So there I was, watching seven hours straight of car commercials, like you do, when I hit upon the Chevrolet Silverado "Strong" ad. What followed was a string of vomit that matched my extended ad-viewing session in length if not monotony. But surely there are worse ads out there.
I totally get the point of having awesome music in your car commercial. Everything in the 30 second or one minute clip or what have you must sell the product in a way that would put Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glenn Ross to shame, including the little ditty that plays in the background. In the case of the "Strong" commercial, we get platitudes of "strength," whatever that is, and maybe a little bit of reliability, all dully thudded into our heads by Will Hoge's song of the same name, with a flat twang of STRONG.
The full song is so much worse.
It was created by Chevrolet, so there's not much excuse here. We've got images of random guys working as ranch hands and cowboys and maybe even not being cowboys but wearing cowboy hats randomly like that lawyer guy from Binder and Binder. It's a country song, whatever, that sort of goes with the territory. The lyrics, though, are in another class of awful for a car ad. They herald monogamy, working overtime, and not being "just tough," but "strong."
It's pandering, plain and simple.
As someone who's worked on a farm in the past, I can tell you that a lot of things do matter when buying pickup trucks, but strangely monogamy wasn't one of them. Payload capacity, towing ability, torque, fuel economy, and reliability were things that mattered. Most pickup truck ads feature these things.
Just so you don't think I'm just picking on Chevy, the company has made some fantastic and iconic pickup truck ads. One that immediately comes to mind is their "Like A Rock" campaign:
A lot of the same themes, a lot of the same imagery, but the difference?
Well, the song was awesome. You go, Bob Seger.
So what's the worst song ever featured in a car commercial? Let us know below in the comments!