Always outnumbered. Generally overdresssed.

Monday, July 06, 2009

Am I missing something here?



I suspect this is not ironic, which is why it feels weird. As one of the greatest advertisers of the late 90s and early 00s VW made irony their own.

Direction (by Noam Murro) is a bit odd. The singer keeps doing things just out of shot that you can't quite see.

I'm also having to fight off the implication in the final frame that he's going to drive full pelt into the front of an oncoming lorry. Because isn't that glowing light at the end of the tunnel a film convention for death generally?

What do you make of it?

UPDATE: Maybe it is ironic, with the sheep in the Butchers van. And the end line. I'm confused.

(I'm not into bashing DDB by the way. Unlike Mother whose work I dislike before I've seen it.)

11 comments:

Biscuit Barrel said...

I know what you mean, it's hard to know if it's a feel good ad or an ironic ad. I reckon it may go down well with el publico

EJR said...

definitely terrified me at the end, surely that is not a dual carriageway and the sheep also look as though their on their way to the slaughterhouse

Anonymous said...

it's ironic or more tongue in cheek perhaps but it's not very funny. Two things you can be sure of death and Passat (but I had to think about it)

william said...

Yeah, I really don't think they mean us to think about death. I think that's sort of accidental. Isn't he just driving towards the 'light at the end of the tunnel' as a metaphor for his positive thinking?

I'm fairly sure it's just upbeat.

The sheep do confuse matters slightly, but it's probably easier to sell VW a script if it's got musical animals in it, since there last Polo one, with the singing dog, was both a big success and got pulled.

Anonymous said...

You're right - you're not meant to find a connection with death (i don't think?) because otherwise surely it wouldn't feel so clunky but someone must've noticed that the sheep on the way to slaughter were bopping along to the line 'And life wont let us down'

Ben Kay said...

Wow, it's really fucking deep, isn't it?

william said...

Fucking Beckettian. That's what Dave and Rich are known for apparently.

Anonymous said...

famous? optimistic? quote? light? at? the? end? of? the? tunnel? perhaps?

Anonymous said...

Can't we just say it's ambiguous and leave it at that?

william said...

Sure.

But what are they doing making an ad that's ambiguous about such a loaded subject?

ABCD and then maybe E and F too said...

Bit weird if you ask me. Which you did.