With an ad from its "Mature-ish" campaign in Canada for the new
The ad, "I'm Tired," is meant to remind Canadians that the latest version of Cruze provides features such as lane-departure warning that can make driving safer today, not only in the foggy future of completely self-driven vehicles. But the brand may have gone too far in illustrating this benefit because the ad's protagonist is too tired to drive.
In the spot, a millennial arrives at a friend's home who's supposed to be ready for a night of entertainment. The guy begs off on the grounds he's too sleepy to go out. But before giving up, his pal urges him to come out to the car for a word—the car being the all-new Chevy Cruze.
Once the reluctant partier is ensconced in the front passenger seat, the driver activates a feature on the dash by pushing a button. "It's called lane departure warning," he informs his groggy buddy. "It beeps if you start to drift into the wrong lane."
The feature convinces the still-sleepy friend to change his mind and come along for the evening in a tech-enabled friendly intervention. The ad closes by calling Cruze, "The car for the mature-ish."
Does the ad implicitly condone someone driving when they're not quite right, either sleepy or drunk but willing to depend on features such as lane departure warning to keep them out of trouble—and to keep other drivers and passengers on the road safe from their poor judgment?
Some viewers see it that way. "It's the most godawful example of depraved indifference to public safety I've seen in a corporate ad," wrote one to Brandchannel. "How is this on the air? It's explicit that they don't expect to be driving well at the end of the night's adventure, and that specifically, is what convinces our hero to go: 'Hey, we probably won't die tonight; otherwise I'd stay home.'"
But Chevrolet vigorously differed with such interpretation of the commercial and, of course, denied any intention to encourage irresponsible driving.
"Chevrolet Canada's ongoing 'Mature-ish' campaign is intended to position the Chevrolet Cruze as an 'intervention tool' for individuals who have become too mature for their age and need to get their 'ish' back," the company told me.
"This particular piece of creative focuses on an individual that has made plans to go out with his friends but who, when his friends arrive in the Chevrolet Cruze to pick him up, makes an excuse that he is too tired to join them.
"His friends use the Chevrolet Cruze as an 'intervention tool,' with the lane departure warning used as a metaphor for the individual's life drifting out of a 'fun' or 'mature-ish' lane into a 'mature' lane. The intervention is meant to help the individual get his 'ish' back, so that he is no longer 'mature' but is 'mature-ish.'
"There is nothing in the advertisement that can reasonably be interpreted as encouraging unsafe or dangerous practices or acts. There is no suggestion that the driver of the vehicle is tired. The individual does not, at any point, state that he is planning to stay home because he is too tired to drive. In fact, there is no suggestion that the individual will be driving at all.
"The individual, who claims to be too tired to join his friends, is shown in the passenger seat at all times. The advertisement never suggests or implies that the Lane Departure Warning is a substitute for safe and careful driving.”
Interestingly, "I'm Tired" also stands out because it stands apart from other ads in the campaign that explore the "Mature-ish" positioning in quite a different way. A series of "Mature-ish Interventions" spots shows the protagonists not interacting with new technology in the car but, instead, sitting in the vehicle with some sort of psychotherapist who tries to help them address personal quirks such as an attachment to an attache case that is inappropriate for the modern era of work, a weird fixation by a young man on a life-insurance policy, and a (couple's) penchant for wearing matching outfits.
