By David S. Wallens
Aug 11, 2021
This old VW Cabrio ad featuring the simply elegant music of the late Nick Drake pushes a lot of buttons as it’s big on emotion yet lacking in dialog–no pitch, no call to action. It simply captures a moment while reminding us that sometimes it’s the drive, not the destination.
So, for the rest of the class: What car commercials have stuck with you over the years?
8/10/21 8:29 a.m.
8/10/21 8:34 a.m.
If you have ever lived in Chicagoland for more than a minute, you know the address by heart because you've seen this:
8/10/21 8:42 a.m.
I have to go with the 1996 Nissan 300ZX commercial with Barbie, Ken and GI Joe.
8/10/21 8:45 a.m.
8/10/21 8:45 a.m.
VW had a lot of good ones in the 1990s, this is my favorite:
Also:
8/10/21 8:55 a.m.
That's OK kid . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_soUM9Oxoc
8/10/21 9:18 a.m.
8/10/21 9:27 a.m.
8/10/21 1:34 p.m.
1985 Highland Appliance Commercial......
PURE GRM.....Lamborghini vs Clunker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMCnbWtGT_Ihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMCnbWtGT_I
8/10/21 1:51 p.m.
Two of my favorites:
I remember seeing the FR-S commercial after I already had mine... got it before they officially were on sale.
8/10/21 3:49 p.m.
https://youtu.be/XfMt2jtbW3Q
8/10/21 3:58 p.m.
8/10/21 5:35 p.m.
8/10/21 5:47 p.m.
This one always stuck in my mind.
https://youtu.be/URSmFnkQGP4
8/10/21 7:13 p.m.
vw gti commercial "little gti" - Bing video
8/10/21 7:26 p.m.
8/10/21 7:38 p.m.
I always liked "It's a Rocket", 1985 CRX Si. Since I owned a couple of those.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEph_eAzQ-w
8/10/21 8:13 p.m.
Now that I think about it, didn't we have this same conversation a few months ago?
8/10/21 8:16 p.m.
8/10/21 8:44 p.m.
In reply to Datsun310Guy :
ARgh, beat me to it...
8/10/21 8:47 p.m.
BMW - The Hire series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeDoJsUUDHc&list=PLdToG5JtC8ONuk43jF2qpCk6V12-Iad5D
8/10/21 9:04 p.m.
8/10/21 11:01 p.m.
There's too many good ones.
8/10/21 11:24 p.m.
I only knows the classics:
8/11/21 2:29 a.m.
And this one has been in my favorites ever since it launched a decade ago...
8/11/21 10:05 a.m.
8/11/21 12:52 p.m.
8/11/21 8:04 p.m.
In reply to ProDarwin :
My fav vdub commercial.
Reminds me of my nephew when he was five and dressed up as Darth Vader.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AePr-8n1STQ
8/11/21 9:20 p.m.
I'm surprised that this hasn't been added.
BTW, David's submission that started the thread brought tears to my eyes. Nicole's finished me off.
8/11/21 10:09 p.m.
I love this one, especially as my daughter gets closer to driving age.
8/12/21 6:35 a.m.
Good one, it made my face leak.
8/12/21 6:53 a.m.
That Ferrari/Shell one is a good one.
I've always burned a candle for the old Jonathan Pryce infiniti commericials. They're just so...... something.
I've started several high profile campaigns to bring him back as infiniti's spokesperson, but to no avail.
8/12/21 3:06 p.m.
Oh come on people, let's be more patriotic than that! Mine is the Dodge Challenger driven by George Washington. Still on You Tube and let's ALL remember to watch it every Washington's Birthday!
8/12/21 4:42 p.m.
The old dodge stealth commercial. I can't find a link for it right now, but at the very end, it did an awd launch on what was presumably a slippery surface, and it spun all 4 tires.
Changed my life.
8/12/21 9:26 p.m.
In the late 70s or early 80s, there was a Porsche commercial that they showed during football games in which a guy picked up a girl for a date and she said something like "You never told me you had a Porsche..."
He says, "You never asked".
Later, she ends up driving the car really fast. He says "You never told me you knew how to drive..."
She says, "You never asked".
I was too young to know which model Porsche they were driving, and I've never been able to find the ad online.
8/12/21 9:37 p.m.
In reply to Boost_Crazy :
Reminds me of this other really good Subaru ad.
It has subtitles but it's not hard to figure out.
8/13/21 11:28 a.m.
How about this classic?
8/13/21 12:38 p.m.
8/13/21 12:43 p.m.
Always liked the VW commercial, "Ever wonder how the snowplow driver gets to work?"
Couldn't find the English version.
8/13/21 12:52 p.m.
Car rental commercial- this one cracks me up.
8/13/21 2:30 p.m.
If I could afford a sports sedan, the road would belong to me. Bob.
8/13/21 2:47 p.m.
While the VW "Unpimp zee auto" commercials are a clear winner for me, the 80's had some really weird, drug-fueled commercials that I love. One of my favorites is this Renault Encore commercial. I mean... just watch it. Someone really enjoyed Turbo Teen.
And who can forget the Datsun 10th Anniversary 280ZX BLACK GOLD commercial? I might need to smoke a cigarette after watching that.
Then there's this ridiculous Camaro commercial from 1984 where a 3rd Gen ends up on an alien planet full of rad crystals and when it drives by the inhabitants their eyes get all weird. I wish I could have sat in on the ad agency's meeting pitching this one to GM execs.
Drugs. Lots and lots of nose candy.
8/13/21 2:49 p.m.
In reply to AENfor43 :
I have a poster of this somewhere. Washington and his guys just posing with a Dodge Challenger. I hear Bald Eagles cry in the distance every time I look at it.
8/13/21 4:33 p.m.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
If we're doing Datsun - don't forget the Wazniak one. I'm not sure of the music on the second one.
8/13/21 4:42 p.m.
Jeep in deep snow
a little old, and low quality, but amazing SAAB action
8/13/21 7:56 p.m.
Forum convo about it from 2004, https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/has-anyone-seen-wachovia-securities-commercial.75506/#post-929840
it's a Wachovia commercial with two silver 5 series twins sliding and spinning down an empty city street at night. It was beautiful and then it was never seen again. I've been looking for it for years
8/13/21 8:19 p.m.
Well, since the "unpimp ze auto" and Ferrari/shell commercials are already listed:
Does this count as a commercial?
8/13/21 8:40 p.m.
These days everyone is talking about the Hyundai and the Yugo. Both nice cars, if you’ve got three or four thousand dollars lying around! But for those of us who’s name doesn’t happen to be “Rockefeller” finally there’s some good news...
8/14/21 7:33 a.m.
Always one of my favorites
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8/14/21 11:43 a.m.
Forgettable car, aired during Super Bowl. Ass-kicking underdogs & hair metal content
https://youtu.be/jvm68nEAU7o
8/14/21 1:43 p.m.
Yep.
https://youtu.be/2McOZQaKwTU
8/14/21 3:58 p.m.
https://youtu.be/H_soUM9Oxoc
8/14/21 6:34 p.m.
I really like the Honda one with the ....... machine. All I really remember is the wipers crawling across the floor to trigger the next thing.
Words are memory hardness for old guy me.
8/14/21 8:43 p.m.
IIRC that was an accord wagon that looked amazing.. but wasn't available here. I remember that one too.
8/16/21 9:31 a.m.
A little twist. Not my favourite, but one of my least favourite. I was neither a fan, nor not a Fan at ths point, but after seeing this - even as a kid, and thinking, they're either really stupid, or they think their customers are, I never got over it and I could never own one. I guess alienating their customer base was not a concern in the 70's
8/16/21 9:33 a.m.
And one I'm surprised I've not seen yet
8/16/21 9:50 a.m.
Wait a minute!! Has anyone mentioned the Swagger Wagon yet???
EDIT: I was a few minutes late on that one.
8/16/21 6:07 p.m.
I do love this one for sure
8/16/21 9:05 p.m.
I remembered seeing this Citroen transformer commercial years ago
What I didn't know until I looked this up tonight was that they made a few of these, including one doing ice skating and another running. I also saw someone made an amusing parody:
9/3/21 11:26 p.m.
Watching all of these, a couple more come to mind (how to embed??)
Lexus wine glass
One with a Countach revving its engine once at a gas pump and running out of fuel
And I'm really surprised A. That this ad was ever made B. That I can't find it anywhere-- Mazda RX-8 "an entrance ramp is a terrible thing to waste" -- may have been print only?
9/4/21 9:28 a.m.
In reply to P3PPY :
They did an update to the Lexus commercial with CEO Akio Toyoda looking like a goofball.
9/4/21 10:47 a.m.
This was always fun
but thanks to that commercial it makes this one that much better
Jaguars response.
9/4/21 11:52 p.m.
This one is very 80s.
I wanted to find the one of the Mustang SVO airborne but can't. I know there is one of an 87 or 88 Mustang GT doing the same. I found a mix that included it but it was awful quality.
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