Maybe I'm just a cynic, but... well, okay, I'm a cynic. But television starts to give me a really queasy feeling in my stomach around the holidays. I mean more than usual. One yearly offender is the ads run by that purveyor of expensive automobiles, always an easy sell in a slow economic climate, Lexus.
Yeah! Fuck you, pony!
So, if I get this right, Lexus is claiming that getting a car is more exciting/meaningful to an adult woman than getting a pony is to a seven-year-old (or whatever) girl. I call bullshit. Did you not see how jealous Annemarie was? You can't buy that kind of reaction.
I almost feel like Lexus runs these ads every year just to piss me off. Are there really more than a few hundred people in the entire world who actually make purchases like this? Especially in the current economic situation? Why, what could be more perfect than a $40,000 car, just for me! You saw the big bow, right? We'd better run right out and get one. Very financially sound.
Showing posts with label lexus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lexus. Show all posts
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Monday, October 22, 2007
Car fight!
I've always considered Lexus' ads to be, if not super pretentious, at least totally unrealistic. For example, every year they run some holiday ad where people walk outside their houses to find a Lexus with a huge bow on it sitting in the driveway, because a car that costs more than the average American makes in a year is a perfectly sensible Christmas gift.
This ad, however, is definitely pretentious:
What was even the point? If the Lexus is too classy for moves pulled directly from The Fast and the Furious, why are you advertising it that way? It's almost... gosh, it's almost as if you're reacting to something...
Well, well.
The Audi ad is kind of catty - it's a shot at Lexus' self-parking car - but it at least exhibits a sense of humor distinctly missing from the Lexus response ad, which prefers to stick to Lexus' well-hewn "haughty arrogance" niche rather than be particularly witty or clever. I suppose there's no real need for Lexus to do anything "cool" with their campaign - Lexuses (Lexi?) have a certain target demographic and it's not one necessarily known for its irreverent sense of humor.
Nevertheless, the straightforward response to Audi's ad is both obnoxious - with the arrogant voice-over and opera music - and kind of misses Audi's point. Audi used the "sweet spot" parking job as an eye-catching tool, simply as a device to point out that most people shouldn't need help parallel parking (there was probably also some implied comment about the size of the average Lexus in there, although I imagine most Lexus buyers like that aspect of the cars). Lexus' response suggests that they focused more on the showmanship of the parking job itself, as though what Audi was really claiming was that you couldn't do donuts in a Lexus. "This'll show those fuckers!" Lexus cried, deciding to start their ad with the very same donuts that Audi didn't show in their ad. (For good measure, Lexus spells it "doughnuts," just to make sure you know they're better than you are.)
I'm all for ad battles - usually any company taking potshots is aiming so far above its station that there's no need for the other company to respond - but it would be nice if they weren't so one-sided. Lexus' seemingly non-existent sense of humor just leaves them looking like they brought a knife to a gunfight.
This ad, however, is definitely pretentious:
What was even the point? If the Lexus is too classy for moves pulled directly from The Fast and the Furious, why are you advertising it that way? It's almost... gosh, it's almost as if you're reacting to something...
Well, well.
The Audi ad is kind of catty - it's a shot at Lexus' self-parking car - but it at least exhibits a sense of humor distinctly missing from the Lexus response ad, which prefers to stick to Lexus' well-hewn "haughty arrogance" niche rather than be particularly witty or clever. I suppose there's no real need for Lexus to do anything "cool" with their campaign - Lexuses (Lexi?) have a certain target demographic and it's not one necessarily known for its irreverent sense of humor.
Nevertheless, the straightforward response to Audi's ad is both obnoxious - with the arrogant voice-over and opera music - and kind of misses Audi's point. Audi used the "sweet spot" parking job as an eye-catching tool, simply as a device to point out that most people shouldn't need help parallel parking (there was probably also some implied comment about the size of the average Lexus in there, although I imagine most Lexus buyers like that aspect of the cars). Lexus' response suggests that they focused more on the showmanship of the parking job itself, as though what Audi was really claiming was that you couldn't do donuts in a Lexus. "This'll show those fuckers!" Lexus cried, deciding to start their ad with the very same donuts that Audi didn't show in their ad. (For good measure, Lexus spells it "doughnuts," just to make sure you know they're better than you are.)
I'm all for ad battles - usually any company taking potshots is aiming so far above its station that there's no need for the other company to respond - but it would be nice if they weren't so one-sided. Lexus' seemingly non-existent sense of humor just leaves them looking like they brought a knife to a gunfight.
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