Commentary: Audi "Green Police" Slays in Super Bowl Ad Wars
February 08, 2010
Lots of pre-game chatter about which automaker would come out on top with the best of the 
million-dollar-plus Super Bowl television commercials, but once the last of the confetti settled, Audi stood clear from the pack.
Audi's "Green Police" commercial was witty on many levels, but provoked more than laughs because it dared to satirize what typically is a sacrosanct subject: the environmental movement.
Sensitive ground for an automaker to tread, but Audi -- and its agency, Venables Bell & Partners -- pulled it off artfully and light-heartedly, bravely blowing its Super Bowl bucks to spoof the same environmental initiatives many "regular" Americans likely view as just a little overbearing: the zeal to switch to compact florescent lightbulbs, the paper-or-plastic grocery-store guilt and even whether we should be free to determine the temperature of our own hot tubs.
"Green Police," edged Chrysler Group LLC's equally fun "Man's Last Stand" commercial for the Dodge Charger -- not just because the Super Bowl ad lineup already was rife with different riffs on the "guy" cliches the Dodge commercial also relied on; ultimately, dozens of hilarious details made "Green Police" a more rewind-worthy experience.
But the brilliantly edited jump to the soundtrack of the revving Charger (the dumb-money RT version, 'natch) was good enough to make us momentarily overlook the cluelessness of breaking the bank to promote the Charger -- that of the over-in-an-eyeblink popularity and steadily fizzling sales.
The Challenger would have been a more tuned-in choice, then, but the commercial wasn't a half-bad distillation of the brand's essence, so half-earned props to new Chrysler ad agency Wieden+Kennedy for sort of understanding the client (even if that "+" in the agency's name is itself worthy of a little lampooning).
If Chrysler's going to vaporize its bailout dollars on a commercial that might have cost $5 million or more to air, "Man's Last Stand" thankfully was a whole lot more entertaining than the retch-inducing, Chryslerized Lancia the company inflicted on the Detroit auto show last month.
At least one taxpayer, CBS, was delighted Chrysler this time chose commercial over concept car. -- Bill Visnic, Senior Editor
Other automakers advertising on the Super Bowl:
Hyundai ads starred an aging Brett Favre. The theme was "You don't know what life will bring 10 years from now, but you can trust your Hyundai warranty to be there." Hyundai also promoted the new Sonata, playing on a music theme. In addition, Hyundai posted Favre outtakes on Facebook.
Kia advertised its new Sorento as "not just for people," showing toy characters including a monkey made from a sock.
Honda advertised the CrossTour with a mix of the car and computer-aided graphics.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:06 AM under Commentary , Companies , Featured | Comments (0) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
Leave a comment