I am not one of the people who fell in love with Twilight nor any kind of vampire story, which led me to think that I was not going to enjoy this ad but I was pleasantly surprised.
This ad starts off normal enough with the classic bonfire in the middle of the woods but then it quickly turns into a fantasy with the vampire’s choice of drink being O+ blood and two others running up a tree in a race. The commercial then goes on to show shots of the Audi S7 driving through the wooded area with our ‘main character’ driving. However, after this unusual beginning the story starts to get boring and my interest faded but it was quickly restored when the mass of vampires start to get very annoyed of the headlights and then disintegrate into a cloud of dust.
I enjoyed the fact that the first half of the commercial felt like Twilight or some other series like that because I wanted to watch it to see what would happen. I got lost in the story just how a 14-year-old girl would reading one of Stephanie Meyer’s books. That aspect alone gives this commercial a great score but there is a problem when I said, “14-year-old girl”. I don’t know any 14-year-old girls who can drive or buy a car, let alone an expensive car such as this brand new Audi S7. The people who will enjoy this commercial aren’t going to be watching this commercial while the 30+ year-old men who will be watching this commercial aren’t for team Edward or for team Jacob. Marketing 101′s first lesson is know who your audience is and it looks like Audi’s creative team missed that class.
With that said, I believe that the 30+ year-old men who will be watching this and possibly buying this car will enjoy the people turning into clouds of dust. At any rate, let’s talk about the main point of the commercial, the bright headlights.
That in itself is a very interesting selling point because most car ads speak to the car’s styling, engine, or safety. One could say that brighter headlights are for safety (they proved to be very effective at removing vampires) but when buying a car that is not the first thought that comes to mind. When I think of an Audi’s lights I think about how different and stylish they look with the wave of LEDs, not about how bright they are. Audi did make a great concept around the small detail of the headlights in the grand scheme of it.
A couple small details that I want to point out are, first off when our main character pulls up and everyone starts to scream in terror/pain due to the headlights. No matter which car he is driving, he would be able to hear all of his friends screaming as loud as they were. On top of that, being that he is a vampire himself, I would think that he knows to turn off his headlights as soon as he is around fellow vampires. Not to mention that a considerate person would turn off their headlights once pulling up as to not blind the people in front of the vehicle.
The timing of this ad is noteworthy because the vampire phase has seemed to come and pass, yet Audi decided to make a commercial centered around the idea of vampires. I initially thought that the timing was terrible on their part but then I thought that this could be their way of saying goodbye to them. They killed off very last vampire in this commercial as a way to end the vampire phase that we just went though.
Even if Audi was thinking this or no, I believe that they made a good commercial overall. With taking everything into account I would rate this commercial a 6. You might think that it is a low number but between missing the target market and the flaws in the plot, I see no reason to give it a higher score. I am also considering the fact that I won’t remember this commercial tomorrow which translates into me not remembering the car next time I am shopping for a new car.
-Adam
