volkswagen commercial, and then you are so shocked, and then you realize this is exactly the way accidents happen. It's perfectly captured.
"It breaks all the rules of advertising in that, they (usually) want you to think your car is a cocoon … where you're free from everything. But it's realistic. They want to show safety. People are more safety-conscious. This (the Jetta) had better front- and side-impact crash ratings in the last two years than it ever has.
"So, I think they did a really good job. Everybody is talking about it in the blogs and everywhere else, and sales are up.
" … The way we can tell is that they've brought this commercial back for another two-week run this week. And they definitely would not have run it again unless it was doing well. The dealers are very happy with it."
The same can't be said about a DaimlerChrysler series of commercials, with company Chairman Dieter "Dr. Z" Zetsche. One shows him in a car with a reporter. The car hits a wall."Most people think he's a fictional character," Lippert points out, "which is not a good thing, and he is actually this charismatic, intelligent, hard-working smart guy. I don't know why he'd want himself portrayed this way.
"The commercial offers so many different things. Zero percent financing, and discounts, and all the different car models, that you don't get the message, and it's not working. In fact, Chrysler sales will be down 17 percent from last July.
"It's not always the ads (behind a sales rise or decline), and Chrysler has more problems, because they have trucks and minivans with the gas shortage. They did this last year, and last year, apparently Snoop Dogg and Lee Iacocca did better than Dr. Z.
"Also, people can't really understand his radio ads, and when he speaks in Spanish, then you really have a problem."
The ads are being discontinued.
"I don't know that they're pulling them," Lippert said. "They'll say they were only supposed to run for one month.
"He had a big sense of humor and he went along with it, but I don't know why he would want to be portrayed this way, especially since, looking at his watch and leaving the door open, he looks like the impervious German, the bad stereotype."
By Brian Dakss