By Ross Ballot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icOKehR1Q0w
On Sunday I was watching the Giants/Jets game and a commercial came on for Ford’s newest crossover. It started out with a pseudo space-theme, showcasing a near-sci-fi sequence of shots showing a man dressed in space attire. And then it turned into traditional commercial-isms, relating “space” to a car on sale today. But towards the end they pitched a line that I can’t get over:
“The all-new 2020 Ford Explorer. It’s the greatest exploration vehicle of all time.”
Given, I haven’t driven the new Explorer yet, but it most certainly is not the greatest exploration vehicle of all time. The Wrangler, 4Runner, G-Wagen, Land Cruiser, HiLux, Range Rovers, and so on would like to have a word with Ford’s marketing division. So would, you know, everything that’s ever been to actual space.
All-in-all it’s a decent commercial with a comically awful tagline. I like the theme and that it shows a dad doing normal, non-heroic dad things, but I can’t get past the laughably high-reaching claim about the vehicle’s merits. Which got me thinking: What’s the most far-fetched marketing slogan of all time?
Jeff Glucker
Not true in 1957 and not true today.
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2648/4240132485_9f70d395a2_z.jpg
Cadillac’s “Dare Greatly”. It’s literally a meaningless phrase
Foshizzle Iacoccajizzle.
That this might work.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4a0b98ba29b95a75d1fa4ac621811ec450646d3532f66ae03e12302ef106f773.png
Everyone knows actors aren’t real people.
The fact that he goes to pick up his kids and goes grocery shopping in his space suit tells me the Explorer is for posers. You know, the kind of people that think they need “ground clearance” to go to the mall.
Also, if 0:27 is meant to pretend to be an active airport ramp area, they have a serious FOD problem. 😉
Is the next Hooniverse Asks going to be the most modest automotive marketing slogan? I can think of a few candidates.
I remember when this was fresh and sparked nothing but eyerolls:
https://www.mitsubishi-motors.com/en/corporate/pressrelease/contents/newsrelease/200806181791/2008061817911.jpg
Seriously, first someone found this to make sense, then some committee signed it off. Drugs may or may not have been involved.
Wow, I’m picturing something hostile to the earth, like some kind of awful boring machine
They used to make these. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8f7c760d10ee085e84efbf79de50639a66bec76371e56d63bc9aadc743beb9ce.jpg
I’ve never seen that one before! (I’m thinking there’s probably a reason for that…)
To say nothing of their aircraft more typically being driven at seaborne targets.
Not true in 1957 and not true today.
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2648/4240132485_9f70d395a2_z.jpg
“…the ONLY car that dares to break the time barrier!”
DMC would like a word…
Yeah, but at least Plymouth got there first… Oh, wait.
Now there’s a wrinkle I’d never thought of. As soon as time travel becomes a reality, more than a few patent lawyers’ heads are going to explode. Or…would it have already happened, if it was going to…? …my head hurts.
Cadillac’s “Dare Greatly”. It’s literally a meaningless phrase
It’s a perfectly cromulent slogan
Regarding the tag line at the bottom, does “accurate in completely unintended ways” count? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/83553ebb179dbe3cada182b6f175805473386aabe002e108d91936ee646e9265.jpg
I too thought the Explorer commercial was ridiculous until the shoe store scene, when I realized it was all tongue-in-cheek. When it was obvious that they were playing on the word in a joking way, it made more sense.
The commercials that show people pretending to be genuinely enthusiastic about buying Chevrolets are far more difficult to swallow.
Well…. I’m not saying that this very advertisement killed Oldsmobile but there’s a good argument to be made for that idea.
They may not have been building your father’s Oldsmobiles, but they were still building ones that still appealed to him…
https://www.conceptcarz.com/images/Oldsmobile/90-Olds-98-Regeney-DV-14-GM_01.jpg
https://consumerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/91128201990106.jpg
Oh, I’m sure GM learned from that mistake!
Or not, with the whole ‘That’s not a Buick, because Buicks are old/boring/forgettable’ thing: https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2019/07/buicks-mistaken-identity-commercial-seems-to-mock-the-brands-own-terribly-unpopular-cars/
Regarding the tag line at the bottom, does “accurate in completely unintended ways” count? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/83553ebb179dbe3cada182b6f175805473386aabe002e108d91936ee646e9265.jpg
Accurate, to be sure. Maybe exchange “could “ for “would” to get to what everyone was thinking when they first saw it.