Super Bowl Car Commercials and the Uses of the Past
Submitted by Michael Widner on Mon, 2011-02-07 21:21
Now that our national gladiatorial spectacle has ended, we turn to the obligatory analysis of the major media event. How many Packers can get injured in a single season? Why, exactly, are the Black Eyed Peas popular? And, most importantly, what about the commercials? Rather than discuss which ones are the funniest, depict the most animal cruelty, or objectify women the worst, I'd like to discuss what seems like an odd coincidence: many of the car commercials use different visions of the past to sell their product.
In the Mercedes commercial, we see new car models joining the family. The commercial starts in a barn with an older model car. Its radio turns on and we hear Janis Joplin sing "Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz". The setting, the scratchiness of the sound, and the song's throwback country style all make the song sound older than it really is, establishing a past in the country. Near the middle, around the 33 second mark, we see a futuristic car drive past something akin to a Model T prototype. Presumably both are Mercedes. These and several hundred other cars from many eras converge to welcome the 4 new models. Mercedes thus constructs a continuous history, an unbroken line of Diddy-endorsed quality and luxury, that continues with these new cars.
The Hyundai Sonata commercial takes a slightly different approach. Rather than just cars, the emphasis is on technology of many sorts: bicycles, cell phones, portable music players, and video games, among others. A voice-over asks what the world would be like if we settled for the first thing that came along. Here the technological past intrudes upon the present to build a teleological narrative that places the Sonata as the ultimate goal. The visual contrast between the modern car and ancient technologies also implies a similar distance between the Sonata and other vehicles.
<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/video?vid=5d8c18d2-5a29-46dc-8b0f-8caac7e253ce" target="_new" title="">Chevy Volt: Make History</a>
Chevy Volt: Make History
In this Chevy Volt ad, on the other hand, we have a history of technology defined by moments of brilliance. Rather than an antiquated past or a proud history, we see a series of great discoveries and inventions: electricity, the lightbulb, television, space flight, electric guitar amplifiers, and others. Chevy places their new electric car in the pantheon of technological inventions, giving us both a progress narrative and a muted teleology like the Hyundai and Mercedes commercials. Moreover, the Chevy spot seems to combine the sense of historical greatness of the Mercedes ad with the technological fetishism of the Hyundai one. History, Chevy tells us, is told through the great moments in technology.
BMW, however, tells us that the past was dirty, inefficient, slow, and noisy. Their new diesel-powered vehicle represents cleanliness, speed, efficiency, and power. The noise is not a clanking, but a baritone engine hum. The dirty cars struggling along the streets and spewing thick, black smoke make the blue, immaculately polished sports car even more appealing. The car represents not continuous progress, but a clear break with the bad ol' days.
<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/video?vid=f2db3bd3-0a4c-4681-ae0e-5d8897d5519e" target="_new" title="">Carmax.com: Gas Station</a>
Carmax.com: Gas Station
Unlike BMW, Carmax caricatures the Leave it to Beaver 1950s of unbearable cheerfulness and unrealistic levels of service. A modern driver pulls into a gas station and is suddenly barraged by attendants cleaning his windows, checking his oil, filling his tank. He assumes he's being attacked and runs off screaming. But, as the closing tag tells us, CarMax provides this type of service, informed by a nostalgic creation of the past. The clean-cut, uniformed, and smiling workers contrast with the paranoid, stressed, and unkempt modern driver. CarMax, the ad argues, returns us to a more wholesome time.
While these were certainly not always the best or most interesting of the Super Bowl commercials, the ties among them struck me. They almost all rely upon cliched visions of imagined pasts that fetishize technology. Is it the revolving door of automotive invention--a new model every year--that demands we abandon the obsolete while retaining what progress has been made? Are other products are so insistently linked to the past?
Submitted by Rachel Schneider on Mon, 2011-02-07 21:41.
Mike, this is a really interesting reading of the different commercials. I had noticed the number of car commercials, but not necessarily this connection. I wonder if this is a strategy they want to adopt not only to position their works as innovative, but to draw buyers into connecting their product nostalgically with an American tradition. This certainly seems to me to be part of the Chrysler 200 commercial, which I noticed you left out of your reading here. This one caught my eye not only because of Eminem's presence, but the tag line "Imported From Detroit," which definitely appealed to a Buy USA movement. What did you make of this commercial, Mike?
Submitted by Michael Widner on Mon, 2011-02-07 21:54.
I thought about including the Detroit ad, too, but it wasn't as clearly focused on the past as the others. They obviously invoke the image of Detroit as a blue collar city with a rough past and, in doing so, also raise the idea of the government bailouts of the auto industry. That seems like a very specific, fairly realistic (if romanticized) view of a local past that grants hard-won experience and knowledge. But the ad is also trying to walk the line between a blue collar ethos and an artistic sensibility that informs luxury models. So, I didn't include it, but certainly could have. I felt it was a more complex ad than the others in some ways.
I like your point that they want to invoke a nostalgia. It's interesting that so many different car companies want nostalgia + innovation... and end up all seeming somewhat the same.
Comments
Imported From Detroit!
Mike, this is a really interesting reading of the different commercials. I had noticed the number of car commercials, but not necessarily this connection. I wonder if this is a strategy they want to adopt not only to position their works as innovative, but to draw buyers into connecting their product nostalgically with an American tradition. This certainly seems to me to be part of the Chrysler 200 commercial, which I noticed you left out of your reading here. This one caught my eye not only because of Eminem's presence, but the tag line "Imported From Detroit," which definitely appealed to a Buy USA movement. What did you make of this commercial, Mike?
Blue Collar Luxury
I thought about including the Detroit ad, too, but it wasn't as clearly focused on the past as the others. They obviously invoke the image of Detroit as a blue collar city with a rough past and, in doing so, also raise the idea of the government bailouts of the auto industry. That seems like a very specific, fairly realistic (if romanticized) view of a local past that grants hard-won experience and knowledge. But the ad is also trying to walk the line between a blue collar ethos and an artistic sensibility that informs luxury models. So, I didn't include it, but certainly could have. I felt it was a more complex ad than the others in some ways.
I like your point that they want to invoke a nostalgia. It's interesting that so many different car companies want nostalgia + innovation... and end up all seeming somewhat the same.