You know what’s sort of strange and inconsistent? I mean, other than my behavior at social gatherings? The way some cars are portrayed in commercials. Not all cars, of course, but some cars. And not ones that are the focus of the commercial itself, just the background cars, at best the supporting characters. But still, significant cars. Cars that are, let’s say, very recognizable.
Sometimes in commercials, these cars just exist, unmolested. And sometimes they get changed, often in strange ways that make us feel unsettled. Remember that CGI’d Mustang from some ad about a drug that gets injected into your eye from last year? That was a good example of this.
Here, just in case you forgot what I mean, you can see the tweaked Mustang:
These always make me feel funny in the kishkas. It’s just wrong, and in this age of AI horseshittery, the connotations of reality that isn’t quite right just feel more, well, loaded. Anyway, see if you can spot the similar (if more subtle) example in this commercial for the freshly-redesigned Volkswagen Tiguan:
First, it does seem like this ad is targeted at the dog community, which is an unusual choice for VW, considering that traditionally, dogs tend to be broke and/or have pretty poor credit scores. But, more importantly, did you catch the weirdly CG-modified car?
I mean, I’m pretty sure you did, since it’s in the picture at the top of this article. The car is clearly a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow convertible, but the distinctive Rolls-Royce Pantheon grille has been modified:
The most obvious change is the vertical slats of the grille, designed to mimic the Pantheon in Rome, which is, of course, where the iconic Rolls-Royce Grille gets its name:
Oh yeah, I can see that. Of course, I think a lot of radiator grilles from the early 1900s ended up with a generally similar sort of look, but Rolls definitely leaned into this classical-inspired design with its roots from the year 126.
Of course, in the Rolls-Royce application, there’s no Corinthian capitals on the columns and there’s that iconic Spirit of Ecstasy at the apex there, but I think we get the idea.
That grille is an iconic symbol of Rolls-Royce, and as such it’s understandable why they protect its use. Jeep does the same with their seven-slot grille. Grilles are a big deal. But it seems like the portrayal of these iconic designs wasn’t always so… precious, or protected. For example, check out what is arguably the best-known of commercials that feature Rolls-Royces, the famous Grey Poupon mustard ad from 1981:
This commercial became a cultural touchstone, and made the carrying of condiments in your car pretty much a requirement of any vehicle with luxury pretensions. Who among us doesn’t keep a full array of mustards, mayos, ketchups, salsas, and ranches ready to go in our glove boxes now, all thanks to this ad?
You’ll note that the Rolls-Royces shown in the commercial – I think they were mid-’60s Silver Clouds – display their proportionally-taller Pantheon grilles unmolested and proud. No one was trying to change or hide them back then.
Same goes for this follow-up commercial, which shows the mustard-enjoyers in a less flattering light, more selfish and disinclined to share:
What a jackass. Share your mustard, asshole! That’s the code of the road!
Now, by 2013, when Grey Poupon decided to revisit this old ad campaign and have some fun with it, the world seems to have changed. Look at the grilles on the Rollers in this ad:
See what they did? Clumisly? Look at these grilles, with their horizontal slats and what looks like strips of flashing down their middles:
Wow. It’s not even just the grilles that have been changed, the quad headlamp setup had been reduced to just two headlamps, the turn indicator lenses have been changed, as have the taillights, as seen in other shots. Interestingly, all these changes seem to be real, physical changes to the cars, not CGI.
Is this just the result of the world growing more litigious? If there was a specific legal precedent that had been changed, I haven’t been able to find it, so I’m thinking it’s just excess caution. And yet in movies and television and other entertainment that are not strictly advertising, these sorts of disguising efforts are far less common; why is it okay to show a car as it is in an episode of, say, Law and Order: Elevator Inspectors Unit but not in a condiment commercial?
I should reach out to a real lawyer about this. I’m curious!
“Who among us doesn’t keep a full array of mustards, mayos, ketchups, salsas, and ranches ready to go in our glove boxes now, all thanks to this ad?”
I do but in packet form,scattered about the floor rather than stored neatly in the glovebox.
Its just Volkswagen’s way of having fun, since they are the most fun German brand. Which you can tell by them playing Jump Around over B-roll of mundane crossovers driving sedately on normal streets
Not since Ford’s foolish comparison of its Granada to Mercedes has a company self-inflicted Faberge egg to the face.
Under BMW ownership, Rolls-Royce seems to have all but ceased licensing, which probably also means they’d go after “unauthorized” use of their vehicles, designs, etc., so I imagine that has a lot to do with why the newer Grey Poupon ad and the VW ad are being so careful.
One of my main hobbies is designing and 3D printing my own 1:64-scale cars. I do most of my printing through Shapeways; up until a couple of years ago, Shapeways also had a “marketplace” where you could sell prints of your designs, and I had a shop there to sell my cars. I had a wide variety available, from lots of different marques. The only time I ever got in trouble was when I tried to upload a BMW. Shapeways had apparently already heard from their lawyers and automatically red-flagged anything BMW to prevent it from going into the marketplace. I never tried, but I imagine it would have been the same if I’d tried to sell a Rolls or Mini model. Of all the stupid things to be uncool about.
Interesting. That reminds me of music publishers going after any kind of analysis, reaction, or discussion about their records. Why would you want to prevent people from talking about or interacting with your stuff like that?
The funny thing is VW owns Bentley. Just swap out the car and avoid the lawsuit from BMW.
I came to the comments to say the same thing – nothing wrong with a little freebie advertising for another brand in the stable.
“In the criminal justice system, building code infractions are considered especially heinous. In New York City, when violations go down and the law needs a lift, the dedicated men and women of the Elevator Inspectors Unit answer the alarm and hold open the doors of justice. These are their stories.”
COTD
Lot’s of TV shows modify the grills now. It started out just masking the manufacturer logo with black tape, I can only assume because the manufacturer didn’t kick in some money for promotional placement.
Bones – Booth drives a Tahoe, but then they sign a deal to promote Toyota so Booth gets a Toyota Sequoia and Bones gets a Prius over her Mercedes SLK. Later when the Toyota deal ends, Booth gets his Tahoe back, but with some ugly aftermarket grill.
FBI – Two of the Tahoe’s in this show have a weird ugly custom black mesh that’s replaced the front end. Funny thing is sometimes there are unmodified ones in the background.
RIP Beto O Kitty
The horizontal-slat grille just turned that from a millionaire’s car into a billet-grilled custom pickup from the ’80s or ’90s. “Take your car’s image from 6-figures to 4 with this one trick!”
The British can’t help but appropriate Greek stuff made out of marble, right?
The Brits also appropriated the architecture of Palladian Villas from the Veneto for their townhouses and country estates — which were spectacularly ill-suited to the English climate.