Looking through the Autocar Archive for brilliant old stories to share on our social media channels, I've come across my fair share of iconic car adverts.
Many use taglines that are designed to shock or that are dripping in double entendre (Mini, I'm looking at you), but for the most part these old ads are relics from a golden age of automotive promotion and I wish that modern car commercials tapped into that spirit a bit more.
I'm sure most people picture the old VW ads when they think 'iconic': you know, the ones with a simple, unadorned image of a car and a bold, no-nonsense headline.
The legendary 'Think Small' Beetle ad from 1959 was a revolution in advertising practice for its time, for example, and holds up today as an eye-catching piece of quasi-modern art.
Another VW ad that stands out for me is one from the '60s of a Type 2 and a gaggle of nuns standing next to the bus, with the text reading 'mass transit'—simple, original and funny.
That's what I love about ads like this: they get the message across and they're memorable, helping to cement the pop culture value of the cars themselves, rather than just drily outlining their commercial appeal.
Everyone remembers Honda's amazing 'Cog' spot: a captivating two-minute epic wherein all the parts from the Accord were arranged into a Rube Goldberg machine that ingeniously highlighted Honda's attention to detail and methodical engineering processes, while laying bare the sheer amount of technical gubbins that made up this relatively normal saloon car.
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Come on What can beat driving an Audi 100 (saloon not coupe) up a ski jump in 1986? Pure magic, beautifully directed and the perfect product benefit demonstration
VAG were the masters of advertising. How times have changed.
Burt Kwouk telling us No1 best selling imported car in Great Britain, Japanese. No1 best selling imported car in Japan, Volkswagon. And then Paula Hamilton throwing her gifts away apart from the Golf. It meant you could turn up at the Dorchester in a Golf and not feel out of place - a brilliant piece of advertising.
But surely the best tag line of them all - Vorsprung Durch Tecknik. We didn't know what it meant, we didn't care what it meant, but it made us want an Audi.
So what were Audi thinking with those 5 people singing in their latest advert? It's so annoying I'd have thought it's more likely to turn people off buying their cars. Or am I just getting old?
I am with you Scotty.
Current ads are generic, International, voice dubbed rubbish, which annoy more than captivate.
For me, If you cant be bothered to show me a RHD car in your ads, I cant be bothered to consider your product - simple.
Few ads now tell you anything about the car itself.....just obscure images and cutesy social statements.
Audi's advertising was inspired in its day, as was BMW with its 'Ultimate Driving Machine' strapline.
Volkswagens memorable 'If only everything was as reliable as a Volkswagen' ads were quite superb. They won awards not just for Ad agencies sake, but also for plantingthe brand firmly in the buyers psyche.
Now we have ads designed for winning awards and creating jealousy amongst ad agency peers.
People still ramble on about the ingenious honda 'cog' advert, but I always considered it an ad agency lovies plaything - told you nothing about the product and how it might fit into the buyers household, and looking at the state of Honda's sales figures, did nothing for its desirablilty.
Ads designed to win awards kind of miss the point, and is what happens when the brands let the agencies go 'full mental'.