Sunday, January 20, 2008

An idea just a little before its time



DFI (dumbfuck idea) of the month award has to be given to Ford Canada in which some smartass advertising sorts thought it would be kinda cute, and maybe appealing to younger drivers if they offered the slogan, pertaining to its vehicles, ‘Drive it like you stole it!’

Isn’t that clever? You know, attract the harebrained and felonious young drivers to your product. Or, at least, the junior criminal wannabes.

What does drive it like you stole it actually mean? What did the Ford jerks think it meant? Did they think it meant that their product was so cool that a young dude would feel it verged on something one of his homies might be driving through city streets at astonishing speeds and maybe wiping out a young mom and her kids that she has just picked up from soccer practice? That is because real car thieves are known to scoff at traffic lights and the other niceties of responsible driving.

Car theft, especially by the young, is a huge problem in Canada. And car theft, via draconian Canadian jurisprudence is often punished with penalties that range from, oh, getting a darn good talking to, to perhaps something as severe as ‘conditional sentencing.’ This means staying at home of an evening playing with your probably stolen Gameboy while your buds are out lifting other people’s cars. Maybe even Fords, but probably not, since Beemers are a little more enticing.

Anyway, just when you thought society was populated by thoughtful and responsible corporate minds, I felt we needed to be set straight.

By the way, Ford decided to nix the campaign after innumerable complaints over its tastelessness and irresponsibility. Complaints especially from those ‘whiners’ who had actually lost family members due to the terrifying driving behaviors of car thieves.

Do you think the failure of the campaign will be reflected in this year’s Christmas bonuses for Ford ad execs? No, neither do I.

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19 Comments:

Blogger Casdok said...

They certainly do deserve the DFI award.
Advertisers just dont think sometimes. Glad to hear it was pulled.

7:49 AM  
Blogger Tina said...

Wow, total DFI! It's amazing to know that a bunch of "executives" sit around a conference room and say, "Hey, wow, what a great advertising concept! We'll be selling (insert product here) like crazy!"

It boggles the mind...it really does.

8:43 AM  
Blogger Dumdad said...

It beggars belief and yet time and time again these high-flying execs come up with really dumb ideas. Remember the guy at Coca Cola who decided to change the flavour? Lost zillions and they had to revert back to the original. If it ain't broke you can be certain some execs will try to fix it and get a big bonus as well for their pains.

9:37 AM  
Blogger laughingwolf said...

anyone still wonder why ford is on its last legs?

12:27 PM  
Blogger meggie said...

DFI of the first order!
Glad it got enough complaints to be pulled.

3:23 PM  
Blogger Leslie Hawes said...

A young male relative of mine drives go-karts. "Drive it like you stole it" has long been a T-shirt slogan worn to give encouragement to kart drivers to drive quickly, and win the race.
I have a feeling that the "stealing" going on is from the back of a go-karter's T-shirt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kart_racing
What a wrong-headed concept to use for an automobile.

3:27 PM  
Blogger CS said...

That is a remarkably foolhardy ad campaign. Maybe there's a class action lawsuit in Ford's future.

5:40 PM  
Blogger Big Brother said...

They truly deserve that prize, you wonder at how they get paid the big bucks to be so stupid. But in a way it also says a lot about our society when people can think that something like that will sell cars... ironically it probably would sell them.

5:51 PM  
Blogger Wendy C. said...

That is just nuts! I bet someone was paid a pretty penny to come up with that marketing campaign...

BTW to Dumdad- I heard somewhere that the New Coke campaign was really just a well planned distraction so that folks would not notice that they changed their recipe to include corn sweetener instead of suger to save money. They never changed back, except in Mexico, where coke still contains suger...

6:41 PM  
Blogger Tai said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

10:05 PM  
Blogger Tai said...

Oh you've GOT to be kidding me!!

I've had a car stolen so many times, and believe me, they drove it into the ground. (and might I add...ICBC didn't acknowledge the thought that criminals might drive a car so hard that they burn out the clutch? Story for coffee time!)

What a "DFI". I hope their production grinds to a halt. I hope ALL their cars get stolen.
Damn, that's Eff'd-UP.

10:05 PM

10:06 PM  
Blogger Jazz said...

I always wonder, when I look at advertising, exactly why these stupid commercials actually get air time.

You have your ad exec who comes up with an utterly stupid idea. Why do the corporations pay for them? I mean, c'mon they must see how stupid ads are. If I were paying good money for advertisement and someone tried to sell me that concept, I'd just tell them to get their asses back to their drawing boards.

7:00 AM  
Blogger Ellee Seymour said...

I've never heard anything so stupid, and to think an agency was probably paid a fortune to come up with this idea in the first place.

7:52 AM  
Blogger Echomouse said...

Wasn't that something? Ford. I can't stand that company.

Good news is, Ford is going down. They should have been out of business long ago anyway.

Maybe this stupidity will make their vehicles targets of thieves instead of the better vehicles....nah, thieves are that stupid to steal a Ford. Unfortunately.

8:01 AM  
Blogger Echomouse said...

ugh...should read "thieves are NOT that stupid to steal a Ford"

I need more coffee.

8:02 AM  
Blogger kimber said...

Sweet mother of pearl, did no one in their marketing department question the morality of the campaign? No one?

8:21 AM  
Blogger Vic said...

I am sure the genius who thought of the campaign, and the management who approved it, will suffer in the same way that the bankers did who lost a few billion here and there doing things their kindergarden kids could have told them were not wise moves. Society seems to lack the concept of personal consequences.

8:52 AM  
Blogger Dr. Deb said...

Dumbass indeed!!!

What are people thinking, really, when they come up with these slogans.

2:30 PM  
Blogger Cycling Goddess said...

Couldn't believe it the first time I saw it. Someone must have spiked the executives drinks for them to say yes to such a stupid campaign. I'm glad it's gone now. Talk about not putting yer thinking cap on.

9:08 AM  

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