Tag Archives: bmw

Online Video

Advertising So Bad It’s Good

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What happens when you give funny car junkies (who happen to have their own television show called “Gear Head” on the BBC) the assignment to make a Volkswagen ad? The videos below show the completed ads (and this controversy is months old, but wonderfully new to me).

This series of ads is so wonderfully offensive (and resulted in complaints according to this source) that it seems like a brilliant premeditated viral maneuver. Almost too perfect, right? Even better, you can enjoy the “blow-by-blow” of these ads being created and reviewed by Volkswagon’s advertising agency. Was the “making of” staged completely? Probably, but how much? And how much of the controversy was authorized by Volkswagon?

Anyway it’s a brilliant depiction of the tension between creatives and advertisers, and I can only hope the show’s producers were well compensated by Volkswagon. Seriously- I don’t care about cars, and this was heavenly to me.

To see the show, visit BBC’s TopGear website here. This is bloody brilliant- every bit of it. I need to meet the people behind this, and know the REAL backstory NOW. Then again I’m still trying to hunt down the makers of BWM’s Rampenfest (still have my t-shirt). The Rampenfest site has vanished, but here are the highlights.

How’d you like to be the BBC reporter who had to write this piece for BBC about how a BBC show pissed people off?

Making Videos, Viral Video

Help Make a Parody of Gina BMW Video: Cloth Skin is “Context Over Dogma”

22 Comments

I haven’t seen a video so begging for satire in ages. It’s a BMW promotion for GINA — a new cloth-like exterior for cars. Who needs pesky, antiquated metal structure on their cars? Metal is so Neandorthal, dude. The first Terminator was big and clunky, but the next ones got smooth and sexy. Metal only gets in the way of fluid movements. Slow patient rivers can tear through mountains.

GINA is about flexibility, says the spokesman who was carefully selected to represent that bearded guy you used to work with… you know, the one that read Walden Pond and attend Corcoron exhibits on the weekends while you rode naked on a moped with your friends? “It’s about context not dogma,” he says. You know, I’m not even sure he said that but it’s quotable.

Let’s brainstorm a parody, okay? I’ll play the the bearded guy and wax philosophically about absolutely nothing to do with the car.

  • B-roll may include my car covered in a white sheet or newspaper.
  • The perplexed glances of people in public parking lots will be the most essential dynamic.
  • Maybe we see my kids making Gina with a glue gun and some of those press-on gem things from the 1970s. What were they called?
  • Clearly the new technology begs the question about safety, but the parody glides by the issue. It makes you almost feel stupid for wondering how screwed you’d be to crash a car wearing GINA. It’s too easy to show someone impailed by a guard rail. There has to be a subtly to the accident- like we’re not sure it even happened.

I’ll point back to this post when I’m done the video, so you can get credit for your contributions. But let’s be clear I aint sharing the YouTube revenue. That’s going to pay for the white sheet. 

P.S. BIG thanks to Jan for getting the new WordPress working on this blog! I was totally overwhelmed by the 235 steps required.