Why has BMW made a Honda ad?

Bizarre. Oh, and I know I'm just a lone voice in the wilderness, but that end line? That should of course be 'Fewer emissions'. Tut.

Enough already!

Having just bemoaned the lack of originality in TV ads, it was with a sinking heart that I came across the latest VW ad (via Scamp).



They're not making something physical this time, but is it necessary to point out the tonal similarities to all those other ads? That slightly kooky, hey-isn't-this-just the-greatest-world-we-live-in? kind of goofy/cleverness that infects all those cake cars and streamer rainbows? And of course there's the obvious similarity to Honda's Choir ad (splendidly spoofed here), as Scamp points out too.

Could we have something else now, please?

A virulent infection in adland?

The latest VW and Audi ads seem to be evidence of a virus infecting the advertising world. The disease leads agencies and their clients to believe that they must make ads with lots of people busily building something related to their brand, in some suitably inventive way. Except they're all looking distinctly uninventive now.

The latest from VW:


The latest from Audi:


From Honda:


From Guinness:


From Orange (complete with hideously patronising oh-so-friendly Scots voiceover):


From Skoda:


I suppose it all started with Cog:


But why must a wheel, once invented (or at least ripped off), be reinvented so many times, for so many different brands? How lazy can you be?

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Update (3/4/08): I've just seen Johnson Banks' post on the same subject. Great minds, and all that - I promise I wasn't copying.