Car Ads

Hyundai Australia is trialling a system in which it offers used Ioniq 5 electric cars for sale to customers from its website, in a program it says features a “mix of ex-company cars and customer cars”.

One of Jeep's most successful ever marketing campaigns will be put out to pasture, with the focus to turn onto the brand's 75-year heritage in the lifestyle space.

I have enjoyed your comments over the years and would like your opinion on the European car makers who are going to flood our country with their products due to the demise of our car industry. What peeves me is all the advertising these Euro car companies are showing in the media with left-hand drive cars in European conditions which are so different to our environment. I think they should be advertising right-hand drive cars in Australian conditions and, if not, I for one will not buy their cars.

Commercial for US Sonata has father hooning in carpark, urged on by daughter in car seat.

We're so used to seeing gleaming perfect vehicles in car ads that we occasionally wonder if cars even get dusty in that world -- let along collect the occasional scrape or scuff. So it's startling to see Subaru make such a huge departure from the norm in showing a car that has been reduced to a write-off -- horrifyingly mangled.The commercial, created by Carmichael Lynch for Subaru of America shows a totalled Subaru Outback after what must have been a horrific crash. And it hasn't come out of the props department, either -- this was a car that had actually been in an accident.The Outback passes by a series of people, including emergency services, police and the tow-truck driver, with the only comment from each being "they lived", following which we see a family getting into a new Outback, with dad adding "we lived".Seeing the crumpled wreckage of the Outback is supposed to showcase the vehicle's top crash safety rating, but there's always the risk that the imagery (and the reminder of death) could actually put people off the model instead of attracting them to buy it.Watch the ad and tell us what you think? If this was showing a model you were considering, would it deter you or convince you to buy it?This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott

A food takeaway owner who invested in personalised plates named after a notorious outlaw motor cycle gang has been ordered by the State Government to return the plates after he was told they were "indecent". Douglas Gaylard, 68, bought the 'MONGOLS' plates for $3200 but after placing them on his GTE Ford he said he copped extra police attention, including detectives visiting his store and having his and his wife's car pulled over by police. The US-based Mongols began a recruitment drive in Australia last year, with a number of Gold Coast-based Finks bikies patching over. Mr Gaylard, who had advertised the plates for $20,000, said he received a letter from the Department of Transport stating that it had received a complaint after an article about police cracking down over the plate was published in The Courier-Mail. Mr Gaylard said he was offered a refund for the plates and would now consider the plates 'FordGTE'. "I just think it's garbage," Mr Gaylard said.  

A Volvo stunt featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme performing one of his signature splits between two trucks driving backwards was one of the most-watched videos of the year. But 'Walker Texas Ranger' star Chuck Norris has raised the bar -- several thousand metres above ground, it seems -- with a video showing him doing the splits on the wing tips of two fighter jets. In the air. With a gymnastic formation of 11 defence force troops on his shoulders. With a stirring Shakespearean voice-over. It's not the real deal of course. Hungarian production studio Delov Digital created it as a video Christmas card, and as a salute to Van Damme's feat. Watch Chuck Norris splits video on our desktop site. Also watch: Jean-Claude Van Damme splits video on our desktop site.   Jean-Claude Van Damme performs his signature splits between a pair of moving Volvo trucks.

Carmakers spend up big on the annual Super Bowl commercials, with a 30-second in-game spot costing $3.7m and even slots at the start and end of the game commanding premium prices. It's money well spent if they can attract attention – and turn it into sales. And a good ad can go far beyond the game day, turning viral and getting millions of views. Volkswagen's Darth Vader from the 2011 Super Bowl and the hot Adriana Lima commercial from the 2012 Super Bowl are just two of the stars that went on to become global successes.So which were the big contenders this year? Mercedes-Benz was early out of the gates with a teaser featuring swimsuit model Kate Upton 'washing a car slowly'. The shapely Ms Upton didn't actually get her own hands wet – except to blow a bit of foam around – and her role seems to be mainly distracting the footballers who are doing all the hard work. Merc followed up with what must have been a costly exercise for the CLA, with a pact offered by Willem Dafoe as Satan, and the Rolling Stones 'Sympathy for the Devil' as the soundtrack.Watch the Mercedes-Benz Kate Upton car wash adWatch the Mercedes-Benz Soul adWe reckon Coke filched ideas from two top Aussie movies. Their Coke Chase ad featured a gang of Mad Max baddies and a crew of showgirls in a pink Priscilla bus, vying with a Great Escape motorbike, a posse of cowboys and a camel-leading Arabian sheik – all in a race to a giant Coke bottle. The ad was the key creative in an online campaign that lets viewers vote to let three of the teams reach the bottle first – or delay the other teams by watching linked 'sabotage' videos. Watch the Coke Chase adThe early teaser for Toyota's 'Wish' spot featured The Big Bang Theory's Kaley Cuoco – it looked like fun and was backed up with the 'Careful What You Wish For' full ad, which gained much from Cuoco's perky personality as Penny.Watch the Toyota Wish teaser ad Watch the Toyota RAV4 Wish adKia's Space Babies teaser shows some fantastic CGI, and an even more fantastic answer to kids asking where they come from. The ad works well nearly right to the slightly lame ending, but it's doubtful it stacks up as something to rival their viral stars, the Soul Hamsters.Watch the Kia Space Baby adBut the Kia ad that had everybody talking -- including motoring journos -- was 'Hotbots', where a robotic motor show stand attendant (we don't call them booth babes here) gets revenge on a grubby guy.Watch the Kia HotBot adHyundai went all-out for the Super Bowl with several spots. The 'Team' one for Santa Fe was an early favourite, with some great performances from child actors -- and a very scary mum.Watch the Hyundai Santa Fe Team adThe 'Playdate' took you on an extreme day out of having fun and upsetting security guards, bikies and police, with the Flaming Lips providing the soundtrack.Watch the Hyundai Playdate adThe Genesis was talked up in 'Excited' with Hyundai touting its advantages over high end, and particularly German, luxury cars.Watch the Hyundai Genesis Excited adAnd then there was the aversion therapy of 'Stuck', showing some of the worst vehicles you can be stuck behind in traffic -- unless you have a Hyundai Sonata to overtake them, of course.Watch the Hyundai Sonata Stuck adVolkswagen ditched the Star Wars theme, and instead drafted reggae legend Jimmy Cliff for their 'Get Happy' teaser – and then got into a little hot water with the full ad, which shows Caucasian men taking off Jamaican accents. Perhaps it's still a Star Wars link ... the movie franchise faced similar accusations of racial stereotyping with the Jamaican-sounding Jar Jar Binks.Watch the VW Get Happy adWatch the VW Jimmy Cliff adVW then followed up with a low-key but effective 'bad dog' ad, showing what to do when the dog eats your car keys.Watch the VW Bad Dog adAudi tapped into every adolescent boy's fantasy with a lad heading off to prom night alone being tossed the keys to his dad's Audi S6, kissing the football jock's girlfriend and generally making it a night to remember.Watch the Audi Prom adFiat has launched a trio of ads for the 500L, all aimed at emphasising how much larger it is than the garden variety 500. Date, Sisters and Wedding are all flavoured with Italian dressing and – while not as scorching at the Catrinel Menghia Abarth ads – still manage to be cheeky.Watch the Fiat 500L Date adWatch the Fiat 500L Sisters adWatch the Fiat 500L Wedding adThe Chrysler group turned on the patriotism for their slightly saccharine ode to a farmer and Whole Again ads.Watch the Dodge Ram Farmer adWatch the Jeep  Whole again adAnd even snack food Doritos has got in on the car act, with one of the finalists for its Crash the Super Bowl ad playoff featuring the perfect solution to a back seat dog problem.Watch the Doritos Road Chip ad 

Earlier this week, Jaguar released an ad that spoofed Mercedes-Benz's 'chicken' ad -- which used the gimbal-like qualities of a chook's head and body to highlight the high-tech suspension of the German brand's flagship S-Class.The Jaguar video ad pooh-poohed the idea of the Mercedes 'Magic Ride' system, with the British brand saying "we prefer cat-like reflexes" and introducing the fowl to the Jaguar -- with the expected results.Today Mercedes has fired a returning salvo, with the ad below, showing they're not averse to a bit of luxury brand banter.We're hoping this turns into a similar car ad war to the battles fought in the US by Audi and BMW with a series of ads, kicked off by a billboard in California, with a later skirmish in Hong Kong. That volley started on the theme of which brand had the best claim to being a luxury badge, and later moved to a comparison between beauty and performance -- with some other brands tipping in. The point and counterpoint kept us all amused, and social media aflame, for some time.In the end, nothing is decided by the exercise. But there are no losers when the major car brands show they have a sense of humour behind all the usual marketing spin.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincottWatch the Jaguar chicken ad on or desktop site.Watch the Mercedes-Benz chicken ad on or desktop site. 

In the countdown to Halloween, Mini has released an ad that draws on well-known horror movie characters to showcase the Countryman softroader.The rear seats fit a hockey-masked villain from Friday the 13th, while another chainsaw-wielding maniac stashes his weapon in the boot and climbs in as well – both of them terrifying the young couple cowering in the Countryman.But it turns out the villians are themselves fleeing from an even more terrifying horror …