Let Your Tongue Wag Freely - The Blog of Timothy Johnson III

Why Most Car Commercials Are Terrible

Most car commercials, in my opinion, are terrible and unimaginative. A typical car commercial begins with an image of car and then jumps to a video of the car being driven in one of two places – a.) a wet, windy road, often driving through the mountains or a field of grass or b.) inside an enclosed course, in which the cars completes turns or sudden stops at high-velocity, with the little disclaimer rolling across the bottom of the screen that says, “Do not try at home. Car driven by professional driver in an enclosed course.”  In addition to the boring imagery, the narrative of the car commercial is simply a long list of features: 2500 horsepower, anti-lock breaks, automatic doors . . . blah, blah, blah. Of course, the grand finale is listening to the narrator’s voice speed up and attempt to cram all the pricing and disclaimer information in the last 5-10 seconds of the commercial!

Why the “My Dad Is An Alien” Audi Commercial is Fantastic

Now, let’s contrast the typical car commercial with the Audi commercial. They couldn’t be further apart! The commercial doesn’t start with a car, but begins with a little girl, who boldly declares, “I have evidence that proves my dad is a space alien!” As a viewer, that one line just sucks you in . . .  you wonder, “What is this? Is it a commercial, perhaps a preview for a TV show or a movie?”

The little girl continues to narrate the commercial, laying out her case for her dad’s alien-ness: he talks funny,  (gargling), drinks suspicious green stuff for breakfast (protein shakes), stares up at the stars at night, and dresses in funny outfits (biking gear, including spandex and helmet). And of course, she says, “And more thing. He has a spaceship!” You see an electronic lock popping up, a LCD emerging from a dashboard and comes to the realization, “Oh, this is a CAR commercial!” Just as that thought pops into your head, the camera pans out to show a brand new Audi and you hear the girl’s voice say, “The evidence doesn’t lie, my dad is an alien.” You see her dad driving the car down the driveway and the little girl smiling the backseat. Thus, the girl’s story comes to a close.

The commercial wraps up with an unseen narrator mentioning the car is an Audi A6, which has been featured in the 2012 10Best line-up in Car & Driver Magazine.

What makes this commercial so fantastic is the absence of a long list of boring features and the presence of a fantastic story. You form an emotional connection with the little girl, as you see the world through the little girl’s eyes and get to share her conviction that “Yes, her dad is an alien!” Furthermore, you might just start to believe that you’ll also experience the feeling of  ”being an alien” and  ”riding around in a spaceship” by purchasing an Audi A6 . . . and who wouldn’t want that?!