QOTD: What's Your Favourite Automotive Marketing Campaign?

by Matthew Guy

Published: March 27th, 2017

qotd what s your favourite automotive marketing campaign

Last week, Jack opined it’s high time a certain American nameplate needs to start leading itself with marketing — brash, notice-it-even-if-you-don’t-want-to marketing — instead of by the short leash provided when one tries engineering their way into the hearts and wallets of American consumers.Never one to pass up a chance to dive down the rabbit hole of automotive marketing, it didn’t take long for my browser history to be clogged with search terms, finding great car ads I remember from when, as a kid, my grubby little hands would anticipate the arrival of a new car magazine.Porsche and VW have had some great campaigns over the years, with a series of mid-’90s print ads that included the “Kills Bugs Fast” tagline ranking pretty high in my personal top 40. The whole design of the campaign — from the illusion of speed on a static page to the copy itself — set my young imagination afire and led to lusting for an Arena Red 993 Turbo, which remains unabated to this day.

No discussion of great car ads is complete without a mention of VW’s ‘Think Small’ campaign. Armed with a relatively paltry amount of marketing cash, VW hired the Doyle Dane Bernbach marketing firm, who proceeded to knock it out of the park with more than a dose of wit and self-deprecating humor. Full-page ads with acres of white space drew the reader’s eyes, while the creative copy kept them there.Deploying a rock star, weird rocks n’ trees stuff, ads laden with innuendo — there’s plenty from which to choose. What’s your favourite automotive marketing campaign?

#Ads #Advertising #Marketing #Porsche #QOTD #QuestionOfTheDay #VW

Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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2 of 93 comments

Salzigtal on Apr 01, 2017

Since previous comments have included fake ads, I nominate Firesign Theater's Ralph Sportsport Motors "We'll sit on your face to make you a better deal".

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WildcatMatt on Apr 03, 2017

I don't know about favorite, but in terms of memorable, there was a commercial that showed the grille of a black Cadillac, then the camera zoomed out and there were handles on the sides of the car with people walking on either side of it, suggesting the Caddy was a coffin and strongly implying that you only bought a Cadillac if you were old and buying your last car. I only ever saw it once, and I don't recall who the ad was actually for, but like the 1984 Mac ad, I still remember the imagery.

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