I had a real blast watching the Super Bowl commercials this year. As usual, it was the only time of year advertising agencies actually do their jobs and give us new commercials, and as usual, they don’t take the lesson that maybe they should put new ads in front of our eyes more often, instead of subjecting us to the same shit over and over, as if repetition alone would make us buy their product. But I’ll get off that soap box briefly to make an entirely different observation:
Did anybody else notice an interesting pattern with automobile ads? Foreign auto makers Audi, Mercedes and Hyundai all had great ads promoting – cars. Yes, cars. That thing that General Motors says there isn’t a market for. But yes, there IS a market, and these auto makers know that with GM, Ford, Chrysler and other American players getting out of the game, there’s going to be a much bigger market share – for them. And they’re trying to get in on it. So, their ads come (where else?) on the biggest ad market of them all: The Super Bowl.
Hyundai may have come up with the best of them, with Jason Bateman being an elevator conductor (as if they have those, anymore), announcing one bad thing after another with each descending floor. Near the bottom, is buying a new car, except the passengers announce that they used Hyundai’s Shopper Assurance app and website. Rest assured, that one is going to be shown over and over during baseball season. Because again, ad agencies think their job is done making new ads after the Super Bowl.
Toyota had two spots: One featured Toni Harris, the first woman ever to win a football scholarship. And the product they compared her to? The new Rav-4 hybrid. That’s right, a more electric SUV. Toyota realized that there is a market both for size AND fuel efficiency. And once again, it’s poising itself to corner the market when the next gas crisis hits.
The other Toyota spot advertised the return of the Toyota Supra. Discontinued after 1998, it’s making a return with some help from BMW. Why? To appeal to sportscar drivers who also want greater fuel efficiency. Fewer cars on the market means that a few people might want to opt for a sportier model out of what’s left. Toyota knows that many people would opt for quality and durability as well as flash.
Budweiser may have had the most ecologically friendly ads of the game, with at least three spots touting the fact that Budweiser is not made with corn syrup, long known to be an inferior source of bad sugars. But then they also came out with an ad that showed the Budweiser beer wagon, pulled by its iconic Clydesdales, through a field of windmills. A dalmatian riding atop, along with Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind” playing in the background, helped emphasize the brewer’s point: that its product is now made with wind power. No market for ecologically friendly products like small cars, eh?
But the most interesting ad may have come from Kia. They spent their millions unveiling the new Kia Telluride, an SUV. And why is Kia, traditionally known for making small, affordable cars, suddenly interested in getting into the SUV market? The answer should be obvious: Because they expect GM to fail again. And that means the market will fall to those companies which remain. Kia feels its best move is to have its own SUV on the market, should GM shut down.
I don’t know if the Board of Directors at GM was paying attention to the Super Bowl this year, but if they were, they should be extremely nervous.
And they should bring back manufacture of cars, before it’s too late.
Eric
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