By: Rubber Republic, UK
The commercial for audi’s new estate car with ‘supercar’ features is a face-off between a pro runner and a racecar driver. Shot at an expansive port warehouse, it’s about a game in which the man and machine are given paint-filled eggs to hit each other with. The duel shows them chasing each other at breakneck speed, the man mostly having an edge as shown by graphics on screen that resemble that of a video game. Towards the end, the racecar driver lets loose a big egg which explodes near the runner, making the car win the round. The film ends with a sunset shot and both drivers shaking hands with the text ‘play again?’
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Voila, after a string of desi spots of varying common senses, we are back to writing about the goras — and this is as first world as it could get. One of the German ‘big 3’, Audi takes the mid-size luxury car segment seriously, and R6 Avant has been its recent claim to fame. So what does a firm with big budgets and a loyal admirer/customer base do, given that just its logo would do half the job? Well, among other things, this; make the car chase a pro runner.
To believe that the nearly fourminute film doesn’t feature celebrities would be a mistake, for at least one of the two action figures here, race car driver Ben Collins is a hero, for being associated with Top Gear and the Bond films. The dude he’s chasing is Damien Walters, a former gymnast and parkour specialist. Neat duel? You bet.
The setting is a big shipyard — after all the Audi needs to show off its screeches and slides. The game isn’t anything car ads haven’t tried before, but you still want to know how on earth will a man race a car and use paint-filled eggs. But it is the execution that doesn’t leave a moment to blink. It may look like just another indulgent, obscure car commercial but it has done the simple things right to push the brand, including the logo in the first frame and shots of Audi’s signature headlights and features such as acceleration and handling. The film has been treated like a Hollywood action sequence, complete with a title sequence. (BMW did it in 2001-2002 — they produced eight shorts for the Internet, directed by big names, and has hence set a new standard in automobile advertising).
This film has a comfortable amount of indoor and wide open shots to give the viewer a sense of energy. The action comes from the stunts and one finds one’s self rooting for the runner, until the driver out-smarts him. What starts off as a film winds up as a game, complete with 90s style game graphics saying ‘game over’ and ‘play again’, but nobody’s complaining. The game scores only lend more craziness to the idea. So what if by the end of it all the car is littered with paint? CC: makers of the Micromax paintball commercial.
To watch this film and others from Audi, visit Youtube.com/AudiChannel
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