I really like the little thing. I want Americans to buy it instead of gas-chugging SUVs. But the ads are just missing the mark -- at least the print and billboard ads I've seen.
1. You can barely see the car in most of them. The thing is stylish. That's one of its best selling points -- why not use it?
2. I just don't get what the robot is supposed to be.
3. A lot of the slogans are variations on "Let's Motor" which itself sounds awkward and foreign to American ears (is it a British thing?). There are numerous others that start with "Let's" -- an odd way to begin a slogan.
4. The other copy is usually terrible as well. Example: "The Four-Crotch Crotch-Rocket." Why would anyone use the word "crotch" not once, but twice, in an ad that's supposed to be appealing? Doesn't the copy-writer know that "crotch-rocket" is a mildly derisive term?
5. Still more of the copy uses self-deprecating humor -- usually making fun of the fact that the car is small: "Popeye was 5'4", tops." Why not avoid further emphasizing what's probably it's greatest drawback for the american market and instead emphasize its sleekness, style, etc.? It worked for the Mazda Miata.
― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 22 January 2005 07:53 (twenty-one years ago)
You don't get the 'mini adventure campaign'. More's the pity. You don't get the two nudists driving around in a Mini beating other nudists with Raw fish advert then.
― Ed (dali), Saturday, 22 January 2005 09:33 (twenty-one years ago)
I thought this was about the 'Mini Adventure' Campaign, in which case, big dud. Just not funny, more a 'let's do an ad campaign which is a bit weird because that'll get their attention'.
― Dave B (daveb), Saturday, 22 January 2005 09:46 (twenty-one years ago)
There is one car advert that uses 'Blank Expression' as the backing music. Bad choice, I think, hardly aspirational music.
― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Saturday, 22 January 2005 10:36 (twenty-one years ago)
There's plenty of good reasons not to buy a mini-cooper, the ad campaign is probably number 3.
― Ed (dali), Saturday, 22 January 2005 12:46 (twenty-one years ago)
Didn't the Mini Adventure campaign originally feature one nudist hitting another with a frying pan? Did I just imagine that? Do I just want to see more anti-nudist violence on the telly?
― caitlin (caitlin), Saturday, 22 January 2005 23:32 (twenty-one years ago)
I think even that would play better here than what we have now, which sounds like a British agency trying to affect Americanism and not quite getting it right.
― Hurting (Hurting), Sunday, 23 January 2005 00:04 (twenty-one years ago)
sounds like a British agency trying to affect Americanism and not quite getting it right.The campaign's by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami. It's a US agency trying to affect Americanism and not quite getting it right.
― chris j (chris j), Sunday, 23 January 2005 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)