Was the Peugeot Commercial for the special edition Verve 308, featuring the American salesman and the strangely disconnected southern European femme fatale the least convincing, most obvious and contrived TV commercial of 2009?
Make your own mind up at http://www.visit4info.com/advert/308-Verve-in-Black-and-Noir-from-Peugeot-Peugeot-308-Range/69749
Car selection is a lifestyle choice where, budget permitting, people select a car that reflects their personality, values and aspirations. The fit between image enhancement and brand values, as with most cars, is a critical one.
So which target audience is this banal commercial targeting? I suspect from the the high production values, implausibly attractive actors, and price point it is 22 – 34 year old urban females with aspirations.
Well "Fact Me" this is a wonderfully "bad" ad.
However, to fully appreciate the Verve, I think their aspirations probably need to extend to a body aching desire to be a football WAG, and belief that the Ferrero Rocher chocolate advertising potrays a genuine social situation.
The sublime sexual frisson created by the Nescafe Gold Blend Ads is absent here. This is direct, fully loaded, sexualinnuendo. Fact Me, being a pale disguise for a formal request for sexual penetration.
The request must have fallen on deaf ears as this commercial lacks any sort of penetration. The ‘fact me’ reference should have grown wings and been virally transported to the web hall of fame – Its double entendre potential – when removed one step from this overt single entendre context – being is extremely high. Somehow it all falls flat on its drivesexy bonnet.
For more comment read:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/02/peugeot-308-verve-hard-sell
Now ad your own.
Advertising Pathology 