“Bigger isn’t better, it’s just harder to park” says an internet ad for the new Fiat 500 (It’s on Yahoo’s homepage at the moment). This is the “Think small” of the 21st century, or about as close as you can get to it now. (I’m referring to the 1959 VW Beetle print ads from Doyle Dane Bernbach, for those who don’t know. This was voted the #1 campaign of all time in Advertising Age’s The Century in Advertising, according to Wikipedia.) Back in the 1950s, “Think Big” was a very popular term, so to subvert it for an ad was a great strategy, and made it very zeitgeisty. I think that Apple campaign with the “Think Different” headline was meant to capitalize on the old Beetle campaign, for those who knew it, and hoped to repeat its success, which it seems to have done. But it’s been done at this point, so a new headline strategy is in order; but the same idea of selling the small car for its small size is just as good, if not even more necessary today.
I have driven wonderful cars that are long, and they are a serious pain to park nowadays! I have a short car now. So they’ve hit on the source of the problem, and used it as a plus right off the bat, and that’s just good for business.
I don’t know if the car is any good; I’d just get a Mini for that size car myself, but maybe the Fiat is also good: who knows. But if they’re going to try to sell that car, this is the best way to do it, at least as far as I’m concerned, and I have practical experience to know this is an issue people think about. So this is a winning strategy, if you ask me. Parking spaces are being painted progressively smaller and smaller all the time, and it’s really hard to find a space and park with enough space between cars to feel comfortable you won’t come back to a big dent in your car (especially in movie studio parking lots!). So maybe this will work for them. I guess we’ll see.
