There are good ad campaigns and there are bad ad campaigns. Mad Men‘s Don Draper might argue any campaign is good if it gets enough attention for the brand, but Chevrolet has a series of ads running now that are awful.
Each features a focus group of real buyers commenting about Chevys. These people sound nothing like real humans much less real buyers. The latest ad is finally one that sounds realistic even though it happens to be about the completely unrealistic Batmobile.
The regular run of ads is so ridiculous because of how people gush over the cars. There’s one that has “real people, not actors” describing the Chevy Cruze with emojis. You’d think they were describing a $150,000 luxury car.
Now, you could say that’s a testament to the coolness of the Cruze. You could also say it indicates some of these people haven’t been in a car in the last ten years. Or have seen a car in the last ten years. Or even knew cars existed. Who are these people?
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There are similar ads in the campaign that show different focus groups for different vehicles. The emojis are exclusive to the Cruze, but every ad has regular folks gushing about Chevys as though they’ve never experienced the wonder of a car in their whole lives. That brings us to the Batmobile.
The Batmobile is not real because Batman is not real. There are working versions of the car, but they are not genuinely driven by a caped superhero nor are they armed with bullets and batarangs and caltrops.
That didn’t stop Chevy from building a real one to promote the upcoming Lego Batman Movie. They have the life-size Lego Batmobile on display at the Detroit Auto Show and it will also make an appearance at the Chicago Auto Show next month. It was only natural to hold a Lego-based focus group to see what people think of the Batmobile.
The Lego people are a little tough on the Batmobile. Poor Batman is right there trying to defend himself the whole time. The Lego people aren’t buying it, except one mom who thinks it’s perfect for picking up the kids from soccer practice. Take that, minivan moms.
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You might be wondering what it would cost to park the Lego Batmobile in your driveway and show up the other moms at soccer practice. They’ve got you covered with the official Batmobile page on the Chevrolet site. You can have the Batmobile with its 120,000 pounds of towing and 20,000-horsepower V100 engine for $48,000,000.
The site covers all the details including modes like Race Mode, Monster Truck Mode, and Parallel Park Mode along with safety features and connectivity. There’s also a handy comparison chart so you can see how the Lego Batmobile stacks up to the competition like the Notorious Lowrider and The Riddler Racer.
Finally, an ad in the focus group campaign that makes us want to buy a car. All we need is $48,000,000.
