This Xerox spot calls to mind (and actually repeats the action of) the Michelin ad where the Michelin man throws tires at a gas pump monster, and in so doing, it basically can’t help but make one wonder what I always used to wonder during the original run of that Michelin ad campaign, and that question is this: Does throwing tires at a gas pump really help lower the price of gasoline? Well, all I can say is: It must; otherwise, what are they still showing it in ads for? So I hope we’ve all learned from these commercials that whenever gas prices get too high at our local service station, we can easily solve that problem by throwing tires at their gas pumps. But if you do it, and you get in trouble, please blame Michelin and Xerox, and not me!
Here’s the original Michelin commercial. Notice that at first the Michelin man throws tires on the car to help it escape. This is more true of having the correct tire pressure, I think. But then, he throws tires at the evil gas pump, and it falls through a big hole in the ground, like all monsters do when you throw tires at them, or something. In any case, it seems to make sense in context in this spot. Anyway, here’s the ad:
You know, this happens to me a lot: in looking for the ads online, I often find things I didn’t remember or notice in the original ads. Here, we can see that while they’re showing the same idea in theory as in the Michelin ad, the Xerox ad (link below) bastardizes it to where it looks ridiculous and ineffective. Perhaps throwing tires doesn’t lower the price of gas, but at least the Michelin man’s actions had an effect in their original ad, whereas here he just looks silly and ineffectual. It’s no wonder they think they’re not bothering him when they nag him to do some accounting job: he’s clearly wasting his energy even trying to fight the big monster gas pump, as throwing tires does nothing whatsoever to help: which puts the lie to the original ad for Michelin, don’t you think? In any case, if I were Michelin, I would be hopping mad about this Xerox ad, and I’d attack them like that gas pump is attacking the highway in this spot. Here, see for yourself just what I mean, and compare it with the original Michelin ad:
Now, if they showed a bunch of those gas pump monsters, one behind the other, and the Michelin man was knocking them down and destroying them one after another by throwing the tires at them, then this ad would have worked just perfectly. But as it is, it insults the original Michelin ad, and Michelin as well. Maybe it’s unintentional, but it’s all the same to someone who’s viewing the spot. I don’t see how they could have missed it, frankly.
Maybe the ad agency that made this Xerox ad also made the one for Michelin originally, so they feel like they can do whatever they want with their own creative work. What I would say to that is this: their work or not, it was done to help a company, and that company paid for that creative work, so it should not be used in a way that makes them look bad. And this Xerox ad makes that Michelin campaign look stupid, by making the Michelin man’s actions look ineffectual. So they should have fixed that part of it: that’s all I’m saying. It actually looks a lot better visually than the original Michelin spot, however, and the idea for the Xerox spot is really funny and clever. So if they just made the Michelin man look like he was winning the battle, but had lots of other gas pump monsters to fight, then it would have been perfect! Really, I hate to quibble, but…
It has just occurred to me that there is another problem with this tire-throwing scenario to fight high gasoline prices. I'm sorry I didn't notice it before, but thinking about the old fuel shortages from the late 1970s again in light of our recent heightened tensions with Iran, it just made me think of something that hurts the whole concept of the Michelin Man defeating higher gas prices by destroying gas pumps with hurled tires, and that's this: If the Michelin Man is destroying these gas pumps, then there will be less of them, right? And that means the more he fights gas pumps like this, and the more he wins, the less gas pumps there will be for us to use to fill up our cars. That will make gasoline less available, and it will lead to lines at the gas stations, and probably significantly higher gas prices to boot. And while we're standing in line at the few remaining gas pumps available, the Michelin Man will probably show up and break these gas pumps too, leaving us no way to fill up our cars, and making us all miss work, get fired, and tanking our economy. And the kicker is, these gas pumps have never attacked anyone! It's the OPEC cartel, greedy speculators, and rising international tensions in the Persian Gulf that have caused the gas prices to skyrocket mostly, and the gas pumps are but innocent victims in this whole affair! They don't set their own prices, so the Michelin Man is lashing out at the wrong, um, people (?). Yes, and to further complicate things, the gas pumps are all completely inanimate! Nobody sees them as threatening monsters except for the Michelin Man, and do you know why? Well, isn't it obvious? It certainly looks like he is clearly psychotic, hallucinating inanimate objects as belligerent monsters, and then lashing out with violence at imaginary foes, throwing deadly tires at them in all directions, creating a new fuel shortage and energy crisis in the wake of his psychotic, imaginary war. But hey: at least he means well, right?
It has just occurred to me that there is another problem with this tire-throwing scenario to fight high gasoline prices. I'm sorry I didn't notice it before, but thinking about the old fuel shortages from the late 1970s again in light of our recent heightened tensions with Iran, it just made me think of something that hurts the whole concept of the Michelin Man defeating higher gas prices by destroying gas pumps with hurled tires, and that's this: If the Michelin Man is destroying these gas pumps, then there will be less of them, right? And that means the more he fights gas pumps like this, and the more he wins, the less gas pumps there will be for us to use to fill up our cars. That will make gasoline less available, and it will lead to lines at the gas stations, and probably significantly higher gas prices to boot. And while we're standing in line at the few remaining gas pumps available, the Michelin Man will probably show up and break these gas pumps too, leaving us no way to fill up our cars, and making us all miss work, get fired, and tanking our economy. And the kicker is, these gas pumps have never attacked anyone! It's the OPEC cartel, greedy speculators, and rising international tensions in the Persian Gulf that have caused the gas prices to skyrocket mostly, and the gas pumps are but innocent victims in this whole affair! They don't set their own prices, so the Michelin Man is lashing out at the wrong, um, people (?). Yes, and to further complicate things, the gas pumps are all completely inanimate! Nobody sees them as threatening monsters except for the Michelin Man, and do you know why? Well, isn't it obvious? It certainly looks like he is clearly psychotic, hallucinating inanimate objects as belligerent monsters, and then lashing out with violence at imaginary foes, throwing deadly tires at them in all directions, creating a new fuel shortage and energy crisis in the wake of his psychotic, imaginary war. But hey: at least he means well, right?
