There are a million car commercials because there are a million cars, and even more car dealerships. This causes three types of commercials: The sales centered, the brand centered, and the combination. The strictly sales ones tend to be featured by dealerships because that's how they compete. The brand commercials are best demonstrated by Volkswagon. There are a dime a dozen combined commercials, which are usually easy to avoid attention.
Anything car related, in my opinion, has to be entertaining, targeted, and speak a truth about the product, consumer, or the relation of the product to the consumer. The best example of this, and a commercial I draw heavily on is for Midas winter tires.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0id9fUYb95A
It is still funny, I can relate to it, it's entertaining, and when the product information is delivered, I'm interested in what they say because it pertains to me. Is my car winter ready? How can Midas help make that happen? Great ad. I like how it starts out right in the middle of the action with little explanation, letting the viewer figure it out. Once the camera draws back, the rug is kind of pulled making the joke very effective. It's only 32 seconds to boot making it very informative in very little time.
As such, my commercial uses the same framework. It begins in the middle of the action, in the cock pit of a rally car during a winter race section. The co-driver is reading out commands as they do in any race. These commands aren't very discernable but have an understandable context. This is displayed in the first panel.
“One Hundred, one hundred to flat right. Breaking thirty to slight right. Over jump to flat right. Flat left.Flat left. Fifty to flat right long to crest easy right. One hundred to full stop.”
The slight twist is in the last line 'one hundred to full stop', an action you would not hear in rally racing.
In panel two, another car pulls up beside featuring a normal looking man and woman, who peer over and wave. This could also be done by focusing on the rally drivers from the front of the car, then panning over to see the other car pull up and the couple look over. Like the midas commercial, this is where the ad twists and the viewer realizes something else is going on in the ad.
In the third panel, without any dialogue, the normal car pulls away and the child in the back makes a face at the rally drivers. The drivers looked stunned as though they don't understand how a normal car could be on their circuit. The camera pulls back all the way to reveal it's not a circuit, but city streets in a Canadian winter.
Then the tag line comes BLANK CAR COMPANY "it's just winter"
I think anyone that has gone through a Canadian winter knows both the joy of treating the streets like a slippery rally track, and having to treat the streets like a slippery rally track. Winter driving is a pain and everyone appreciates a car that starts, is warm, and can handle the winter roads safely and confidently. The ad essentially is saying you don't have to be a rally driver to handle winter driving if you have the right car, our car.
The tag line 'it's just winter' says what the family is saying to the rally drivers as they drive by. The family is confident in their car and not too worried about the weather or road conditions. Everyone who has gone through a Canadian winter (vancouver excluded) knows what a relief a car that can handle the weather is.
