Last night, I saw a truck ad. It was lame enough that I remembered it, as I have a bit of a thing about irritatingly bad ads. It was very simple. A guy, oozing advertising faux-sincerity, says “I’ve had a lot of Fords over the years. But there’s one thing a Ford has never done…disappoint me. :rolleyes: Take the Ford F150…”
Then today, I was walking through the room with the TV on when I heard “I’ve had a lot of Toyotas over the years. But there’s one thing a Toyota has never done…disappoint me. Take the Toyota…” I walked out of the room at that point, but I made the connection in time to duck back in and see the Toyota logo at the end.
I know the first one was for Ford, and the second was for Toyota. I’ve heard of small companies like sleazy amublance chasers and unaccredited “colleges” using the same ads before, but it seemed more than a little odd that huge companies like Ford and Toyota would be doing the same thing.
A few weeks ago, I saw a billboard advertising Budweiser. The entire ad was a picture of somebody’s feet sitting in a hammock on the beach, a blatant ripoff of the Corona ads. What the hell? To top it off, the billboard was directly across from a Miller brewing plant.
Hmm. I was going to suggest maybe they were affilliated, but it doesn’t look like it. Ford brands are: Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo and Aston Martin. Meanwhile, Toyota brands are: Toyota, Lexus and Scion. Cite.
So while I’m being irrelevant, it reminds me of a few years ago when Quizno’s had the infamous “Were you raised by wolves?” ad. Honda Pilot had a similarly themed ad where a woman lamented that her husband (who ran on all fours, chased frisbees, etc.) was raised by wolves. It didn’t go for the gross out like the Quizno’s ad did, but it was startling to see ads from two different products using the same out-of-left-field premise.
Are you quite sure that these ads aren’t made by some local car dealer? Like, one who sells many different brands of vehicles under the same umbrella? Who uses the same pitchman for everything? That’d seem the logical answer.
I’m a bit concerned that it was the same guy… are you certain it was the same actor? After all, that actor would have to be a complete idiot to do two truck commercials, much less two truck commercials that are exactly the same.
When an actor auditions for a commercial, they are obligated to list on their audition sheet if they have any competing ads, both on the air or upcoming. The companies don’t want to lose credibility by having their actor run off and do a commercial for the competitor right after completing theirs.
I can understand if Toyota hired a similar-looking man to do a parody of the Ford ad, but I doubt the same actor could be used, especially after signing their commerical contract with Ford. Ain’t gonna happen.
Or it could be a local ad. We have one dealer locally that sells both Ford/Mercury and Chrysler (two competitors – the dealerships are across the street from each other). I could see him shooting the same ad to feature the different cars he sells.
To top it off, the billboard was directly across from a Miller brewing plant.