Do you get the point to the current Daimler-Chrysler commercial?
Dude asks an old guy with a 'stasche to justify the D-C merger, old guy (IDed as “Dr. Z,” like I know who Dr. Z is), checks his watch, sez “Get in”, drives around a bit, crashes the car into a wall after Mr. Dude questions the authenticity of the title “Dr.” in “Dr. Z,” who then asks “Any more questions?” (as if the crash answered the Dr. question one way or the other), then the old guy gets out, asking “Veeder Sane?”
Dr Z, if you had been paying attention to the first part of the commercial, is introduced as Dieter Zetsche, the chairman of the board of DaimlerChrysler. At the end of the commercial, he says “Auf wiedersehen”, which means “goodbye” in German.
I only recall the commercial vaguely, but I think it’s something like: While driving around, the Dr. is talking about various features or something, presumably improvements from the merger or whatever. He’s also driving somewhat erratically, causing the passenger to question the good Dr.'s honorific. The doctor ignores him and crashes, showcasing the last feature/improvement. Finally, he asks, “Any more questions?” and, not receiving any, leaves while saying, “Wiedersehen”, short for “auf wiedersehen”, which is basically German for “see ya”.
The crash happens on a stereotypical crash-test site, not just a random bridge abutment. While Z has been prattling on about engineering and design, he’s showing the reporter handling, power, and climbing on a pile of stuff. The crash shows off safety features, I guess.
The humor in the Dr. Z spots is dry and understated. Maybe that’s how German humor is.
I just assumed the commercials were attempting to be funny but failed.
Watching baseball games here in NY - both Mets and Yankees - that damn commercial is on, oh, at least 5 times a game. It got old FAST and now is very annoying.
So–to demonstrate his standing as a trained MD, Dr. Z (who might well hold a doctorate in education, or in philology. or in fitting clowns into a car) proves it by treating his passenger and himself with all the care of a crash test dummy? Amd this is meant to assure me about what particular trait in Daimler-Chrysler?
prr is right, this commercial is hot buttered ass. Remember Chrysler’s idiotic idea to bring back Lee Iacocca as an icon… forgetting that most of the market they’re striving for have no idea who he was? At least your dad could tell you that he brought Chrysler back from death, and that he used to hawk K-Cars on TV.
The American public doesn’t know who Dr. Z is. He’s a weird-sounding German guy who’s now at the helm of one of America’s “Big Three” automakers… well, yes, it’s not American any more, but let’s ignore that for a second. I think this is a pathetic attempt to steal some of VW’s mojo - hey, it’s a quirky German brand that’s good quality.
Furthermore, his glib beating of the reporter is hard to understand. Just because Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler, all of a sudden their cars are going to be better? If they showed Chrysler designer dudes/dudettes in a design studio in Berlin, that might help drive the point home. Just because your chairman has a German accent does not equal better quality.
Now, if Dr. Z. was profiled on 60 Minutes, had something of a buzz in popular culture like Iacocca did in the 1980s, these commercials would make a bit of sense. But as of now they don’t.
Actually, I kind of like the Dr. Z commercials, there are a couple of more out there. I think it’s fun to have some German big wig showing off the features of his minivan to a soccer mom.
The car commercial I can’t stand, also a feature of Yankees telecasts, is a Ford commercial with Taylor Hicks. The guy can’t sing! His voice is as thin as stone soup.
There’s another Ford commercial for the Freestar that confuses me. It’s one of their “Bold” series, and it appears to be a divorced mom who invites the ex-hubby to have a family vacation for the weekened. Very odd ad, IMO.
I like the Dr Z ads, I think he’s a good character.
I believe I may have finally decoded the purpose behind the strangely sinister Dr Z’s somewhat sadist treatment of the reporter.
The subtext is that the reporter is kind of a weak nelly who can’t handle the sheer toughness of the brand. It’s just too much car for him, doing things he could never, in his pansy city life, really need it to do. It makes the car a manly challenge, but because Dr. Z is so unfazed, it also says hey, you don’t have to be a burly brute to be up to this challenge, you just have to be confident in the brand.
I like this ad, though I can’t assess how useful it is for selling cars. It’s the way Dr. Z so casually strides off, leaving the speechless reporter in the wrecked car, that gets me. I hear the ghost of Bill Hicks whispering “Man with big balls comin’ through”. Dr. Z does not care about your feelings. He is not going to cuddle you. You just have to trust him, and through him, the brand. The reporter is never in any danger, because Dr. Z is in control, and the car is just that good. But he is clearly being schooled, and the lesson is that he needs to make himself worthy of the car, not the other way around.
I know it’s controversal as art, but this recent trend of playing up the strangeness of advertising icons (as with another one of my favorites, the hilariously creepy Burger King) is okay by me. They’ve always been bizarre, and I think the joke is partly in (those of us who do laugh) laughing at ourselves, for being held captive by them.
I don’t really care for that Dr. Z commercial (does anyone know if he really does have a doctorate in anything?) But I do like the Jeep one with the little kids. It shows them doing stereotypical SUV stuff (driving aorund on rocks and mud, like anyone actually does that with brand new SUVs,) and he is prattling on about fuel efficiency and whatnot, and says they are the cleanest SUVs around, and they are in the background covered in mud.
The children just sit there and don’t laugh, and he says,
“It’s a joke!”, which I see as a sort of jab at the unGodly stereotypical SUV ads that all use that exact same “joke.” But the best part is at the end.
A little girl asks him if his mustahce his real. Dr. Z then strokes his 'stash whil giving the kid a “Fuck you, bitch!! Damn right it’s a real 'stash” look. It’s all in the look.
I like the one where his mentions at the end of the ad, “Vhat would you eggspect, ve invented the automobile.” I doubt that ten percent of television viewers understand the underlying jab implicit in that statement.
What gets me about that one is, he’s just pulled the suspension system out of this guy’s car and dropped it on his lawn. Then he leaves. The guy just lets it sit there and goes back to watering. Bzuh?
