VW commercials

I rarely like commercials - typically find them infuriating in fact - but these really caught my interest... perhaps due to my antipathy towards the "tuner" demographic...

Crate
Trebuchet
Wrecking Ball

Now excuse me if I mutter "Vee Dub" or "un-pimp ze auto" a few times too many...

I also like the British Honda ad from a couple of years ago.

Read the story below and then go watch at the link that is supplied at the bottom! There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in the film.
Everything you see really happened in real time exactly as you see it. The film took 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually very minor, didn't work. They would then have to set the whole thing up again. The crew spent weeks shooting night and day. By the time it was over, they were ready to change professions. The film cost six million dollars and took three months to complete including full engineering of the sequence. In addition, it's two minutes long so every time Honda airs the film on British television, they're shelling out enough dough to keep any one of us in clover for a lifetime. However, it is fast becoming the most downloaded advertisement in Internet history. Honda executives figure the ad will soon pay for itself simply in "free viewings" (Honda isn't paying a dime to have you watch this commercial!). When the ad was pitched to senior executives, they signed off on it immediately without any hesitation - including the costs. There are six and only six handmade Accords in the world. To the horror of Honda engineers, the filmmakers disassembled two of them to make the film.
Everything you see in the film (aside from the walls, floor, ramp, and complete
Honda Accord) are parts from those two cars. The voice-over is Garrison Keillor.
When the ad was shown to Honda executives, they liked it and commented on
how amazing computer graphics have gotten. They fell off their chairs when they found out it was for real. Oh. and about those funky windshield wipers. On the new Accords, the windshield wipers have water sensors and are designed to start doing their thing automatically as soon as they become wet. It looks a bit weird in the commercial.

http://www.steelcitysfinest.com/HondaAccordAd.htm

I've seen that honda commercial and they say no CGI, but some of the parts it in are too hard to believe, a tire and rim rolling at 1 feet per second, pushes another one up an incline and they go at the same rate? Que!?

I think those vw commercials are a breath of fresh air in the automotive advertising department, but it almost seems to borderline on racism of the urban culture. Of course I keep telling my dad he needs a 7 ft carbon fiber wing on his 240 d and a neon illuminated tail pipe tip.

Yeah, Ive seen that honda commercial where the pieces roll together, does nothing for me.

What do you guys think of that hybrid commercial I think its for lexus where a gas and electric car crash together in the desert and they combine to form one car?

The truth about the Honda commercial is that it's _mostly_ real. There are a few parts, mostly transitions from one set to another, that are CGI.

They (VW) made great commercials for a while, specifically the one for the Cabrio where the kids are going to a party and are listening to Pink Moon on the stereo. When they get there, the party seems too uptempo, the kids look at each other and decide to just keep driving. The way it's done is quite subtle and you just see one of the reverse lights come one. Very nice. I also liked the synchro commercial where the couple is driving down the alley and EVERYTHING is in time to the song they are listening to.

Then they started with the whole 'Get your VW while you can' campaign, the low point of which was the guy that when the other couple looks at the black Jetta he obviously wants, he licks the handle to dissuade them from the car.

Three of my favorite car commercials in the recent past was for the Audi TT Cabrio (or maybe the A4 convertivle) and the Nissan Maxima. The Maxima one shows the car from the outside, black with dark tint. Comes to an abrupt hault just in time to watch the sun set. After the setting, the driver does a minor tire spin as he whisks away, comes to another abrupt hault and again, watches the sun set.

Another Maxima commerical of similar vintage has a Maxima emerging from a car wash all glistening. And a pigeon comes in bomber style complete with bomber glasses. The car zigs and zags to avoid getting 'dirtied' by the bird until the car pulls into its garage, closes the door and the pigeon's beak gets stuck in the garage door.

The Audi commercial has a 40 or 50 something driving along, in different locales in Europe. It shows him filling a jar or two up with air. Then it shows the driver pulling up to a house and getting out. He gives the jars to a person we assume is his father who is wheelchair bound, smells the air in the jars and relives his memories.

cobb:
I have to disagree that lampooning your competition is "urban" racism in this case. Making fun of the competition - and those that buy from your competition - is one of the most effective and memorable advertising techniques. Given the high esteem that German automotive engineering is held in and the questionable taste/functionality of many "tuner" favorites, it makes fertile ground for good avertising.

A co-worker of mine used to work for a performance parts shop, and he agreed that the car owners presented were hilarious caricatures of his former customers. He was glad to get paid to do the work, but there were few of his customers' vehicles that he wanted to be seen in.

The Honda "cog" commercial is going on 3 years old now. Go revive that thread if you still want to talk about it.

I LOL at the VW "un-pimp ze auto" commercial.

Cratz2 -

I remember that Cabrio commercial. It was so well done it seemed like an art form to me. Now I have to go figure out how to listen Pink Moon.

I enjoy the new "unpimp your auto" commercials for VW quite a bit. The guy seemed so familiar but I couldn't place him. Then I realized it was the actor that plays/played Abruzzi on "Prison Break." He was also in "Fargo" and "The Big Lubowsky" I think. The white blond hair had me fooled.

I think "Prison Break" jumped the shark a while ago for me though, but that's another thread I guess.

Yes that's Peter Stormare! Great actor if I say so. . .

I'm a VW guy (who's have thought from my name) But I find the new comercials horrible, tho somewhat better than their new dealership advertising setup "The power of Rainbows" or something like that. My favorite VW comercial of all time way the guy in the backyard BBQ, grabs a drumstick off the table, dips in ranch, then starts pretending it's a shifter and he's driving...complete with engine noises.

What, no one here knows the best series of VW commercials of all time? Examples: "An honest 36(?) miles per gallon."and "What does the plow driver drive to work?"

I thought this commercial for the Isuzu Gemini was pretty good for it's time.

I wonder if the VW people are aware that Peter Stormare is Swedish.

Great actor though.

Planterz said:

I wonder if the VW people are aware that Peter Stormare is Swedish.

Great actor though.

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That's why he's such a great actor!

People who put gigantic spoilers on front wheel drive cars deserve to be made fun of, frequently and mercilessly.

Why don't these tools just save all their decal, exhaust tip, "ground effect", and rim money and get a Subaru WRX and be done with it?

I've never seriously considered a VW, but on the basis of these commercials alone, I would.

We had a 1999 Jetta... The first year of the New Jetta. The wife was completely set on getting a black Jetta. I tried to talk her into either the GTI or a Passat both of which are primarily assembled in Germany and by almost all counts, has much tighter control tolerances than the Mexican assembled vehicles such as the Jetta.

It was the biggest POS we ever owned. It was in the shop 12 times during out 48 month lease. Every sensor in the car failed, I think. Numerous electrical problems...

I really like VWs. I think the R32 is one of the best all around vehicles for guys that want a sporting car that is reasonably fast, handles reasonably well, but feels a bit more grown up than a Civic. But based on that first year 'New Jetta', I'd have to have a 2 year return period to consider it.

Alloy Addict said:

I enjoy the new "unpimp your auto" commercials for VW quite a bit. The guy seemed so familiar but I couldn't place him. Then I realized it was the actor that plays/played Abruzzi on "Prison Break." He was also in "Fargo" and "The Big Lubowsky" I think. The white blond hair had me fooled.

I think "Prison Break" jumped the shark a while ago for me though, but that's another thread I guess.

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He also played in "Minority Report". He did the eye transplant for Cruise's character [IIRC].

am I right? :shrug:

Danno.

btw... I like dem commercials. "I you wantz to umpimp your ride say, "What?"!

Yeah, that was him in Minority Report.

He also played a very likable character in the movie, 8mm.

Honestly, looking over the IMDB page on him, I count 21 movies of his that I've seen.

danielo_d said:

He also played in "Minority Report". He did the eye transplant for Cruise's character [IIRC].

am I right? :shrug:

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cratz beat me to it, but you're right. He's one of those actors that is so good you rarely recognize them, or sometimes even remember them because they become their character. Someone like Keanu Reeves is more famous, but you always know it's him because he acts the same in every movie.