There must be a school of stupidity where automotive marketers all study.They apparently have two steadfast rules for TV spots:

1) They must show the car driving in (pick one):

rain soaked streets at night, across the salt flats with a plume of dust behind them and camera angles from a helo or down a twisty road.

or:

2) the car must revolve.

Lately, the “revolution” seems to be winning.

Ever since the Arnold agency introduced the New Beetle with a rotating CGI car-

and “Turbonium”

We’ve been doomed to watch cars, spinning, cameras revolving around them, and ridiculous effects as the car transforms from the rain soaked streets at night to across the salt flats onto a twisty road. (Update 2017- this spot has been removed- and I can’t figure out which generic spot I was mentioning).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbk8gFeDPTg

The third option is to pick some neat music and do the glamor shots. However, we’re not making music videos- we’re trying to sell cars. (update in 2017- I’m not sure if this is the same spot I picked in ’09, which was removed).

(and for some odd reason, Ford put an expiration date on the URL for this Flex ad- DUMB)

Watch your commercials carefully. They either fall into the above category- or they may actually be advertising, that tells us something about the car and why we might want to buy it.

This may be part of the reason people don’t feel compelled to buy a car lately.