Commercial Review: Audi "Alien"

Audi scores a knockout with this funny and lighthearted A6 commercial which finds a young girl believing that her father is an alien. The dad in question talks like an alien, eats alien food, dresses like an alien and most incriminatingly pilots an alien space ship. This commercial works so well primarily because it is funny and would not be seen out of place during the Superbowl. On a more subconscious level it appears that Audi is subtly hinting that driving an A6 will make you one cool parent in the eyes of your kid. Not being in that demographic I am not sure if the commercial succeeds in that regard or if parents even care about being the cool parent. Overall, "Alien" does an excellent job of highlighting the A6's technological sophistication without a tedious adult voice-over as Audi has done in the past.

Commercial Review: Corvette's Just To Be Fair

I gave high ratings to the last Corvette commercial that I saw, but this new one has a serious stretching the truth problem. First let's start with the positives, the commercial features the Corvette which was a competitive product for Chevy even when the rest of its car division was not. Second it features Corvette's involvement in ALMS racing which has some of the most exciting production based racing in the world. However, the main argument of the commercial is that Corvette had to "dial back" the ZR1's power output to race in ALMS. While it is true that the production Corvette ZR1 makes more power than the GT racing version there is also a little fact that gets in the way, rules. The governing body that runs the 24 Hours of Le Mans and creates ALMS rules does an excellent job of equalizing different types of engines to create competitive racing. The rules specify that a supercharged engine can at most have a displacement of 4 liters. Thus the GT Corvette cannot use a "dialed back" version of the ZR1 engine and in fact it uses a modified Z06 engine (take a look at a truthful Corvette Racing video about the GT engine below) The upcoming C7 Corvette is said to use the next generation of the legendary smallblock with 5.5 liters of displacement as its base engine with a power output of around 430-450 horsepower. Mathematically, Corvette would likely need to "add power to go racing" instead of "dialing it back by about 168 horsepower". The discrepancy between the claim in the commercial and reality is particularly shameful because the ZR1 does perfectly fine on its own without the need to stretch the truth as the production ZR1 is quicker around a track than the production versions of BMWs, Porsches and Ferraris that the GT Corvette competes against on the track.

New Volkswagen Jetta Commercial Review

All car commercials have the same purpose, to sell cars. However there are three distinct methods of accomplishing this that manufacturers use most often; the "you should buy our car because of its amazing specs and features", the "you should buy our car because its got a huge discount" and the third category that tells you a funny or interesting story that is only slightly related to the vehicle featured. The latest Volkswagen Jetta commercial called "Moonlighting" certainly fits into the third category as it shows a guy moonlighting at odd jobs to save up for his own new Jetta. The jobs that he goes through suck, but in the end it turns out that the Jetta's new low price of 15,995 allows him to buy not one but two Jettas. Overall the commercial does a good job of using light humor to introduce the new Jetta and its lower price. Its minute long format helps to create a storyline without the need to rush through the scenes thus making the ending that much better. View the commercial in its entirety below.

Battle of the Supercar Commercials

Strictly speaking supercars don't need commercials to sell. So what is the point of having a supercar commercial? Brand awareness is the answer. A supercar commercial allows a brand to create a connection between the badass supercar in the commercial and the rest of the company's product. Case in point the two latest commercials from Chevrolet and Lexus. Both feature the company's quickest, fastest and most expensive product. The Corvette ZR1 and LF-A.


Chevrolet



Lexus


So which commercial is better? I prefer the ZR1 commercial because it shows how the ZR1 is like a rocketship, while the Lexus strives for perfection in an aspect that has little to do with performance. Still, both commercials feature real supercars and are miles ahead of the typical 0% financing or reliability rating boasting commercials that fill the airways much too often.