Monday, July 14, 2008

They don’t do car ads they was they used to

I’m watching a short clip on “Speed” the car lover’s cable channel. The camera pans back and forth over a Ferrari 3300. The hood is raised, we see the fine Italian power plant, the manual transmission, the suspension parts, in short the nuts and bolts of this hot car. Then we get some shots on the road. For a point of difference, this particular Ferrari is painted grey, rather than the proper red, but the nondescript color lets the good lines of the styling show to advantage. Bottom line, after watching a 5 minute TV show/infomercial I am ready to own and drive a Ferrari.

The show cuts to commercial. A camera looks down on a blue car pulled into the gas pumps. We watch the fuel hose slip out of the fill pipe and slink down to let the air out of the rear tire. “Gas pumps hate us” “Chevrolet Cobalt” and “36 MPG” float across the screen. Cute, but it doesn’t sell the car to me, not the way the Ferrari piece sold that Ferrari. The top camera angle shows little of the vehicle. I’m left wondering “is that car

No comments: