Category Archives: Advertising / Commercials

More Unsolicited Cadillac Commercials: “The Valet”

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This is the second in my continuing series of unsolicited commercial ideas for new Cadillac commercials.  This one is titled, “The Valet”:

[Setting:  Two young women, Yw1 and Yw2, each twenty-ish, are waiting with a number of people to retrieve Yw2’s car from a valet stand outside a posh restaurant.  A Blues Club is next door. Two men are talking near the curb to the side, Driver2, late 20s, an Entrepreneur, dressed in a suit, and Musician1, a musician.  WifeofDriver2, late-20s,  is standing just behind Yw1 and Yw2, chatting with another couple. The Valet staff includes HeadValet, at a Valet stand, and Valet1, Valet2, Valet3.   Driver1 is a Mid-30s successful business woman and Mother.]

[As commercial opens, focus on Yw1 and Yw2.]

Yw1:  “I mean, my Mom drove a Cadillac, and loved it, but my Grandfather drove a Cadillac for goodness sake!  I want a luxury car for OUR generation.”

[Driver1 pulls up to the Valet parking in 2010 SRX.  Valet1 runs over and opens the driver door while Driver1 exits the SRX.  Valet 2 and Valet3 stop and turn to look at the car and at Driver1]

Driver1: “Thank you”

[Driver1 hands the keys of the SRX to Valet1]

Valet1:  “Sweet car.  Is this the new SRX with the 2.8L Turbo V6?  On  the new custom Cadillac platform?”

Driver1: [smiles]  “Yes, I decided to treat myself.”

Valet1:  “Good choice!” as he jumps into the SRX and carefully pulls away

Headvalet nods to Driver1 as she enters the restaurant.

[Valet1 drives SRX to park; Valet2 still standing to watch the SRX go by.  Quick focus on Valet2 who looks down at the key he is holding, a BMW key, and waits to watch the SRX go by to be parked; then on Valet3 as he realizes he is holding a Cadillac key and runs off to retrieve it from the parked cars]

[cut; time gap as car pulls over][Valet3 pulls up in a 2010 Cadillac CTS-V.  ]

Driver2 shakes hands with Musician1, and walks over toward the people waiting for the Valets to retrieve their cars.  Valet3 is out of the CTS-V, and is now holding the door open on the passenger side.   Yw1 and Yw2 are both staring, mesmerized at Driver2.

Headvalet to Driver2:  “Sir, your Cadillac…”

Driver2 –holding his hand out toward the people waiting for their cars — says “Darling, are you ready?”

Yw1 and Yw2, each mistakenly believing Driver2 is talking to them, both reply “Yes.”

WifeofDriver2, stepping past Yw1 and Yw2,  smiles at them then laughs with Driver2 as she gives him a quick peck on the cheek, then climbs into the CTS-V.  Driver2 shrugs at Yw1 and Yw2, then walks around and enters the CTS-V also.

[cue music, roll titles; Welcome to the Next Generation of Innovation — Cadillac]

Who is Kate Walsh appealing to in her Cadillac CTS?

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Ms. AdverThinker has an interesting opinion piece on the targeting and impact of the Kate Walsh Cadillac CTS commercial.  The blog is a speculation on Cadillac’s targeting of the female demographic, and the writer’s feelings or response to the commercial.

The commercials are playing again, and again, I asked a friend: is it weird that I really like these commercials?  This sparked an interesting conversation about who Cadillac is really targeting.  I assume that it is single, successful females-without young children-who connect with the the Addison Montgomery character of Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice.

I was surprised to consider that Cadillac was targeting a female demographic at all in this piece.  I consider a very attractive woman driving a Cadillac in a competitive manner appealing to a male demographic.  Perhaps because I consider the commercial from my point of view of course, and not as a targeted advertisement.

“In today’s luxury game, the question isn’t whether or not your car has available features like a 40-gig hard drive. It isn’t about sun roofs or Sapelli wood accents, popup nav screens or any of that. No, the real question is: When you turn your car on, does it return the favor?”

Advertising Age in their write up in 2007 echoed the idea that most people who DON’T drive a current Cadillac may be under the mistaken impression that Cadillac makes floaty land yachts and not high performance luxury sedans.  Their take on the response women might have from Kate Walsh’s performance in the commercial:

And so will women, who are sure to see this brazen foxiness as empowering — and maybe more than that.

I am glad to see Cadillac is still running this commercial a year later, which is a very long life for a commercial. Hopefully the success of this example will lead to other similar commercials that communicate features of modern Cadillacs well.

Cadillac Commercial Confusion — Escalade Hybrid gets 20mpg city, 21 mpg highway!

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The good news is there are a LOT of tweets lately on the social media site Twitter.com about the new Cadillac Escalade Hybrid. The bad news is that a lot of the audience is getting the message wrong. The base Cadillac Escalade is a full size SUV and gets 12 mpg city and 19 mpg highway as found on the Cadillac website

The Escalade Hybrid does much better, at 20 mpg city and 21 mpg highway.

So what are people saying after watching the commercial?

Cadillac Escalade hybrid – 12MPG Highway, 19MPG city. Scares me to think of the mileage it got PRE-hybrid

so an escalade hybrid would get 12 miles per gallon?

Reading the fine print of car commercials is painful to me. Example, the Escalade hybrid: 12 city/19 highway. Terrible, even for a hybrid

Cadillac’s ad agency needs to fix this quickly.  You only get one chance to make a first impression.  Apparently the commercial says the Escalade Hybrid gets 50% better city mpg than the non-Hybrid Escalade.  The small print (thank you Lawyers!?) shows that this is relative to the non-Hybrid Escalade’s 13 mpg.  People are reading the small print to mean that the Hybrid gets 13 mpg which is wrong.  The Escalade Hybrid gets 20 mpg City.  Woops.