The Best Car Ad You’ll See Today: Volkswagen Tiguan Translator

We’ve seen more car-related ads trying to capture our attention than we can remember, but very few actually manage to pull it off like the way the Brazilian division of the BBDO advertising agency did with its “Volkswagen Tiguan: Translator” commercial.

The TV ad was created to show off the SUV’s hands free park assist system. Being that the whole point of this commercial is the element of surprise, we won’t spoil the ending by telling you what happens. Enjoy the clip after the break,

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Kanye West Beware: BMW’s 1-Series Composes its Own Music

It’s a fact that car manufacturers go to great lengths to promote their new products. Traditional means like TV and press advertising are so last year –and so is celebrity endorsement, though they are still employed by the carmakers. However, the new place to be are the social media, like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

BMW has gone one step further in promoting its brand-new 2012 1-Series: it has created a video clip named “check my machine” which shows the process of manufacturing the car.

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VW’s Force is Strong: German Brand Scoops 34 Awards in Cannes

Volkswagen won an amazing 34 “Lions” in the 58th International Festival of Creativity in Cannes. The German automaker, which came away with more awards than ever before (8 Golden, 14 silver and 11 Bronze), also won a “Titanium Lion” for the “Think Blue” campaign.

However, the star of the show was, of course, “The Force”, Volkswagen’s extremely successful TV ad that features a Lilliputian Darth Vader wannabe and the new Passat. This ad alone, which has been watched by over 40 million viewers on Youtube, won three awards, two Gold and one Bronze.

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Point, Click and Hold: Peugeot’s Novel Ad Campaign Makes Users Concentrate on Their Computer Screens

Ever see one of those stupid competitions where a group of people try and see who can keep their hands on a car or a truck the longest, and the person who does actually wins that car or truck?

If you haven’t, there’s a documentary called Hands on a Hard Body that covers this in detail, but suffice to say it’s like watching American Idol if all the contestants were unemployed hicks and weren’t required to do anything but stand up there on stage.

So French carmaker Peugeot, never being one to shy away from reinventing something old for the internet age, took the concept and turned it into an interactive webpage.

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“Yes we Cannes”:Chrysler’s Super Bowl ad Wins 5 Awards at French Festival

Chrysler’s TV commercial “Born of Fire”, which aired during the 2011 Super Bowl, won five awards at the 58th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where over 24,000 entries from all over the world were competing.

The commercial for the 2011 200 sedan was created by Chrysler together with advertising company Wideden+Kennedy of Portland, Oregon, and took home four “Gold Lions”, for Best Direction, Best Script, Best Use of Music, Best Automotive Commercial and Best Editing, as well as a “Bronze Lion” awarded to the brand for Best Editing.

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Cake Boss Transforms Bumblebee into a 2,000-Pound Cookie Monster

VW may have made some headlines with the 2012 Beetle’s appearance on Britney Spears’ latest music video, but when it comes to product placement, the Germans are no match to General Motors.

The General’s say (or is that pay?) is so strong in the movie industry that the Detroit company was able to convince the makers of the Transformers franchise to have a 2011 Chevy Camaro play the role of Bumblebee instead of the original VW Beetle.

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MINI Takes New Coupé for a Trip Around the World in its First Promo Film

The new two-seat Coupé from MINI has just landed on the internet, but the British firm is already pushing out its new marketing campaign with the release of the first promo clip.

The campaign builds around a new slogan titled “Another Day. Another Adventure.” with the film shot in the style of a movie trailer showcasing the Coupé in exotic locations, such as Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Iceland and Hong Kong.

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Kia Reunites Joyride Characters for New 2012 Sorento Ad

Though not as successful as their music-loving hamster counterparts, Kia’s oddball cast of life-size children's characters from last year’s Joyride commercials are back for a new advertising campaign.

Muno, Sock Monkey, MR. X, the vintage robot and teddy bear will star in two new 30-second TV spots for the 2012 Sorento CUV. As with the original campaign, "Joyride 2" was created by David&Goliath, KMA's advertising agency of choice. The first commercial begins airing today and will be followed up by the second spot next month.

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Jeep’s Drive Your Track Lets you Plan World Road Trip from Your Music

I’ve been trying out Jeep’s Drive Your Track website for their Wrangler model’s Infinity Sound System. You start by uploading a song from your hard drive: I chose Gary Numan’s, “Cars” for reasons that should be readily apparent.

It takes a few minutes to load your song, and then the sound waves are somehow mapped to certain geographical features from around the world.

You end up with eight or so places, which for me included the Appalachian Mountains, the Himalayas, the Andes, the Ural Mountains and Colorado Rockies.

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Peugeot Creates Interactive Print Ad with an Inflatable Mini Airbag for the 408 Sedan

This past February, Peugeot launched the four-door sedan variant of its 308 series in the Brazilian market as the new 408. In one of its first advertising campaigns for the car, the French carmaker wanted to communicate the compact-sized model’s safety features, namely the availability of six airbags with eight protection points.

Peugeot turned to the creative people of the Sao Paulo-based advertising agency Loducca who came up with an interactive print ad for the 408. The company used a supplier from China to create 50,000 mini airbags, which were then inserted in one of Brazil’s most reputable business magazines, the Exame.

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The BMW 1 Series M Coupé Drifts Through Walls in new Canadian Ad

BMW of Canada has published a new and rather entertaining promotional film on the firm’s new limited production 1-Series M Coupe. The video shows the Bavarian automaker’s sports car pushing its 335-horsepower twin-turbocharged inline-six to the limit and burning plenty of rubber in doing so while passing sideways through set of imaginary walls on the road.

Truth to be said though, BMW’s advertising agency could have skimped on the somewhat farcical CGI (computer-generated images) cement walls and still have an engaging commercial in its hands. Take a look at it in the video after the jump and tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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Mercedes-Benz Shows Off its New 2012 ML-Class SUV on Film

By now, you know that Mercedes-Benz has released the new 2012 ML-Class ahead of its world premiere at September’s Frankfurt Motor Show. If you’re curious to see how the German firm’s American-made SUV looks on road, this is your lucky day as Mercedes has just published two official videos including a five-minute long film of its BMW X5 rival. You can watch both clips right after the break. Read more »

New 2012 BMW 1-Series Hatch gets its own Short Films

After the unveiling of the 2012 1-Series 5-door hatchback, it is time for BMW’s marketing team to take over and promote the Bavarian automaker’s latest product. The German company created a series of short films around the 1-Series starring two brothers, named Freddy and Adam.

According to the script, Freddy is an actor and a model leaning towards metrosexuality, while Adam dislikes cameras and works with architects, and is the wilder one of the two brothers. The goal here is to show off the double nature of the 1-Series hatchback, and especially the introduction of the two new trim lines, Sport and Urban, both of which gain bespoke interior and exterior design as well as equipment features.

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