Working in advertising in these overly politically correct times can be challenging. You never know when something you thought was funny turns out to be offensive for some obscure minority, and all of a sudden your client has a lawsuit on its hands all thanks to the 30-second clip you got paid to make.
Well, you can go wrong even without touching what 0.000001 percent of the country's population considers a sensitive subject. Take this Mercedes-Benz commercial clip for their new E-Class - seen here in its station wagon version.
The E-Class is probably Mercedes-Benz's most technologically advanced car right now, with some features that you can't (yet) get even on the larger and more expensive S-Class. Most are safety-related and can be considered precursors of autonomous driving - in fact, Mercedes-Benz insists that we do so - and among them is the ability to control the car from outside using a smartphone app.
If you imagine yourself holding your phone in your hand while you sit in the passenger's seat on the highway, with an E-Class driving alongside you completely empty, then don't. Much like Tesla's Summon function, it's meant to be used under very short distances and at very low speeds. In fact, it's only supposed to help you park the car in - or extract it from - a very tight space.
Of course, seing the car move on its own can be impressive at first, but it should get old pretty quick. Besides, other brands - Tesla, as we've mentioned, BMW or Land Rover - already use the feature, so it's not exactly a novelty.
That makes it even harder to imagine why Mercedes-Benz chose it for this spot called "The encounter," and why it chose to promote it using a guy who likes to show off in front of kids whose parents probably can't afford an E-Class.
Each evening, he reverses the car into his driveway as first a kid, then the whole neighborhood gather to watch. Even though he could have just as well reversed all the way back into the garage, he decides to put on a show and does it with the phone, prompting the jaws of all those present to drop.
The tagline tries to give it a positive spin, but it's not fooling anyone. "The power to inspire dreams," it says, when in fact, it should have been "How to make all the neighbor's kids envy you, and also a bit sad." Well, at least the ad is pretty accurate in describing a large majority of Mercedes-Benz owners, right?
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News