Wow, I can't believe I just saw that in an ad!* Nissan is running a new commercial for their new line of cars (I guess) where they show first one car, and then five cars, all driving with a sheet over the car so the driver can't see where s/he is going (!). And at one point in the spot, they show a family leaving their house, and the kids run out into the driveway, and I literally said to the people with me: "Oh no: They're going to run over those kids!" And in that shot, the mother looks at this covered car and smiles, when in real life she'd be screaming bloody murder about how dangerous it was to drive through her neighborhood like that when there are kids around, and calling the police to complain about it (and rightfully so!).
Then, in a following shot, we see a girl in a helmet looking at something (presumably the car), and I couldn't help but think that maybe she put the helmet on to protect herself just in case this car drove into her. But then she just ends up being a motorcycle rider. But in the order it's presented, it really looks as if it's supporting the reckless aspect of this scenario.
So, rather than getting curious and intrigued about what their new cars look like, I was instead thinking about how reckless this scenario is, and worried for the people in the ad who might get hit or run over by these tarp-covered cars. And I think I was supposed to be thinking about the cars as desirable, rather than about the people in its path as potential victims of reckless endangerment and depraved indifference. (Of course, I could be wrong.)
But look, Nissan: you can do your unveiling idea if you like (and apparently, you like), but don't show a covered car driving around like that so it's obvious the driver can't see where s/he's going, please! I know it's all fake CGI stuff, but please remember that this is the country where everyone always likes to copy the Jackass stunts for YouTube, so you might inspire a new fad called "Sheet Driving" or something that ends up getting lots of people hurt or killed by drivers who can't see where they're going. And if you get that kind of publicity, it might be really bad for business. (Although it would be free publicity by then, so maybe it's worth it to you; plus, you'd get to be on Tosh.0, I'll bet, so that's even more free publicity!)
Here's this sheety spot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFnOBLprN1Y
By the way, fixing this problem would be easy (conceptually, that is: they've already shot this ad, so it may be too late; although I have to believe the driving shots were originally normal, and the sheets were added in post-production on the computer): all they'd have to do is start the commercial with the cars all delivered on a truck with sheets covering them, and the townsfolk become intrigued. Then, the cars start up, the people get out of the way, and the cars drive out from underneath the sheets and come to a stop, and people approach the cars and admire them, before they drive off into the scenes we see in the ad, only without being covered by the sheets. See what I mean?
(Of course they might still hit someone while driving out from under the sheets, which is why they might want to have someone else {maybe the drivers} pull the sheets off the cars first.)
Or else maybe this whole ad could be reused to tout some kind of satellite navigation-controlled automatic driving and radar-controlled safety feature where you don't even need to see where you're going to drive anymore. But they don't do that here: a missed opportunity?
* Come to think of it, I'll have a Heineken; um, I mean, come to think of it, I think I've seen this sheet stuff before in car ads. So rather, I can't believe I'm still seeing this in TV ads.
