All Entries in the "PREVIOUS POSTS" Category
Touching Tribute: Toyota’s Advert For Chevrolet
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: Toyota Advertisement for Chevrolet
THE caption reads: “You can’t tell the story of America without Chevrolet. Congratulations on 100 years.” You’d have expected that script to come from GM marketing but it came courtesy of the good folks at Toyota.
Honoring Chevy’s 100th birthday, ToMoCo whipped together a simple message with a timeline graphic depicting a collage of partial profile shots of Chevrolet models through the years. The touching full-page advertisement for their rival printed in Automotive News‘ October 31st commemorative issue: “A Century of Chevrolet: The Stories That Shaped an Icon”.
On face value, the ad strikes you as an act of corporate chivalry. It would be like Microsoft congratulating Apple in PC World for three successful decades or Coca Cola wishing Pepsi well on their journey together into the 21st Century. Of course, Toyota has been acutely sensitive of its outsider status in the US (this despite having an enormous domestic manufacturing presence Stateside) so this advertisement is one little way for Toyota to flash a little ‘Merican pride for Automotive News‘ Motown-heavy readership.
One wonders if Chevrolet will one day return the favor, say, in the business section of the Asahi Shimbun.
Revenge of the Electric Car Trailer
Directed by Chris Paine. Worth watching.
On The Track With A Morgan Aero 8 GT3
Aero GT3′s V8 makes this noise that will curl every hair on your body.
Steve Jobs
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Apple ::: Steve Jobs
GIVEN that the automotive world and the tech world are becoming fast friends, it’s more than fitting that this post call for a reflection on the passing of Apple’s co-founder and former CEO, Pixar founder and largest Disney shareholder, and sometime Mercedes SL driver Steve Jobs.
Lake Bell, Auto Scribe
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: Lake Bell
CALL it good old fashioned self promotion. Call it knowing-how-to-get-under-your-average-guy’s-skin to start an uncontrollable itch. Call it whatever you like, but whatever you call it, The Hollywood Reporter might just be onto something by signing up some Hollywood hottie named Lake Bell (No Strings Attached, How To Make It In America) to write its (superfluous but appreciated) auto column.
Judging by her work – assuming it’s her fingers and not some surrogate’s tickling a lucky keyboard – she’s very, very good at spinning words round spinning tyres. Might we call her addition to THR the mag’s own Silvio Berlusconi H.R. plan going forward? One can only hope Mz. Bell starts a lovely hiring trend in autoscribe land.
2001: An ADLX Odyssey
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Warner Bros
THIS simple, ceremonial post marks the two thousandth and one article posted on Automobiles De Luxe since November of 2006. While that milestone might compare to our online peers like Pagani’s annual production tally vs. Ford’s global output, we feel it worth noting.
Thank you, dear readers for doing your part. And for ours, we’ll keep on keepin’ on – as the man says.
IMG MGMT: V-Dub’s New Bug Commercial
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: YouTube ::: 2012 Beetle High Five Commercial
HAVING unveiled the 2012 Beetle earlier this spring in pointed ceremonies in Berlin, New York, and Shanghai, Volkswagen has now brought out the welcome mat for US customers to come ‘n buy. And unlike the return of flower-power message in ’99, to fit the image of the new, squarer-jawed Bug, they had to tailor their pitch.
So in this spot, we see a Beetle in jet black. It’s driven by a twenty-something guy with a five o’clock shadow. We hear a V.O. announcement read by a guy of the same demo. We see shots of fairly manly connotations: hot girl admiring from other car, turbo badge on rear, cops and laborers going about the day’s business, pack of cyclists, and, of course, man’s best friend @ 00:30.
Set to the vintage jingle, the ad manages to be just cute enough to still appeal to the ladies. Nice balance, VW pitch team.
