Gregor said,

January 10, 2008 @ 1:41 pm

Not bad, 4/5

Ryan said,

January 10, 2008 @ 10:22 pm

I have said it here before and I will say it again. CGI IS NOT IMPRESSIVE ANYMORE! We’ve all seen it 1,000 times. We get it; you can make cool videos with computers now. How is this “moving city” in any way relevant to the car?

If you want to see how to do a car commercial the RIGHT way, look at the latest Mercedes ads “why did we do all of this crazy technical stuff that most of you don’t understand? Because we promised you a Mercedes Benz; thats why.”. This allows the viewer to come to the conclusion that a Mercedes must be a great car, and that is why it is so brilliant. hrm….if they are PROMISING that it is going to be a Mercedes…a Mercedes must be something really great!

If you really want to look at why this is so bad on a low low level. Everything happening AROUND the car is exciting. The CITY is exciting and the car is passive in the process. The way that this ad presents it, you could have this experience in any mid-sized SUV…there is nothing special about this one. Its the same as that Pontiac edge commercial from a year or so ago that was along the same lines. Really really uninspiring. And please, for the love of god…stop using music that sounds like death cab for cutie. This is a car commercial.

A better way of executing this idea would have been for somebody to have been dropped off in some car that WASN’T the Tiguan (which sounds too much like Taiwan…and will bring up images of cheapness in people’s heads when they see it) and to have had everything look totally normal while they were driving in this “non-tiguan” car. When they get in the VW…all of the sudden the city comes alive and there is all this crazy stuff going on…but only from the drivers perspective. We see images of the car from an outside observer and it just looks like a Tiguan (of course, a completely manicured, pampered, better than perfect looking tiguan) driving through the city.

This is a better execution for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it shows you what the car looks like without all sorts of discrations happening in the background. 2nd, it shows you that it is going to be the CAR that makes everything around you go crazy….its not just that the car can handle things when they do (because this implies that this is nothing but another mid-sized SUV).

make sense? Are you listening DDB?!

1/4

Miroslav said,

January 11, 2008 @ 8:44 am

Hey Ryan, are you an ex creative fired by DDB? Take it easy, life si wonderful

bernard said,

January 11, 2008 @ 4:04 pm

Hey Ryan!

Relax - it’s just advertising. Nothing to be taken to seriously. I agree, that there could have been better ways of executing the idea.

But let’s think again: Who drives a SUV? Who is the target group for the Tiguan? Just look who drives around in a Toyota RAV4. Ok. Why don’t they choose another car, that’s cheaper but would fit their primary needs - like transportation of larger home/family stuff and perhaps kids? Because they want to oversee the traffic, minimize risks. (A soccer moms, bureaukrats an old men!) They want to prepared in case of any unforeseen situation. So they “really” NEED a multipurpose car - even tough, they drive it only or mainly in the city. Hm, how to justify the decision for the bigger car? Ah, the city changes. There could be obstacles and so… Of course, there aren’t in daily life. But it’s also a little escape from the boredom of an ordinary life - being the big city cowboy riding the all terrain, four wheels drive… look alike. (Sure, you can order that offroad-version of the Tiguan too - but the most won’t. That’s also why the larger Mercedes M comes in two versions. Not so the bigger brother of the Tiguan, the Toureg.)

From the point of view concerning consumer insights I find this commercial rather good - nothing special tough. Personally, I neither associate Tiguan with Taiwan nor Taiwan with cheap. I think, the commercial was produced for the german, italian and/or european market. Does anybody know, where VW uses the new claim “Das Auto”? Because in German, it doesn’t fill the brand with a lot of meaning. I personally prefer their old german claim “Aus Liebe zum Automobil”, which had more to say, making undercooled german arts of engineering more emotional.

BTW, I have to admit, I did not get the second paragraph about the Mercedes commercial. Perhaps because I don’t know it - any link or deeper explanation would be welcome.