By Karan Singh

StreetFire.net

Like many of you, we love the good ol’ days of automotive advertising. Here’s a blast from the late ’80s featuring the Nissan 240SX. Check out the early drifting!

1989 Nissan 240SX TV Commercial

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

Good news! Despite the sour economy and everyone shoving green down our throats, our good friends in Kentucky are still hardcore into automotive rocketry. The Corvette might not be capable of space travel, but one WOT pull in a 638 horsepower ZR1 will make you feel like an astronaut. How long with the Corvette live? I hope forever. Read more about the 2011 Corvette commercial at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

…and its messaging just seems more believable somehow than Toyota’s dubious made-in-America claims. Maybe it’s the Johnny Cash soundtrack.

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

Here’s a crash course in dumb 101. The timeless art of using gorilla suits to sell cars will never die. Who would win in a fight, gorilla suit guy or wacky waiving inflatable arm tube man? If this doesn’t make you laugh, check your pulse. Read more about this wacky commercial at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

“They call her Corvette, and she belongs to the highways.” The Chevrolet Corvette throughout automotive history has represented the finest in American performance. Known for high power, low profiles, and the most exciting ride you will ever experience, the Corvette dominates the American performance scene. The name comes from a ship design named “corvette.” This unique ship was small, fast, and could out handle other ships of its time. The modern Corvette lacks cannons, salt-cured meat, grog, a crew of 60 seamen and sails, but still holds some qualities of the original ship. Precise handling, untouchable speed, and unique appearance are still common traits shared between the ship and modern automobile.

Corvette propaganda has always been interesting to watch. “They built her to handle like an angel…” as the first 1953 video suggests below. This is totally true! Whether you are a fan of the Corvette or not, take time to enjoy the following footage. Learn more about Corvette classic commercials at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

Did a commercial over the last few days. Now normally, a commercial shoot can be tough, but not like this. Most of the time, things go great if you have a professional production company. Let’s see, where do I begin?

I can’t mention the client right now, but we shot in Van Nuys and Glendale in over 100 degree heat with a 1st AD (Assistant Director) that seemed to get his jollies out of yelling at people. ‘Scuze me, did I say yelling? I meant to say “Lecturing,” then yelling.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "The Shoot From Hell" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

A lot of you have probably seen Acura’s latest TV spot and figured it was just plain old CGI. Turns out, though, that the ad was done entirely with stop-action animation using the talents of UK street artists David Whittle and Henry “Sainty” St. Leger. They used one giant 40′ x 60′ board with the Acura positioned in front of it, then created a moving tapestry of urban scenery, one frame at a time, by repainting the canvas (and in some cases, the car) for each successive shot to create the illusion of forward movement. Nothing was computer generated or superimposed–see that aerial view where the birds fly over? Those birds were painted directly onto the floor and the vehicle’s roof to produce that sequence. The whole thing took ten days, 455 gallons of paint, and 503 rattle-cans, and they had to keep an automotive detailer on location–and you thought your last spray-bomb paint job was messy. Follow the jump to check out the making-of video.

Continue reading "Making Of Acura's RDX "Wall Art" Ad" »

While there have been many plugs for the new Dodge Ram pickup, nothing beats this campaign that Dodge is running at its site, clips of which you might’ve seen on TV. Head over to ramchallenge.com to check out this actually pretty clever reality-TV themed video series for yourself. The site is currently running the first episode in a series of four, which will show the new Ram competing in a variety of challenges from payload to offroad. And while it’s hard to gauge from only the first episode, what they’ve got so far is about seven minutes of absolutely decent advertainment. Watch!

Though it’s kind of trippy, there’s actually more Aston Martin action in this Coke Zero spot than there is in the actual Quantum of Solace trailer. And even though I think diet soda makes about as much sense as light cigarettes, I still like the old-school Bond vibe of this commercial. Apparently, the soundtrack is a instrumental version of the Jack White/Alicia Keys track that will be the new flick’s theme, and while I still wish Amy Winehouse had pulled herself together enough to contribute the music—listen to "Back to Black" and try to tell me that wouldn’t have been awesome—it still sounds good. And hell, anything will be better than the crappy Chris Cornell cut they used for Casino Royal. Yuck.

When I stumbled across the Mercedes-Benz video "One Goal," late last month, I wrote; "I’m aware that inspirational corporate propaganda can be mind-numbingly bad, but ‘One Goal’ is so awful that I really can’t believe Mercedes had anything to do with it." Well, this morning we got an email from Stuttgart, saying which said; "Somebody in your community published our video on your site without having the copyrights for doing so. We are owning the video and no copyrights to publish the video do exist."

Now, I don’t know about you, but to me, that suggests Mercedes-Benz commissioned this clip, and I have to admit, I’m shocked. And not because the music is obviously a terrible U2 retread. Or that the messaging is basically one hyper-boring corporate cliche’ after another. I mean, that’s pretty standard stuff. But then comes the part where the Bon Jovi wannabe sings "Volvo, they worry, the Japs they just cry." Like, seriously? Last I checked—and I checked 30 seconds ago—"Japs" was still considered a racist term. And since M-B prides itself on attention to detail, the idea that nobody—nobody?—on the brass caught what looks to be a corporate-sanctioned slur is just unbelievable. Maybe they figured it out, which would explain why the video is being purged from the internet. We managed to grab a screen shot from YouTube before it got yanked, and you can read the full text of the lyrics after the jump.

Continue reading "Mercedes-Benz: "The Japs They Just Cry"" »