They are based upon the premise that the new Buicks are so fantastic, high class, luxury, that your average person wouldn’t even recognize them as Buicks.
Gimme a break…the freaking Buick logo (three shields in a circle) hasn’t changed in almost 60 years. Just look on the grill. It’s a freakin’ Buick.
Sure, sure, the advertisers got me to notice, but not for the right reason.
Not being a car person, I guess I don’t understand what the big deal is about a Buick. And anyway, don’t people generally say “It’s the red car by the tree” or “It’s the black SUV taking up 4 parking spaces!”
Which is why I think it was stupid for GM to kill off Pontiac & keep Buick. I’ve always thought of both of them above Chevy but below Caddy. Pontiac at least had some sportiness to them. I get the feeling that they’re positioning them as a ‘wannabe’ luxury car.
They’re old people/farmer cars. I will say this though. As a person over 6’, the two years I drove a buick century were two of my most comfortable driving years.
If they do it right, they might be the car luxury cars the boomers (and the next gen) that can’t afford Caddies and Lincolns are buying over the next 20-50 years as they get into retirement and are looking for something nice, not too expensive, not sporty like a Honda, not “cheap” like a Ford and Buick has always screamed ‘comfortable old lady car’ so now you just have to convince people that it’s cool to be in one.
I drove my grandma’s 90’s Buick LeSabre for a summer after I got my license. It didn’t scream success, but it was one of the most comfortable cars I ever had. It was like someone tore out the front seats and replaced them with a couch.
I had two Chevy’s and one Ford in my first year and a half of driving. (Old cars were what I could afford). Then when I entered my senior year of high school (September 1973) my grandfather sold me his 1968 Buick Special four door for what the dealer was going to give him for trade in when he got a new one.
The greatest car I owned up until I got a Lincoln Town Car new in 1991.
The 8-track six speaker system was kick ass for listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, although I doubt gramps had that in mind when he installed it.
They attempt to show that Buick is making cars that don’t look like traditional Buicks. What is so hard to figure out about that? Plus, they seem to be working:
“Buick had its best October in more than a decade.”
Probably because “Boo-ick” sounds like the popular phrase for “Enormously lucky in business and wealth, and has a big schlong, too” - that being a common reason for somewhat bizarre products being a huge success there.
All readers are hereby challenged to draw a recognizable logo for Buick, without any googlecheating or the like.
I can’t, and I have been a gearhead for almost 50 years. Ford, Chebby, Pontiac, Cadillac, Lincoln, and just about every other US maker and probably 90% of foreign makes, no problem. Boock? Can’t bring anything to mind but the blocky semi-serif titling used through the 1980s.
ETA: No wonder they elected to go with the invisibility flow…
It’s no different really from the Ford ads from IIRC the early 2000’s. The tagline was
You and they know Buick has tremendous name recognition. We all know of Buick. And we all have some impression of Buick. But the impression we have (stodgy mid-market land-yacht) is not the one they want us to have.
So they need to say somehow: “You know us; But you don’t know us. *Here’s *the new us. Learn that. See that row of shiny new sporty looking sedans? No stodgy land-yachts there. Cleverly fitting right in with the BMW 3s and the low-end Lexuses and top-of-line Accords. That’s us. See!!!”
The only way to successfully sell someone on the idea that their preconceived notions are wrong is to use dumbness as humor. You think the characters in the ad are stupid. You’re thinking “Can’t they see the Buick? It’s right there!!! Idiots!”
But that’s exactly the point. The ad men suckered you into spotting the new Buick and cementing the idea that you’re smarter than Joe Average; you are now seeing Buicks the new way. Ka-ching for them.
