After the inital knee-jerk reaction of WTF? New Jersey? I actually have settled into being very excited about the promise held in the new street circuit along the waterfront. Here's a recent video of Sebastien Vettel driving an Infiniti road car and commenting on the new circuit:
Also here is an older video simulating how the track will be in actuality. The speed and elevation changes are going to be fantastic. I think it will have a great challenge for the drivers.
Given the animated discussion on the previous thread, I thought Car and Driver's chart below might put some of this in perspective. It is true that Alfa is closer than ever to re-entering the US market, and it's a verifiable fact that the FIAT 500 was at the New York Auto Show and most certainly will soon be available here. However, given the history of promises that Alfa's return is imminent, perhaps once again it's just a matter of blowing smoke...
I just caught an eyeful of the supposed "first new FIAT commercial" aimed at the US Market, via jalopnik. And folks, I almost lost that Tiramisu I had for dessert. Porca Miseria!
FIAT has two monumental challenges in re-entering the American market. Not only must it overcome the fears of notorious Italian unreliability and indifferent service it engendered in older consumers 30 years ago, but it must essentially launch a NEW BRAND for the majority of their target entry-level buyer segment, who are too young and too car-ignorant to have ever known what a FIAT was in the first place. And if this ad is any indication of what they are bringing to the table, Sergio Marchionne may as well stay soakin' in that hottub with Berlusconi until they cook up something sexier.
If have rarely seen such bland, meaningless stock imagery combined with such artless cinematography of the actual car. The first shot where we actually see the product (after 35 nauseating seconds!), the car drives over a distracting manhole cover in the road. Couldn't they have chosen a different snippet of footage to start off with?? Combine this with the computer generated "flower-petal" imagery (at 0:41 and 0:52) which is blatantly yanked from the original VW beetle and iMac campaigns from c.1999, and seems utterly out of place in this commercial.
The messaging touts the car as an expression of the "Italian Way" yet we never are shown the original car or how pervasive and loved it is throughout Italy. No, instead we are subjected to cloying imagery of an archetypal Italian Grandma kissing a child, and fields of olive trees. The only reference to FIAT's history is the parade of badges towards the end, which will bewilder most Americans (who, as I said, have no real idea what a FIAT is) and only emphasizes the fickle nature of the company's branding over the years.
In the end, I am left trying to take stock of what I am supposed to come away with. Where is the "Zoom Zoom" or the "Let's Motor"? "Life is Best when Driven" probably sounded cool in Italian (I have a strong suspicion this ad was done by an Italian agency because the cheese factor reeks distinctively of Parmeggiano) but in English it just sits there in all its inglorious passive voice.
I could rant like this for hours, but I think i'll shut up and let you watch it already!
La Dolce Vita, it ain't!
And the music was awful too, wasn't it? But at least they didn't use Opera...
Tuesday, July 3, 2012 at 3:25PM 