It’s another ‘through the ages’ ad.
Here’s the new VW Polo ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeKuFs0KxO8
I’ve been watching a lot of the Leveson enquiry, so I feel as if I ought to lean over that desk like Robert Jay QC, smile sweetly, and ask the following questions:
‘Were you aware that ads depicting someone’s life through the ages have become somewhat prevalent in recent years?’
‘Mm, and the cosily idealised middle-class warmth… Was that a tone of voice you felt that we really hadn’t seen enough of lately?’
‘And did it occur to you at any time that you could finish this ad off with any one of 473 different logos, and still have it work perfectly well?’
‘I put it to you that although the ad is beautifully crafted and firmly effective, both its tone and content could be accused of being somewhat derivative. I would further contend that its attempt to get the viewer to blub gently into his or her PG Tips is a little transparent.’
‘Don’t you think that something like this would have had a better chance of being different, memorable and, ironically, moving?’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVvlyHQVjs
Rod McLeod, head of marketing at Volkswagen, said: “As well as reinforcing all of the ‘small but tough’ qualities that people love about the Polo, we thought it was important to tell a story which drew people in emotionally and which viewers could connect with.”
All the small but tough qualities? You mean smallness and toughness? And where was the smallness reinforced? Maybe that reinforcement was very, very small, doubly reinforcing the smallness that people love so much.
And Rod thought it was important to tell a story which viewers could connect with. Not a story that viewers couldn’t connect with? Come on… stories that people can’t connect with are fucking great. Here’s one: A man went to the treehouse to suddenly jam sandwich a cat. Then ker-pow, ker-pow lemon ostrich chick dead of night banjo.
I think Rod is a genius.
hello ben,
who directed it?
oh wait.
doesn’t matter.
i don’t give a shit.
thanks
It doesn’t have the subtlety that the Sainsbury’s ‘father and son’ or the John Lewis ‘Always a Woman’ spot both have.
Or maybe it does but it just suffers from being a bit late to the party?
Anyway, whatever the reason it feels derivative.
Would happily stick it in the book though.
Oh yeah, I’d stick it in the book.
I just find it a bit odd that there are people sitting in ad agencies in 2012 going ‘we really should depict the life of someone as they grow through the ages’.
True, but then a dog is apparently the most talented act the UK currently has to offer.
Ergo, we’re all fucked.
yet the polo ad you point to used black and white film. The mainstay of a generation of ad men.
it’s slightly shitty to say you can’t use going through the ages a story telling technique.
it’s a lovely ad. would make most peoples reels. and there are enough lovely touches and insights to see some real craft and effort went into it.
It’s not a technique, it’s a plot.
Technique is single shot (Barnardos, John Lewis) or vignette (other John Lewis) or episodic narrative (this, a bunch of others) etc.
If there were a hundred ads with angry demos, convicts running from cops or explosions of fire then that’d be a bit slack too.
There seem to be about 7 ‘if I wash my kids’ clothes right/feed him junk food he’ll get to be an Olympic medal-winner’ going-through-the-ages commercials on at the moment as well. (Sorry for the hyphen explosion.)
I assume that her Dad sorted out insurance, road tax, congestion charge (assuming she was studying in London) before she just climbed in and drove off like that. Would have been nice to see it, that’s all.
Isn’t the plot around a father protecting his daughter throughout her life. Even from fingering. And then he finds away to protect her even when he’s not there.
But not from fingering. A polo is a perfect place for fingering.
Ben,
Of course “going through the ages” is a story-telling technique.
I suppose it is. A well-worn and familiar one in recent advertising.
Does anyone remember when VW ads were really good?
@ fun police
fingering LOL
reminds me of my special meetings with RB
xx
Why would anyone want to spend six months making something like this? The best it could ever be is derivative.
Oh come on guys, this is lovely. Beautifully crafted, and definitely got the right emotional response from me. Probably helps that I have two daughters…
VW: I am the fucking client, and I want smiling people! I want a douchebag dad protecting her little angel before she goes off into the real world where she becomes an addict and pregnant, like my own daughter! I want my happiness back, damnit!
Agency: Uh…okay. So…smiling people, yes?
Fuck me! She got a car when she went to college. I got my Dad’s mouldy haversack and a pressure cooker (used).
Polos are definitely good for fingering and Australian DJ-ing too. I never got any action in the haversack.
Didn’t VW do one of the first ‘through the ages’ ads, which showed the engineers getting older, making a series of terrible hair/beard choices, as the design progressed?
Also, that is a pretty niche market they’re punting for: ‘people who are so rich they actually buy other people cars’.
Nice Mk II at the beginning tho.
Scamp! Hi, how the hell are you?
It is lovely. I guess it’s churlish of me to call a moratorium on ‘lovely’ ads, but I just feel like I’ve seen it before.
A lot.
Recently.
I thought it was a Golf when it pulled out the drive.
The need to differentiate their cars a bit too me thinks.
I think the through the ages tekker is a good way of getting to the emotion. and the emotion is a good one to convey.
perhaps our first thought script should be a through the ages, then rip it up and make ourselves do that emotion differently.
It made my missus cry but not me ‘cos I have a heart of stone. I’d say it pretty much sums up my future ‘cept without the polo. I mean fuck a duck what’s the insurance going be on that. A brand new car. 18 year old. Are you mad?!
With your Robert Jay style questions, do you think the agency would have answered similarly to those called by Leveson, either vaguely or with the on set of amnesia.
“I certainly wasn’t made aware at any time that ads with time lines had been made or that there was a current trend to depict what you called middle class warmth. We simply create ads, some may seem emotional that is true but our key concern is the viewers whom we always do our best to treat with respect…..”
That is the most hateful piece of shit i’ve seen in ages. Congrats.
The actress must be a bit peeved, she was playing ‘young sexy woman’ very recently. Now she’s skipped a generation straight to ‘Mum’.
Hateful is it. What a nauseating piece of emotional blackmail/shit.
I’m starting to get jaded about having my heartstrings pulled for a damn ad. It’s a beautiful piece of film and makes me long for a family I never had, but it doesn’t make me want to buy a Polo, nor does it tell me anything about the damn car. And the tagline, “Small. But tough.”doesn’t fit the film at all. With that tagline, you think they could have done so much more and very different. I wonder what the chopped down 30 second version is like?
Come to think about it, they could have shown a big bully picking on a little kid, who then proceeds to kick the crap out of the bully. Small. But tough. Or someone stepping on a tack, barefoot. Or a plastic soldier surviving rocks, sticks and other imaginary battlefield hardships. Or Bruce Lee. Or Mighty Mouse. Or a Boston Terrier trying to bite your face off through the glass of a parked car that you are walking by. That was just two minutes of thought. Imagine what could be down with about 5 creatives kicking around ideas for a day?
I love that phrase, ‘hateful piece of shit’.
This ad is just so like all of those other ones that will never offend, alienate, and most certainly, piss anyone off. It’s easy to sell and easy to buy. No-one is going to say, ‘over my dead body is that fucking lame-ass, hand-me-down, done-before script leaving this building’. It’s just really nice, uncontentious and a tad dull. Like Ant & Dec. The Good Life. Coldplay. DDBLondon.
Formulaic. But it got me a bit, I must admit. I blame my daughter.
Now that was harmless, wasn’t it?
Crikey.
You lot (GL and Scamp excepted) are a bit spiteful aren’t you? I sat through the last ep of “Homeland” the other week. And was bombarded with endless bits of junk promoting some new Jaguar. Ask Ben to put that up so you can get your jaundiced teeth into something that merits being given a good kicking.
@RH – I might be wrong, but I’ve always been led to believe that most car ads are made to reassure the buyer that they made the right purchase. Not to sell metal off the screen. (Where’s a planner when you need one eh?). And if this ad makes new Polo owners feel nice and warm about the tin box they just bought then that’s job done. And maybe I’m helping the storyline along a bit – but surely the point is that the dad (who has been there from the start ‘protecting’ his precious child) is looking to the car to do the same in his absence.
Not looking to pick a fight. Not getting into the ‘derivative or not’ argument. Just saying that – in my opinion – this ad does the job it set out to do.
It does indeed.
Mister Gash this deserves an exceptional kicking because you might imagine that someone somewhere thought they were making something good for Jaguar, no matter how deluded they were. Whereas this, there is no way anyone thought they were making anything vaguely original. They have aimed so incredibly low and hit the target. How they could summon the energy to get out of bed to do this is beyond me.
I like it more than the John Lewis ad. It leads into a nice endline/thought at least.
@34: Coke. Lots of it. That’s how.
Yes it’s a through the ages story, but the insight of protecting your beloved daughter at every stage is a good one, it’s beautifully shot, and as the father of a 2 year old daughter my eyes got a little sweaty. So its a big tick here.
@37 I really don’t mean this as an insult (I normally do), but how is “wanting to protect your offspring” a deep and well thought out insight no one’s ever thought of? Oh wait, it’s not.
so many angry bitter people.
come on guys. cheer up.
oh my good it’s ANOTHER fucking through the ages ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6b57afMaq8
that tells you something generic that has fuck all to do with the brand that is telling us.
and it’s shot all nostalgically. all it’s missing is a fucking polaroid camera.
least they tried to zag with the music, but unfortunately it’s shit and feels like a track that someone on youtube has remixed in their bedroom.
or worse, put together for a sales conference.
ps. this is the 120 second online version which has one box ticked on a media plan somewhere.
can’t wait for the tv version which cuts to shitheads in a fucking halfords buying stuff.
with a voice over telling me all about the 50% off i can get.
It would seem it’s offensive in it’s inoffensiveness to some but then again I imagine it does what it needs to do for all the right people. Job done. Next.
The whole thing is utterly charmless.
Overprotective Dad buys spoilt Daughter a car, how heartwarming.
Gout-Legs, I’d love to cheer up. I really do. But I just can’t get myself to after watching ads like that one. It’s just completely empty, and unreal. I just don’t believe it. It doesn’t provoke, upset, tell me something new, make me laugh or cry (sorry, got no daughters yet) or do anything at all for me. It’s just another dumb piece of advertising no one’s put any effort into it, besides the director.
Have a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6b57afMaq8
I really don’t give a fuck about the people shown in this and the VW ad. Why would anyone else for that matter?
38 If you need me to explain why this is a nicely observed insight you are a moron who should be flipping burgers, and I mean that as an insult.
this VW through-the-ages ad was done in South Africa in 1988-1989.
It’s still much better than the new one.
MUCH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQQDwxmnwvA&feature=youtu.be
I went straight out and bought my daughter a Polo. And she’s only 3
Heartstrings twanging again: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/thework/1132109/hovis-british-farmers-loaf-dare/
This one made me well up. Maybe I have father issues?
Oh, and STFU&drive #45: I think the important phrase in post #38 may be “…no one’s ever thought of.”
@45 This is a nicely observed insight, how exactly? Parents care for their children. Holy shit Batman! Never knew that one. It took as much effort to come up with it as it takes for me to flip your McHackster. Would you like spit in your fries with that, sir?
dads care for daughters. insight.
daughter wearing dads jumper. lovely observation.
come on michael, it can’t be that stressful making your shelf wobblers. what unique insight do you put into them?
GL.
This is a tough crowd. Again.
I suggest a lunch and we can discuss at length.
You coming Ben?
Love to.
I have daughters maybe that is why it works for me, I was in the queue with Paul.
There have been some very odd observations about this ad. People saying it is unreal. Er..yep, it’s an ad, people making it and viewing it know that. Yet you think it’s a valid crit.
Also are people expecting ads to use observations of human behaviour that are not common, or observations that it’s audience can’t relate to?
Rod’s point about making stories that viewers can connect with, seemed a pointless remark, and I liked Ben’s retort at the time.
But now it seems he maybe a voice of reason. Good work Rod, I will buy two.
Sorry, got no shelf to wobble. Just my big beer belly. Parents caring for their children is a fact of life, not a bloody “insight”. Women buying female scented shower gels for their husbands who end up walking around smelling like their wives? THAT is an insight. Now act on it and do a bloody great ad. But it must have a horse in it.
You coming GL or what?
You know how to reach Ben. And I’m not difficult to find.
It’ll be fun.
Insightful even.
as long as you don’t try and push a director on me 😉
and we can go to nando’s.
Anyone who likes this ad needs to take a long look at the dreary pile of marshmallow mush that is their lifeless brain.
Nandos? It’s on.
There’s one on the corner of Frith Street and Bateman Street.
So much energy wasted picking at something that will reside in the top 10% of UK agency output this year. Yet the 90% that is utter, utter shite gets off scot-free.
I like your style GL.
PM Ben or me and let’s get the thing fixed.
Scamp – are you with us?
Scamp is down under.
And Some Old Guy, it’s a much bigger waste picking at the 90%. That’s like trying to fuck up a tank with a toothpick.
It’s mostly the ones that had a shot at great that get talked about here. That means the brief, agency, client etc. were aligned to make something brilliant but something avoidable or difficult to understand got in the way. So in this case I’d have said that the people with all the tools to make a cracker should have looked further than adland’s most recent award-winning plot device. Sure, the ad is nice, and more like top 5% than top 10%, but why just settle in with the crowd? Why not stand out? Why not make people sit up and tell their friends all about it?
It just seems like a shame.
But then that’s only my opinion, which matters not at all. Nor do the others on here.
Don’t get me wrong Ben, I’m totally with you on all of that. I was specifically referring to the level of vitriol and spite that this ad (which is at least up there in the high percentages) has stirred up amongst the commenters.
Yep, it is a shame that it isn’t quite up there with the best – and they clearly have a shot at that with that product, and that idea. It feels like they were maybe held back by a client’s or planner’s desire to jump on the touchy-feely bandwagon “Hey, it seems to be working for John Lewis” etc. etc. We can idly lament that an opportunity to produce something great was missed. Maybe the broader point is that five or ten years ago this opportunity would have produced a great ad?
But, the sheer level of outrage it’s causing some types on here seems slightly out of proportion, especially considering they probably spend their days trying to tuttle up their spec books, or spuffing out facebook ads.
spuffing.
Indeed.
Thought we could tempt him back with some spicy chicken.
You never know….
*tuttle*
I would gladly have my name on this.
What’s undeniable is that it’s got people talking. And not just on some industry blog.