Audi Pokes Fun at Both Mercedes-Benz and BMW in Latest A4 Commercials

This has led to some famous advertising wars held either on billboards or in the pages of various magazines, but lately, it has been pretty quiet. The car industry, in particular, seems to be reluctant to throw the figurative brick - well, except for Chevrolet and its anti-aluminum ads featuring Ford pick-up trucks and a lot of bricks.

Now, though, Audi USA rocks the boat with its latest series of video commercials built around the "Intelligence is the new rock and roll" tagline. What does that want to say? Well, in case you haven't noticed, the new stars of today's society aren't dudes with long hair and ragged clothes, but neatly dressed Harvard graduates with a very high IQ.

Think Mark Zuckerberg, think the late Steve Jobs or, to name somebody we talk about a lot, Elon Musk. "Intelligence is the new rock and roll" is actually a very good insight, and Audi also managed to link it with its product quite well: "And this [the Audi A4] is the power chord."

Obviously, the idea here is that the new A4 is an extremely intelligent car. The main of the four commercials, which is the longest, is also the tamest. Using a soft punk-rock musical background, it demonstrates how people wearing glasses are the new cool, while all the time inserting bits of car footage. Finally, the tagline is delivered. Pretty conservative.

The other three, however, are a lot more interesting. Let's talk about the one where they basically call the BMW stupid first. A 3-Series sedan is parked with its lights on. The new A4 comes and stops in front of it, blocking it entirely, while the voiceover says "If you're going to make a statement, make sure it's an intelligent one." Ouch.

The next two are aimed at Mercedes-Benz, even though one of them is probably unintentionally so. We're talking about the one called "Pilotless," where Audi mentions the autonomous driving technology it's working on, but unlike the initial E-Class clip, it finds a clever way of making it clear that the production A4 only uses driver-assist systems.

Finally, there's the one called "Touch." Much like Midas, the Greek king who turned everything he touched into gold, the man featuring in this ad makes everything he touches smarter, more technologically advanced. After doing it for the alarm clock, the phone and the watch, he heads over to his garage, where a Mercedes-Benz is waiting for them. You can already see where this is going.

The best thing about this ads is that they will probably spark a response from the US offices of the other two manufacturers. And this is even funnier now that the three German premium car makers have actually joined hands in their acquisition of HERE, the mapping company formerly owned by Nokia. They might be partners now, but they're still rivals first and foremost.

Rock and roll

Intelligent statement

Pilotless

Touch