This ad starts out showing a couple of Tinseltown’s movie palaces, and then says: “Most people come to California dreaming of the big screen.” But then they trick us into looking at a smaller one: their rear-view camera screen. So then they show us how it can show you what you might be backing over if you’re not careful. And then they show a guy backing up into a parking space at a movie studio. But then they show him looking at some woman’s legs, and he’s not looking at the screen: he’s looking backwards as he’s backing into the space, just like anyone else would do without the rear-view screen. And then it occurs to me that we haven’t seen this driver look at the screen at all.
So what’s the point of the little rear-view screen if you’re not going to use it? Sure, we’re looking at it, but that’s because we have no choice, as it’s given the close-up full screen treatment in its commercial presentation. But the guy who’s driving the vehicle doesn’t even seem to notice he has it at all. Oh well, I guess it’s there if he ever wants to use it, and that’s the important thing. But when he sees the hot girl at the movie studio, he just hurries up his parking job with reckless abandon, and we can tell that he’d drive right over a box full of puppies if it got in his way when he’s on the make skirt-chasing.
That’s when it hit me that this spot’s ending would be a much better scenario to sell a car with an automatic parking function. We’d see this guy get distracted by the sexy gams, and he’d start to park like a libidinous idiot, recklessly hurrying to get the car parked so he can leap out and chase the object of his desire. Oh, but that’s when they’d show us how the car’s safety parking features will park the car for you so you can take off chasing girls, and if you forget about the helpless babies you might be driving over because of how googley-eyed you are, the car will stop itself and save your bacon!
Oh, and there’s one other thing about this ad: the driver leaves his headlights on when he leaves his car and chases after whatever girl he’s after. So, then does this rear-view screen not only not make you remember to look at it, but it also makes you forget to turn off your lights when you park? Because that’s what it looks like! They should have been touting an automatic light-turning-off feature as well, because once this guy’s got hot chicks in his sights, apparently he forgets everything! (And when he tries to take the woman out to lunch, his battery will be dead, and this will cause the woman to figure out he's an irresponsible guy and dump him.)
When I was a teenager, I can’t even remember how many times I saw obnoxious guys smash into the car in front of them while they were trying to flirt with some looker in another car or out walking down the sidewalk. And after seeing this commercial, it strikes me that this idea of a skirt-chasing carload of guys rear-ending the car in front of them while they were distracted by cute girls would be the perfect ad for that Mercedes automated safety feature package in their cars. All they’d have to do is show that this Mercedes is the driver’s father’s car (!), and that it would get wrecked with such behavior without these safety features (stopping itself, etc.). So then they could address the very real issue of parents whose kids beg to borrow the nice car to go out in, and they could say that with these automated safety features, the car’s owner (the teen’s parent) can rest easily about the safety of their most beloved: their car (!). (That would be a really cute sell, too: acting like the safety of the car is even more important than that of the offspring. But then again, I guess someone would probably scream child abuse/neglect, ruining it.)
I can’t believe I can’t find this commercial on YouTube, but if I had made as many silly mistakes in my ad, I’d want to suppress it too. But it’s running on TV right now, so you’re not likely to be able to avoid it if you watch the boob tube.
