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19 Cars. 50 Years. 1 Passion. 1 Blogger Puking.
How disgusting is the latest Mercedes-Benz TV commercial? It lures you in with warm, fuzzy images of a devoted couple who have driven the same Merc for over 30 years and the Danish Ambulance Service which has relied on their Mercedes-Benz vehicles on 12,500 emergency cases.
Then when you're expecting something along the same vein in the local context, the commercial introduces the Khoo family. It helpfully informs you that the Khoos have accumulated 19 cars (all Mercs? The writeup doesn't state it clearly) over 50 years. "19 Cars. 50 Years. One Passion." as they put it. Let me clue the car makers in: 19 cars doth not 1 passion nor faithfulness maketh. If a man has 19 wives, does that mean he's faithful to them!? If a woman has 19 boyfriends, do we say she has 1 passion?! (We'll ignore sex for today, since you obviously cannot copulate with cars.... .... .... right?) If I had 19 pairs of shoes, then "passion" is just an euphemism for fetish. Having 19 cars does not signify a passion for cars; it represents an opulent lunacy.
"Kay Hong's mother recounts how she would get all dressed up for an evening drive, only to have his father make a hasty U-turn if dark clouds appeared on the horizon."
Make that an opulent and lunatic obsession. And as if this obsession wasn't enough, the commercial goes on to show you a smug fellow (presumably a Khoo) driving off in his swanky vehicle. How disgusting is that. If they had to make something in the local context, why not use buses? I can always take a few shots of bus 95 heading to NUS during peak hours. Then they can have a smarmy catchphrase like "8 am. 100 students. 1 overloaded Merc bus which STILL manages to make it to NUS." Much better right? At least it'll reflect everyday life...
Articles of Evidence taken off the commercial posted on the Mercedes Benz website:
Then when you're expecting something along the same vein in the local context, the commercial introduces the Khoo family. It helpfully informs you that the Khoos have accumulated 19 cars (all Mercs? The writeup doesn't state it clearly) over 50 years. "19 Cars. 50 Years. One Passion." as they put it. Let me clue the car makers in: 19 cars doth not 1 passion nor faithfulness maketh. If a man has 19 wives, does that mean he's faithful to them!? If a woman has 19 boyfriends, do we say she has 1 passion?! (We'll ignore sex for today, since you obviously cannot copulate with cars.... .... .... right?) If I had 19 pairs of shoes, then "passion" is just an euphemism for fetish. Having 19 cars does not signify a passion for cars; it represents an opulent lunacy.
"Kay Hong's mother recounts how she would get all dressed up for an evening drive, only to have his father make a hasty U-turn if dark clouds appeared on the horizon."
Make that an opulent and lunatic obsession. And as if this obsession wasn't enough, the commercial goes on to show you a smug fellow (presumably a Khoo) driving off in his swanky vehicle. How disgusting is that. If they had to make something in the local context, why not use buses? I can always take a few shots of bus 95 heading to NUS during peak hours. Then they can have a smarmy catchphrase like "8 am. 100 students. 1 overloaded Merc bus which STILL manages to make it to NUS." Much better right? At least it'll reflect everyday life...
Articles of Evidence taken off the commercial posted on the Mercedes Benz website:
10 Comments
What they are emphasising is the passion(even to the point of obsession) for the brand Mercedes. That they still maintain their status quo as the crème de la crème of the automobile manufacturing world. That they make cars so appealing, through the times, that people actually horde them. 19...whoa! Lucky bastard haha.
Of course, I felt the Khoo family part a bit distasteful. Reeks of elitism and that smug look didn't help. So i guess the commercial backfired a little. But he's probably their best customer in Singapore so who better to feature than them? heh. Opulent Lunacy? Man, if it were me, I would have done the same thing. With a touch more class of course; Ferraris or Jaguars:D
Hahaha, that's not too bad an idea actually. SBS should seriously consider it.
"8 am. 100 students. 1 overloaded Merc bus which STILL manages to make it to NUS ritually. Dedicated(to get your sorry asses to sch). Devoted(To profit from u pathetic masses). Dependable(To hike fare prices habitually)."
Checked today... there doesn't appear to be any more Merc buses. Probably phased out. We should take our idea to Volvo instead.
No Merc buses? Heh, reminds me of those old Merc amry trucks in Thailand. Rickety retro man.
also you need to realised that mercedez's target audiences are the rich and wealthy. i.e like the khoo's family. doubt they'll be interested about the NUS bus and 100 students.
Anon2: =)
Anon3: Well, I'm sure of the figure 19, and the ad didn't mention anyplace else. 19 cars spread over many countries make it less extravagant I guess. Oh wait, not really.
Anon4: I wouldn't feel more passionate abt a benz just because some family owns 19 models of the branch as well. Doesn't seem to bother the car maker any. As for their target audience, well, from that series of ads, the local version was the only one to feature effluence. The rest were in a different style. The fact that the ad is in Internet and TV format makes it hard for me to think that they are targeting the rich exclusively as well.
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