Toyota Venza’s anti-hipster commercials
After years of trying to sell us cars to make us feel younger, advertisers are trying to turn old into the new cool
By Drew GrantTopics: Advertising, Auto Industry, Teenagers, Television, Entertainment News
Car commercials typically come in two types: those marketed to “family adults” and those marketed to “mid-life crisis adults.” The first type of commercial will usually show a mother and father smoothly careening down a country road in their SUV, their 2.5 kids placid and safe in the backseat. Maybe they end up on a beach and take out their surfboards? Or at home, climbing out of their four-door Sedan. And the tagline will be something along the lines of “Life is full of surprises. Your car shouldn’t be one of them.”
The second type of commercial will be full of hip, attractive people extoling the sleek virtues of the fast, sexy automobile. Since young people aren’t really the demographic for purchasing automobiles, these ads market to those suffering from too much money and Peter Pan syndrome.
The fact that these narratives are the two standards for car marketing is what makes the new Toyota Venza ads so appealing. Conceived by creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi LA, the spots feature aimless twenty-somethings snarking on their parents’ lame, boring lives. These monologues are juxtoposed with shots of older people (presumably the parents) driving around, mountain-biking, and generally partying it up while their progeny stay inside, checking their Facebook stats and rolling their eyes.
The message is shockingly subversive: young is no longer cool. Cool is no longer cool. “You know what’s cool?” says these ads, “Being a grownup.” “The Venza campaign goes directly against how marketers usually talk to boomers,” said Margaret Keene, Executive Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi LA.” We wanted to talk to them in a way that was relevant and honest.”
Considering the average age of a new car buyer is 43, the most interesting fact about this “revolutionary” campaign is how long it came for someone to come up with that concept.
Drew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.
Related Stories
More Related Stories
-
First look: A Chinese art-house director goes for blood
-
Pollution as ancient Chinese art
-
Chimp's blurry pictures to fetch six figures at auction
-
Alex Gibney: Julian Assange has become like "those he despises"
-
Can playing Dots on your iPhone make you smarter?
-
Must do's: What we like this week
-
First look: An Iranian director takes on Western morality
-
JJ Grey: I can't watch the news!
-
Stop comparing everything to "Girls"!
-
Beyoncé reportedly pregnant with second baby
-
Krist Novoselic: My plan to fix Congress, curb obstruction
-
Amy Poehler: I have no idea what makes a great comedy
-
Justin Bieber has less than 12 hours to save his monkey
-
Benedict Cumberbatch: I would marry Spock
-
First look: Sofia Coppola's chilly, brilliant "Bling Ring"
-
Must-see morning clip: George Packer on the decline of American institutions
-
"Parks and Recreation" star Jim O'Heir shops at A&F
-
"The Office's" sugar-coated finale
-
Noah Baumbach: "Frances Ha" is my reinvention
-
"Iron Man 3" approaches $1 billion in global box office
-
Jason Bateman and Will Arnett man the Bluth Banana Stand
Featured Slide Shows
The week in 10 pics
close X- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
Credit: AP/LM Otero -
Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
Credit: AP/Matt Rourke -
A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher -
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
Credit: AP/Molly Riley -
Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite -
Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster -
O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid -
Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield -
When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin -
A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin -
Recent Slide Shows
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Mobile Entertainment: 9 Amazing Drive-In Movie Theaters Still Standing
-
The week in 10 pics
-
- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Mobile Entertainment: 9 Amazing Drive-In Movie Theaters Still Standing
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Netflix's April Fools' Day categories
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Slideshow: Nerd Obama
Related Videos
Most Read
-
Revenge, ego and the corruption of Wikipedia
Andrew Leonard
-
Obstruction will ruin GOP
Jonathan Bernstein
-
Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class
Scott Timberg
-
Is Reddit censoring openly racist users?
Fidel Martinez, The Daily Dot
-
My "truly remarkable" cancer breakthrough
Mary Elizabeth Williams
-
The man behind Abercrombie & Fitch
Benoit Denizet-Lewis
-
When the IRS targeted liberals
Alex Seitz-Wald
-
Krist Novoselic: My plan to fix Congress, curb obstruction
Krist Novoselic
-
We're living in an Ayn Rand economy
Paul Buchheit, AlterNet
-
Cannes: The 10 hottest movies
Andrew O'Hehir
Popular on Reddit
links from salon.com

39 points40 points41 points | 3 comments


Comments
23 Comments