I would’ve loved to have been a fly on the wall when this was discussed in marketing.
I want to share a lighter topic, a photo montage shared by Daimler back in December 2014 to promote the Smart Fortwo Brabus. That’s right, the high-performance tuner took a shot at the all-electric version of Daimler’s two-seater microcar. For some reason, marketing thought the best way to promote the vehicle was parking it inside a mall in Berlin featuring a model dressed as Santa Claus and a woman dressed as an angel.
Watch the Porsche Taycan set an EV track record on the Nurburgring here.
In a way I can see what they were aiming for. The marketing copy accompanying the photos talks about how impossible it is to find a parking spot in Berlin, something anyone who lives in a dense urban area can certainly identify with.
But then you see the Santa guy and his angel girlfriend (wife?) plug the electric car into one of the kiosks in the mall, because that’s totally normal. I guess you’re not supposed to think about how they got the Fortwo in there or why nobody stopped them because that ruins the fun.
You’re also not supposed to wonder why the female model isn’t dressed like Mrs. Claus. Or why the male model doesn’t wear a more traditional white beard, instead sporting his rather dark and un-Santa scruff.
Instead, this campaign was supposed to make the Fortwo EV look glamorous, a thing of luxury and convenience. It’s all ironic considering the little Smarts have no cargo area for carrying all those presents. So this whole thing makes about as much sense as a perfume ad, and maybe that’s the point.
