Is Acura Just a Dreamer?
One of Acura's new advertisements, which I am guessing is titled "Advance", features Supertramp's Dreamer as the soundtrack. The commercial starts out with a field becoming a wind farm, a server room's mainframes shrinking to a laptop, a toddler walking to an astronaut on the moon, and then onto Acura's latest achievements such as the RDX, SH-AWD (it looks really cool going through a slalom) and ending with a nod to GPS. Now does all this speeded up imagery sell cars? I love the song, but thinking of how lyrics such as "You stupid little dreamer" relate to a company and its products it is a bit of a stretch. Not that listening to lyrics has ever stopped marketing folks before, such as Mercedes using Janis Joplin's satire on materialism "Mercedes Benz" to sell Mercedes Benz cars or certain folks co-opting Bruce Springsteen songs, but that's not really where I am trying to take this...
It's true that Acura and Honda truly do lead with technological advances such as SH-AWD and highly fuel efficient engines, but their designs can be less than pulse quickening (I'm not saying they are ugly, just a little on the vanilla side). For example, the new RDX: I saw one in "carbon bronze pearl" with the "high performance chrome-look wheels" and it looked pretty good, but then I saw one in "alabaster silver metallic" with base wheels and it wasn't nearly as appealing, in fact I almost didn't notice it. So when faced with cars that may have plenty appeal "once you get to know them" it becomes a harder sell for a TV commercial: queue up a catchy tune and flashy images. Now Acura is attempting to ratchet up the voltage, but the MDX only sticks it's toe in the water with an "in your face" grille (that could easily be withdrawn) and leaves everything else pretty much the same. Where's the true passion? Where's styling that has a "Hell I'm going all the way, I just hope I don't catch anything" attitude (by the way, never do that personally). True that atitude can put an Aztek in your showroom, but it can also give you a 300C. We'll see what the next TSX has in store for us, a concept version will be shown at the LA Auto Show, perhaps it will be more loin stirring in nature.
In summary, I am a silly little dreamer who dreams that one day Acura's design will match its other areas of expertise. Until then, I might re-watch the commercial, but only because I want to hear the song.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
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1 comment:
It's a damn shame a legend rock group such as Supertramp have to lower themselves to the corporate level, especially in the case of the over priced under achiever Acura RDX! The sad part about Acura's new models is the fact that they are no longer being built in JAPAN! They are built right here in North America with parts from companies that win the lowest bid contract! These cheap knockoffs should sell for thousands less since it costs Acura a great deal less to manufacture them! Quality also suffers when the parts as a whole do not add up to Japanese standards! Honda is laughing all the way to the bank nowadays!
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