Car Commercials during the Super Bowl

Best car commercial during the Super Bowl? Go.

(or best commercial featuring a car)

 

I think the whole world has already seen this one:

Comments

[Chris Meirose on February 06, 2011 at 04:07 PM]

I'm going with the Kia Optima ending with the Incas. Even though it isn't half time, that's tough to beat. The "Lassie" truck commercial was good too!

[Chris Meirose on February 06, 2011 at 04:19 PM]

The Ford F150 Super Duty commercial was the same old one. Meh. As a stock holder in Ford I demand better! :-)

[Chris Meirose on February 06, 2011 at 04:26 PM]

I want a 2011 Transformer Camaro.

[Chris Meirose on February 06, 2011 at 04:26 PM]

BMW promoting X3 designed and built in USA.

[Chris Meirose on February 06, 2011 at 04:28 PM]

BMW advanced diesel was a good short one.

[Chris Meirose on February 06, 2011 at 04:41 PM]

Parking monkeys for CareerBuilder.com was clever.

[Chris Meirose on February 06, 2011 at 04:50 PM]

Chevy Cruz - Facebook? Really? We've become so narcissistic that we need that in a CAR now? Boooooooooo!

[Chris Meirose on February 06, 2011 at 05:25 PM]

Dodge Ram truck - truck month commercial - uninspiring. Snore. You paid what for that?

[Chris Meirose on February 06, 2011 at 05:49 PM]

Compact Car Hypnosis - Hyundai Elantra - meh.

[Chris Meirose on February 06, 2011 at 06:03 PM]

Detroit - Chrysler 200 with Eminem - great commercial. Didn't see enough of the car to make a judgment on that, but loved the overall feel and theme of the commercial.

[Chris Meirose on February 06, 2011 at 06:32 PM]

Cars.com talking cars - perhaps the worst commercial of the whole Super Bowl. Worse than the halftime show.

[Chris Meirose on February 06, 2011 at 06:45 PM]

Bridgestone Tires - Beaver and the Bridge - excellent commercial! Caddyshack-esque Beaver FTW!

[Chris Meirose on February 06, 2011 at 06:48 PM]

Mercedes Benz & P Diddy - nice use of historical cars.

[Chris Meirose on February 06, 2011 at 06:58 PM]

Camaro in the desert - Chevy runs deep - pointless commercial. Cool car, horrible commercial. Would've been better to just have the camera focused on the motor with someone revving it for 30 seconds.

[Cookie the Dog's Owner on February 06, 2011 at 08:24 PM]

The Chrysler 200 was beautifully shot and edited, and had real emotion behind it. I'll also admit to laughing along with the Chevy commercial where the two off-camera guys were making it up as it went along.

The Bridgestone beaver was made of win.

[Shawn on February 07, 2011 at 02:21 AM]

Duh. Cram it in the boot!

[Jasmine on February 07, 2011 at 03:40 AM]

Silverado truck commercial and Eminem

[Mochi Mochi on February 07, 2011 at 11:12 AM]

As much as I don't like the content of the Chrysler Eminem commercial, because it's full of that aspiration to wannabe-macho that SUV marketing thrives on, of the group posted here it has the best production values and direction. it's a nationalist commercial that is trying to position at least on US automaker as having qualities that the US traditionally values. The imagery and editing is tight and effective.

The VW spit is cute but predictable. The Kia ad is full of tiresome CGI. Silverado is just not quite funny enough, I think it could have been better with a little more irony and cleverness.

[Chris Hafner on February 07, 2011 at 11:32 AM]

The theme this year seemed to be really interesting, really creative ads for unworthy vehicles. I really liked the creativity of the Kia Optima ad, but an epic journey ... for a Kia Optima? It's clever marketing wasted on a decent vehicle that just doesn't belong with the ad. You could have put any car in the ad and the message would have been just the same, the message wasn't tailored to the product in the slightest.

The I *loved* the Eminem/Detroit/Chrysler ad. I loved the production, and I loved the message - full of braggadocio, yes, but frankly I liked the "we're here, we're not going anywhere, we're proud of our city, and we're going to fight back with some great vehicles" message. I think there was some genuine feeling to that ad - people are writing off Detroit as a ghost town, but there are still good people who care who are left there who are doing their best to make great cars. I loved that part of it, and I love that it was so serious when so many Super Bowl ads go for cheesy humor.

But the most prominent vehicle was a Chrysler 200 - a warmed-over Sebring? I hear that the 200 is better than the Sebring, but *this* is what Detroit comes up with when its back is against the wall? This is the proof of Detroit's defiance to give up its proud car-building history?

I don't mean to bash the 200, because, again, it sounds better than the Sebring. But if you can, pick a car that is truly world-class that you can stand behind and be proud of.

Both of these ads felt like the ad agency was given the job of advertising a car that was mildly interesting at best, and made it into something much more epic. That indicates a job well done on their part, I guess, but the message was out of step with the product.

The Mercedes ad was more in-step, I thought - I loved seeing the classic Mercedes, and I thought new Mercedes being released to an audience of their classic forebears was not only clever but very on-point for the brand.

[That Car Guy (Chuck) on February 07, 2011 at 11:47 AM]

Sorry this is off-subject a bit, but I just have to read my newest fortune cookie:

"Something on four wheels will soon be a fun investment for you!"

Could that mean something with suicide doors? :)

[Mochi Mochi on February 07, 2011 at 12:25 PM]

What was good about the Mercedes commercial were the historic cars. What was not especially creative about the Mercedes commercial was the use of historic cars and the way the agency approached that history. By comparison with the The "Honda Impossible Dream" commercial from a number of years ago the Mercedes commercial is totally lacking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiBX8MkFkd4

The agency working for honda got it right managing to be funny, truly unexpected, and inspiring.

And what was up with P Diddy? It was like he was just pasted into the story. Yes it was humorous. But no it was not truly funny. This brings up the next problem with superbowl ads... most of the ones that try to be funny aren't... they end up being watered down and marginally humorous, like a joke in an executive speech.

Following on Chris' comments, the Eminem/Detroit/Chrysler ad was moving and inspiring. It took a crumbling city and badly hit economy, and actually mixed in strong and moving imagery from the Labor movement to create a larger picture of heroism. I'm not ready to let go my skepticism about how those images of labor and a crumbling city actually relate to the reality of corporations, politics, and capitalism in the US, but it felt like the ad team and the agency had their heart in that ad. What they created was moving and inspiring in a strong way... they avoided cheap sentimentality and went for something that seemed genuine (not an easy feat for most ad teams or corporations). If anything it makes me feel even better about buying a Fiat someday :)

[tigerstrypes on February 07, 2011 at 12:33 PM]

Chris Meirose- official multilinker of CarLust. XD

I can relate with lil' Darth Vader on being tricked by a relative (in my case my Uncle) who, when I was little, made me think that touching the Pentastar on the trunk hatch of the then-new second-gen Dodge Caravan Sport would open it or close it. Spent a while pushing that Pentastar until my fingers hurt. ^^;

Did anyone notice the super-yacht's name is "Desire" on the Kia Optima commercial?

Do the lights on Silverados really flash when you honk the horn? Anyways, good commercial, but not for Superbowl standards.

[Anthony Cagle on February 07, 2011 at 02:15 PM]

I didn't watch too many of them live and haven't clicked through them. I like the Darth Vader one, and it's kind of creepy (in a fun way, of course) that the kid who played Vader looks startlingly like a young Luke Skywalker.

Anything with an ancient civilization in it gets points from me, too.

I rather disliked the Chrysler commercial. Not from a commercial standpoint really, I suppose it was quite well done. It didn't seem as much a car commercial as something to appeal to the political folks for more largesse. As a commentator elsewhere has noted "Taxpayers' money saved a car company from bankruptcy and all they got was this lousy Super Bowl commercial." The "hell" they supposedly went through was entirely self-imposed so, hey, I've not much sympathy.

[jjd241 on February 07, 2011 at 08:45 PM]

Best Car? BMW
Best Commercial? Emminem baby!

Here are my "seen on the street" shots for the week

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViFwfb_pq2k

[David Colborne on February 08, 2011 at 12:19 PM]

I think the Mercedes commercial was a nice retort to the Audi "escape the trappings of old luxury" spots. Mercedes was basically saying, "Hey, we've been here for a while, we've done this before, and we're doing it again". In that context, it made a lot of sense. I do agree that, in isolation, it's not the best commercial in the world, though.

The VW spots were cheeky and fun. Nothing new there.

I'm with Chris H on the Chrysler 200 commercial - you spent that much to advertise THAT?! That's how you prove Detroit knows about luxury? Really? They should have held on to that for the new 300 instead of going all-in on Chrysler's version of the ubiquitous Camcord. Seriously, that car is one step away from Cimarron territory there.

I thought the Silverado "Lassie" spot was rather humorous. The BMW diesel ad made me chuckle, too - I always find it refreshing when advertisers own up to the past and try to overcome it instead of acting like their product exists in a time-vacuum. The Camaro ads were ridiculous and pointless. Bridgestone ad was comical. The Korean commercials weren't terribly inspired - they were a little strange, but not self-aware enough to carry the brand anywhere.