Apr
3
2004

wtf?

Warren Ellis just blogged a British car commercial (MPEG) that's just so wrong that I had to watch it a couple times just to make sure I saw what I thought I saw. The ad is apparently for the Ford Sportka, a sporty version of its Ka model. The Web site listed in the commercial, www.the-eviltwin.co.uk, currently is inactive and, weirdly, redirects to my localhost.

After seeing this ad, Rob pointed out another wrong (but in a different way) advertisement for Nutrigrain.

I would think that these are clearly ads that will never publicly see the light of day, yet regardless were greenlighted for production. Nonetheless, it's entertaining, if sometimes disturbing, to see the fruits of creative agencies' discarded labor.

Posted at 3:54 PM in culture, oddities, television

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8 Comments

An on-the-spot Warren Ellis reader looked into the Sportka and its apparently abandoned marketing strategy a little more ... and found another ad (MPEG), featuring a pigeon.

By alykat | April 3, 2004 4:57 PM | Reply

Marketing VOX, a blog about online marketing, mentioned the "Evil Twin" ad campaign back on Sept. 3, 2003.

Ford's Evil Twin
In a viral spoof modeled after the movie, The Mothman Prophecies, Ford U.K. has launched a campaign called 'Evil Twin' to promote its new SportKa. In the spoof, the car, apparently tinged with evil, has been sighted playing evil tricks on innocent victims such as whacking a bird with its hood as the bird attempted to land.

An entire website, modeled after a movie site, has been put up including a back story revealing that police have spoken with Ford "in an effort to understand how such a successful, popular car could be so deranged." On the site are downloads including screen savers, wallpaper and posters. Users are led to the site either from the Ford website or from a viral video.

By alykat | April 3, 2004 5:05 PM | Reply

I didn't get to see the commercial you mentioned, but I've been a huge fan of the nutri-grain commercial for weeks. I love those woman's eyes! She looks like Sigourney Weaver as ZEOUL in Ghostbusters :). "YEAAAAAH, BABIES EVERYWHERE!!!!" :o)

By The Girl | April 4, 2004 3:08 PM | Reply

I found another copy of the Sportka cat ad, as the original no longer appears to work. And don't forget to check out the less gruesome Sportka pigeon ad.

Britain's Financial Times reported on the ad campaign just last week. Not surprisingly, it's caused a bit of controversy for the carmaker in the UK. According to the story, Ford spokepeople are saying that it never greenlit the cat ad to be produced, as they had chosen to go with the pigeon ad instead. ("Headless-cat ad backfires on Ford" - 04/02/04)

By alykat | April 4, 2004 10:25 PM | Reply

The London Telegraph ran a more detailed story about the ad backlash. ("Decapitated cat video backfires on Ford" - 04/04/04)

By alykat | April 9, 2004 9:26 PM | Reply

The Washington Post picked up the story on Friday. ("Ad Let Out of the Bag" - 04/16/04)

"It's kind of a win-win-win situation," said Lucian James, a pop culture expert and founder of the Agenda marketing agency in San Francisco. The video is reaching the Sportka's target market even though Ford disavows responsibility, he said.

"It's all very kind of illicit. The ad is not supposed to be released and not seen, however it is seen and it's creating buzz."

By alykat | April 18, 2004 7:40 PM | Reply

Just spied the video myself and am wondering if it would be in bad taste to wish a life-threatening std on anyone involved in the creation of this vile promitional tactic?

By smeegle | August 30, 2004 2:28 AM | Reply

Get over it you sour, unthinking types. It's a spoof. No cat was decapitated. It's black humour, no more and no less. I guess you critics think Snow White's a lovely story for the kiddies too. Think about THAT for a moment. Don't be too precious, please. There's enough of that shit in the world as it is.

By Trent | November 5, 2005 10:31 AM | Reply

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