The Greatest Car Commerical Ever
First, watch this spectacular 1984 commercial for the brand-new C4 Corvette. Then, join me below and I'll share my thoughts.
My thoughts:
1. A 90-second commercial, with all of these special effects? Even in 1984, this was a major outlay for Chevrolet.
2. You've gotta love the way this commercial kicks off - incredible bombastic language backed up by swirling special effects. Well, it might be extraordinarily cheesy, but it's also deeply, deeply cool. Even now, 23 years after this commercial aired, it gets my heart pumping.
"It began as genius ... and grew to be legend ... and has become at long last, the most advanced production car on the planet."
That's just a fantastic intro. No automaker today would dare to have that degree of chutzpah.
Followed, of course, by the dramatic, sweeping chorus.
"YOU'VE NEVER SEEN!"
<trumpet blast>
"ANYTHING!"
<another trumpet blast>
"LIKE THIS BEFORE!"
I'm all for the subtlety and wit of today's commercials, but honestly, that's good stuff.
3. I miss the days when hot cars were advertised as driving around through rugged moonscapes. It doesn't make a lot of sense, necessarily, but it looked awesome. I'd love a modern reprise of this--perhaps Chevrolet should advertise its upcoming Z07/Blue Devil/ZR-1 as cruising at high speed through Martian dunes.
I just love the language in this ad. Defiant is a fantastic word for performance.
5. One of the great images in this ad is when the space-suited guy (his outfit doesn't really look like a racing suit) pulls up his thick rubber gauntlets and places them purposefully at the 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock positions on the steering wheel.
Not only does his suit look as if it's made of rubber--perhaps he's expecting to be submerged--but the whole sequence makes him look like a freakishly-attired dilettante. Thick rubber gloves, positioned at the top of the wheel, isn't exactly a fun way to drive a car.
6. "... the world's first computer-activated manual transmission."
Eh? First of all, that's a pretty meaningless phrase. What does "computer activated" mean? Taking the phrase literally, the closest thing I can think of are today's paddle-shift semi-automatic transmissions, where you tell the computer which gear you want, and the computer chooses it for you. But except in very rare cases, those are in no way manual transmissions--and they weren't even a wild rumor in 1984.
Specifically in terms of a 1984 Corvette, the only thing I can think of that might fit this description was the universally loathed skip-shift manual transmission. That abomination forced Corvette owners to shift from first to fourth when driving casually, in a poorly-conceived effort to game the EPA fuel mileage ratings at the expense of driving experience. However, I thought that "feature" was introduced a few years later.
In any event, it wouldn't exactly be a bragging point.
7. The video work at 49 seconds in is pure genius.
8. Sign of the Times Mk. I has to be the awesome shot of the 55-mph digital speedometer materializing out of the driver's helmet visor. First of all, digital speedometers are sooo 1980s, and the C4 Corvette's digital instrument panel (much touted here) wound up being roundly criticized.
Secondly, it's faintly ridiculous that in midst of this moonscape, the space-suited man is driving a Corvette that is defiant in its performance at a steady and somnolent 55 mph. That's legacy of the hyper-sensitive double-nickel era in the mid-1980s.
The shot of the Corvette driving up the speedometer is pretty cool, though.
9. Sign of the Times Mk. II is the shot of the digital tachometer at 1:07 in. It's a cool shot, but it's telling that it represents power peak at 4,000 RPM and redline somewhere in the high 5,000s. Again, legacy of the Corvette's antediluvian pushrod V-8. Today we have car engines revving nearly twice as high.
10. The idea of hiring a violinist to play his instrument, neatly illustrating the quality of the sound system, is actually pretty cool. But it makes me wonder what that filming process was like. Did Chevrolet spend the money to actually get a classical violinist despite the fact that you can't hear him play? Or did they just hire some guy to saw away on a violin, while coaching him along with such instructions like these?
"No, look more serious! More serious! Look as if you hate yourself and your instrument! Work those fingers! Harder! More frantically! Ah, crap, we have to slick back your hair again and re-straighten your bow tie."
10. Boy, do I love the early C4 Corvettes--I'll have to devote an actual Car Lust to them. They haven't really aged well, but they looked fantastic. And after spending the entire 1970s and early 1980s as a corpulent cruiser, the 1984 Corvette was finally a serious performance car. A flawed one, perhaps, but an excellent performer.
Hit pause at 1:26, with a beautifully lit front 3/4 shot of the Corvette, on a foggy moonscape, with the Chevrolet logo dropping into place. If you're anything like me, despite the cheesiness of this ad, that freeze-frame gets your blood pumping. Fantastic.
--Chris H.
rebecaosorio on August 29, 2008 at 12:35 PM
It seems they should have used the huge budget of that commercial into making it into a decent handling,more efficient car and not the lemon it turned out to be. Luckily for corette lovers these problems have mostly been fixed with recent models. The only thing corvettes did until the late 90s was look good.
That Car Guy on October 29, 2008 at 08:00 AM
Yes! I agree wholeheartedly that this is THE BEST car commercial ever made! I remember when it first ran, and I still have a grainy VHS copy that I was able to catch. 90 seconds? Wow! It's about 25 years later, and the ad still catches me... I can and do watch it over and over!
The ad introduces a new generation of Corvette. There's never been... anything... like this before! Or since!
CJinSD on May 10, 2009 at 11:59 PM
In regards to point 6: The computer controlled manual transmission was not the 6-speed skip shift manual that is still in service. It was a Doug Nash made 4 speed manual with selectable overdrive on the top 3 gears for a total of 7 ratios. I suppose the computer could automatically engage or disengage overdrive. I'm of the impression that the 6-speed Tremec was a more satisfactory solution, skip shift or not. Most people can drive around the skip shift function, and those who can't can defeat it in a minute or two.