Lightning Does Hit Twice For Viral Car Ads

Now it’s DaimlerChrysler’s turn to pull a viral ad that has only served to embarrass the company, but this time around – unlike what happened to Volkswagen a couple of years back – this ad was actually created by Chrysler’s agency in The Netherlands rather than by rogues.

The Chrysler ad showed a dog sniffing around a tire of a Dodge Nitro in preparation for you-know-what. But as the dog lifts its leg a large lightning bolt emanates from the car and that’s the end of that dog! Except, just to make sure, a second lightning bolt leaves the corpse burning and then the tagline “Dodge Nitro. Charged With Adrenaline.”

Now that ad may be fine for  “sophisticated” Europeans, but as a Chrysler US spokesman explained, “Although European commercials – especially ‘viral’ ads like this one – are often edgier, this one went over the edge.”

In fact, Jason Vines, head of Chrysler’s US communications, accepts that the ad went “far beyond the bounds” of what the company found acceptable. “"Chrysler Group was dismayed to discover today that an advertisement created by an ad agency supporting our Netherlands Market Performance Center goes far beyond the bounds of what the company considers appropriate. The advertisement … includes fictional yet inappropriate treatment of an animal, is in extremely bad taste.

“Although European commercials — especially "viral" ads like this one — are often edgier, this one went over the edge. Chrysler Group is investigating the origins of this commercial. We have requested the viral ad be pulled from YouTube.com."

By the time ftm went for a YouTube look there was just a notice that DaimlerChrysler had ordered it removed on copyright issues.

Now if this one went “beyond the bounds” then how best to describe Ford’s viral ad three years ago that showed a cat decapitated by a sunroof in a viral ad promoting the SportKa. The same campaign had a pigeon that was planning to drop its business on the car being smashed by the car’s trunk suddenly opening.

And then there was the unofficial ad for VW a couple of years back showing a suicide bomber sitting in a VW surviving the blast because the car  was “small but tough”. – July 24, 2007

Keywords:brand marketing,viral marketing

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