I just got the July 3, 2006 AutoWeek and it has a VW advertisement that caused me Deja Vu.

Same black background and red stripe on the side. Interesting peel off stickers for the window. Seems that I have seen this before.

I know that the Ad company that did MINI jumped ship and now does VW ads. I sure hope VW doesn't have to pay much for recycled advertising.

 

Or that VW doesn't have to change the ad due to copyright claims by BMW....

 

I thought the same thing when I got the new Car & Driver......I hope the non-MINI public sees it as a lame copy of MINI ads.

 

It would be very embarassing for VW to have to pull their ads due to copyright claims by BMW.... It might even get the ad agency bounced off the VW account. Recycling in some contexts is a good thing. Unless you have the ownership of the intellectual property, recycling of IP generally is not a good thing.

 

Much like movie remakes!

The Back Seat manual had blatant similarities.

 

The billboard ads are remarkably simliar too...not a great way for VW to differentiate itself in the class, to either new customers or to its existing fan base, which is as proud of VWs as we are of MINIs. Weird.

 

Would one of you scan the ad so we can see it?

 

Interesting that they're using almost the exact same 'look and feel' as the MINI campaigns. Definitely doesn't reflect well on the ad agency.

 

I had to dig it out of the garbage. On the second pix of the cling on stickers notice how the Xenon light looks quite a bit like the 2005-2006 MINI Xenon headlights.

 

I'm glad they are with vw now. I can't stand mini ads. "Let's this, let's that" If I see let's before another statement I'm going to puke. This car has a stiff suspension, quick steering ratio, back firing built in and lots of tuning possibilites. It should be sold as bad azz pocket rocket, not a novelty. The most recent ad I saw was focused on the mcs's 25/30 mpg. Yeah right. If I were going for mpg's I would not have this car. Now show a jcw passing a wrx at the drags, then flash the mpg's of both cars and a pictue of a washing machine in the back of a mini and one tied to the roof of the wrx. Or better yet one dragging by a rope behind the wrx. That would be an ad.

MINI, feel free to pm about my other great ad ideas. This one's on the house.

 

I do marketing and advertising and most likely this isn't something BMW could sue over unless they've trademarked it. The work I do tends to have a similar "feel" because I have a certain style, but I am careful not to do ads for clients that are too much alike. I try to give each client a different "look" to their advertising. Although, I think it does reflects poorly on the marketing agency and could, if pointed out to VW, get them dropped.

 

Got my Autoweek yesterday and thought, "oh, a MINI ad." Then looked and thought, "oh a lame copy of a MINI ad for VW." VW should be upset, they didn't buy a unique campaign, they bought MINI's ads to be recycled. When they use the barf-bag again, we'll know it's about over.

 

Speaking of VW ads. I saw a commercial for the new Rabbit (I am assuming they are dropping the Golf name). I noticed there was a black/grey/white "Harlequin" version driving among the black white and grey cars.

I wonder if they will make another Harlequin edition? Those sure were silly!

Here's a pic for those tht haven't seen one before

 

Let's just calm down.


Sorry, had to be done!


I've been waiting for MINI to head in a new direction since switching companies. It was a very successful campaign, but now it's time for something new. Especially now that our old ads are getting recycled for v dubs.

cheers!

 

[QUOTE][/Speaking of VW ads. I saw a commercial for the new Rabbit (I am assuming they are dropping the Golf name). I noticed there was a black/grey/white "Harlequin" version driving among the black white and grey cars.

QUOTE]

An upside to having patchwork quilt paint job is if you tend to crash your car often, you wouldn't need to be particular about the body shop who paints the dinged panel du jour!

But seriously, folks, we're talking about deja vu ad campaigns... Maybe VW thinks its the ad campaign that convinced us all to buy Minis and has hopes of luring us into buying a second hatch for the hutch! Yes, they are becoming rabbits, again.

 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I really doubt that anyone other than a MINI owner notices ... maybe that's what VW is counting on.

 

I'm constantly looking at ads and comparing them. To me it's not that similar, except for the sticker thing, although the stickers are different. I work mostly in the marine industry and 90% of the ads are done with black. I seldom use black for that reason. I think the MINI ads were a bit cheeky and this one isn't really. Didn't they just have a Pontiac campaign where the cars were on black?

 

The monolithic background and the simple sporty shot of the car isn't uncommon in enthusiast sportscar ads... the sticker set is pretty clearly evolved from the MINI campaign, but if that was their previous client, that's easy to see how it happened. The graphocs are harder to read and less interesting than the clean simplicity of the MINI stickers, though. And the text in the car ad is terrible. The run-on with alternating colors is a misfire. I DO like the sticker with the reference to the VW hand sign from those unPimp commercials.

 

Yucca, that harlequin one REALLY caught my eye. That was one of the best of these new commercials, for sure.

 

lets not forget that VW put different on tha map when it came to ads/commercials long b4 MINI came into glory.
that sticker thin' is goofy i didnt care for it in tha MINI ads 'n sure wont care for it in VW adds

 

But the little freebies and extras in MINI ads definitely stick in your mind....I never considered buying a MINI until early 2005 (didn't think I would fit) but the whole time I loved the MINI ads with the stickers to put your name on the roof, the spinwheel thing (I forget if it was letting you change body colors or wheels or what), all those stuck in my mind and I kept them without any thought of ever owning one. I would have done the same with the VW stickers but it just sorta pissed me off.

 

yeh, ur takin' it a bit personal....

 

 

Minichik - great sig! Which raises of course, the REALLY important question of why there wasn't a MINI in Cars?

 

Oh thanks ncdave! I can't take credit for the cute MINI though. COOPERation put the "Cars" MINIs together originally and I just made mine from spare parts.

Here's the thread on them: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=71003