Automotive advertising can be hit or miss. Sometime it succeeds. But often, it misses, mostly because they try too hard. The second-hand embarrassment can get strong.
Last week we asked readers to share the cringiest car marketing they’ve ever seen. Click through to see their answers — and there are some doozies.
Volkswagen in the last decade or so continuously filling their ads with cars they either no longer make or long ago stopped selling in the US to provoke nostalgia for the brand. All I take away from them is “hey remember when we sold anything interesting? Too bad those days are gone, here’s a bloated Jetta”
This marketing campaign VW has been dabbling with is embarrassing when you consider how the brand has shown it just doesn’t get the U.S. market, not to mention how the brand continues to sell models in the U.S. that are decontented compared to the rest of the world.
Submitted by: OnceInAMillenia
Back in the ‘70s, Ford used to try and say their Granada was basically a cheaper Mercedes and people couldn’t tell them apart. They then ripped off Inspector Closeau.
While this was cheesy with extra cheese, it was more cringe because of the claim it was making. Ford really tried to say that the Granada was a better vehicle than the Mercedes W114, one of the most important — and reliable — models in the company’s history.
Submitted by: Peter Dennis via Facebook
Those bizarre Lincoln ads that had Mathew McConaughey talking about absolutely nothing at all, but tried to be deep and spiritual or something. At least, we got some good parodies out of it.
I’m still not sure what Lincoln was trying to do here, but I don’t know why they thought showing a celebrity deep in thought while driving was a way to sell cars. But we did get some good laughs out of it, as places like “SNL” did parodies of the ads featuring Jim Carrey.
Submitted by: Knyte
The Dodge Hornet commercial trying to put it on par with Chargers and Challengers.
I had no idea that Dodge had released a second commercial for the Hornet, trying to make it appear as it was a part of their so-called “Brotherhood of Muscle,” It’s not. We know what you really, are Hornet!
Submitted by: Desmond Passalacqua via Facebook
It’s me. I’m cringe. I always made fun of those Buick commercials where they proclaim, “THAT’S a Buick?!!”. I always thought they were dumb because the cars portrayed were pretty clearly Buicks in terms of styling and badging.
Last week I was walking down a street and couldn’t identify a sedan that had an unusual brand marking on it, only to be shocked that it was a Buick. For a moment I was actually looking down on myself.
Were people really looking at a Buick Encore or Verano and asking this?
Submitted by: Maxzillian
This one actually starts off decent in that low-budget, cringey 1980s sort of way. Until it just keeps going, and over a minute in, you’re thinking, “Okay, can this be over?”
Submitted by Larry Turbide via Facebook
This ad from just over a decade ago now is nearly infamous for its sad cringe. Made by Southern California dealer North Hollywood Toyota, saying a seventh-generation Camry is “grounded to the ground” because its an SE is nuts.
Submitted by: George Wilson
A few years ago, there was a commercial where a Nissan Frontier catches up to a plane that has lost its front landing gear. There are a few problems with this. First, unless you strap a rocket on it, there is ABSOLUTELY no way a passenger truck could ever approach the landing speed of a jet. but assuming you could, the weight of the plane would snap the truck in two the moment it came down on it. I yelled at the TV the first time I saw it.
I almost forgot about this commercial. It was wild back then and it’s wilder now, mostly because of how committed Nissan was to it. I mean, a whole fake news segment?
Submitted by John Meneses via Facebook
Chevy takes this one with it’s “Real people. Not actors” crap.
These ads were so universally panned and made fun of that if you go looking for the real ads on YouTube, you almost can’t find them anymore. There’s either parodies of the ads, or discussions on how bad the ads were.
Submitted by: Da Car Guru - 15,000 RPM daily driver
The stupid Chrysler 200 ads that were taken in Detroit. Probably the absolute worst fail of an automobile in three decades.
Now I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the 200 was the worst fail of a car in thirty years. But painting the 200, especially this generation of 200, as something premium that was being imported from what was once the automobile capital of the U.S. is cringe at best, and sad at worst.