VIRB

The new ads by Hyundai are pretty interesting. I first read about it over at Three Minds and I agree with most of what they wrote. These ads are very well shot, very uncluttered, and almost soothing on the eye. I'm not crazy about "think about it" as a tag, but I understand what they are aiming for. Hyundai wants to compete in the crowded car industry, and wants people to "think about" what car they buy, not just blindly choose from the big brand options that are laid out before them. This kinda reminds me of the Saturn debut ads that won all kinds of awards years ago. "A different kind of company, a different kind of car" is much better than "think about it", but the idea is much the same.

Automotive ads have been the center of several of my posts. I think its safe to say that for a long time, really bad car ads dominated the industry. In some ways, this is still true. Billy Fucillo has become a cult figure on the East Coast, mostly for the millions of dollars he spends on amazingly annoying ads. But there is a "wind of change" (always wanted to say that). It really started with the BMW Films years ago, which I believe were designed by Fallon.

Increasingly, car ads have trended towards the 'film' category. Aiming to make cinematic beauty. This obviously is much more exciting to watch in both printed and video advertisements. A great example is the "Go Beyond" ad by Land Rover. I wrote an entire post on it here. I'm not much a numbers researcher, but I would love to know the effect these ads have had on car sales. Because although we might enjoy the ad, if it doesn't influence behavior in any way, then it was just a pretty film and not much more.

UPDATE: Adrants has posted a Mazda ad that shows everything I hate about automobile advertising. Check it out here and on Youtube