Wednesday, February 9, 2011

I like ample cargo space and I cannot lie

Should I have expected better from Mini?



Host: "This is 'Cram It in the Boot!' Where we take the four-door, all-wheel-drive Mini Countryman and... cram it in the boot!"
[Model makes suggestive pushing gesture]

Really? Really.

Host: "Josh! Have you ever crammed it in the boot before?"
Josh: "Um."

This, of course, is the point at which it becomes literally impossible to think that this commercial isn't referring to anal sex. At first you're like, well, maybe this is just supposed to be a funny-sounding title. No. Look at Josh's face as he considers the question. This ad is about butt-fucking. (It's even more blatant in the 60-second version which didn't air during the Super Bowl when the host says to Josh, "Your fiancée Ashley says you can really cram a boot!" and Josh just stammers and looks uncomfortable.)

Host: "Cram it!!!"
Audience: "Cram it! Cram it!"
Host: "Golf clubs, cram it in the boot! Cram that robot in! Yeeeees! Cram it in there!"
[Josh crams a giant sub sandwich into the trunk, featuring an extremely suggestive angle on the "Cram Cam"]



Ha ha! Yeah, Josh! Go! Um... fuck that car with your party sub strap-on! Wait, what? Why the fuck is this happening?

Host: "Whoa!!!"

"He sure fucked that car in the ass! Daaaaamn!"

Announcer: "The bigger all-new Mini Countryman, with plenty of room to cram!"

I'm sorry, I just do not understand this angle at all. Why are they alluding to anal sex? Are they discreetly (a word I use very loosely in this case) trying to suggest that the larger Mini allows you to have sex in your car the way you couldn't in the original Mini without it being extremely uncomfortable (you know, like the back of a Volkswagen)? Are they really only trying to talk about trunk space but for some reason thought that making the car look like the recipient of anal sex would be a hilariously naughty joke to "slip out" to 100 million people?

Call me a square, but I'm of the opinion that if you're going to make your commercial "secretly" filthy, it had better be really hilarious. And this just isn't. It's one joke - "talking about packing the trunk of a car with stuff kind of sounds like you're talking about anal!" - that is at best mildly amusing to begin with, repeated ad nauseam for 30 seconds. (Or 60 seconds in the case of the extended version which, I assure you, has nothing new to contribute to the scenario.) I get trying to be edgy for the sake of being memorable, but I just don't think it worked. There's edgy funny, and then there's edgy repulsive, and this lands far too firmly on the side of the latter.

5 comments:

  1. this wasn't my favorite commercial of the SB but I kind of liked it. maybe I have low expectations because of Bud Light and Doritos and etc. i thought it was an unexpected direction for mini countryman though. wondering if they were trying to sneak "cram it in the boot" in as the next big catchphrase?

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  2. Don't see that happening w/ "cram it".
    Wondering if they see it too as there's a new Mini Countryman billboard ad up in Times Square w/ not sign of the "cram it" anywhere. Big $ on this one:
    http://blog.cincinnatimini.com/2011/02/mini-countryman-in-times-square/

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  3. By the way, I think that was a carpet he was cramming, not a "giant sandwich."

    Great review though, I loved it.

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  4. I just watched it again in HD and I'm pretty positive it's supposed to be a giant sandwich. I mean, it's obviously fake... but it's definitely a sandwich.

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  5. I just read the Youtube comments. These are the same people who thought [insert genre here] Movie was the funniest thing ever. Die, die die.

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