Well, car-commercials seem to be like the most clichee stuff there is, BUT since I'm looking up commercials for Mercedes I think it pretty much changed over the last decade or so. A lot of them are not dealing with technical stuff at all, they're even funny most of the time, especially astonishing with a "noble" brand like Mercedes but they do use a lot of irony. There is often a kind of "upper class" environment, but for the rest its not always 'that' difficult, not all of the commercials are made of high-class beautiful-car shots. I mean the shots are beautiful, it's not the kind of quality you make just like that, but it's also not totally out of reach.
Most of the commercials seem to be 30 seconds long, a little less are 45 seconds, only a few are 1 minute long and so far I found only one that is 2 minutes. Maybe the longer ones are for special broadcasts.
What struk me most about the commercials is that they all have a different approach to convey the key-message. I will make some notes about some of them here...
Slogan: "Presafe - Insassenschutz"
Starts with the picture of two Guardian Angels, camera zooms in on them until we're with them on their cloud, they talk. One tells that his job is to guard a Mercedes Driver and the other responds "You're a lazy ass!".
The spot-idea for the slogan evolves from a change of perspective. How could you transport the "Presafe"-benefit from a different angle, from a person or thing involved with the customer of the product. It takes the "safety"-slogan literally and exagerates it into absurdity by using fairytale like setting.
Slogan: "Ein neues Bild vom Diesel"
A man wants to enter his Mercedes. His kid sees it and asks: "May I drive?" "No, your're too young". Ten years later the father again approaches his Mercedes, this time a newer model, and the boy, now a punkish teen, asks again. Another ten years later the father is once again approaching a new model and this one looks really hot. The boy, now a young man in a suit comes out of the house. The father asks: "May I drive?" The boy answers: "No, you're too old."
This idea evolves from making from the slogan an old-versus-new story represented in an everyday-life-situation. It's something we all know from ourselves or from our friends and that makes it easy to connect to the idea. It is a repeating situation with a 180° turn at the end. A common pattern for a micro-narrative: establish a situation to create an expectation and then give it a twist.
Slogan: "Die Welt des 200D"
This one I added just for fun. It's a very old one from around the sixties. But it has quiet common features already: detail shots, fast editing. It's mixed with an Off-narrator, plainly explainig the advantages and modern style of the car, which makes it like a news show. It's not the style you would use anymore, except maybe for a nice parody-type-spot, but still fun to watch.
Slogan: "bester deutscher Hersteller in 30 Jahren Pannenstatistik"
On the street a man is stopped and interviewed. You see he is wearing a workersuit. He is questioned: "What german cars do you know?". He is counting up several german car brands. Then he stops and looks as if he is thinking hard. The interviewer asks "And mercedes?" He answers: "Ah, mercedes. Yeah they're there too." Then he walks off to his car and you see its a yellow car with big letters "ADAC" which is a german ermergency support for cars. With that the viewer immediatly realizes why he forgot to count mercedes.
This one works with a comparison. But I think the starting point for the idea was a change of perspective: how do ohter people/things see the product/customer. Regarding the key-message of "a safe car" it's not too far to the spot idea. This setting brings up the possibility of direct comparison, but in a way that at first you don't realize whats the spot about. It's very nicely done because it hides the important "ADAC" fact at first and the message of the spot is twisted as soon as you see it.
Slogan: "Beauty is nothing without brains"
A beautiful blonde comes into a library and asks for burgers and fries. The woman behind the counter responds: "This is a library!" The blonde looks behind her, turns back to the desk and repeats her request but this time whispering.
This one is obiously not made for germany! It's simply a gag, but a nice one. How do you get there? I think the idea evolved from putting the key-message, which was probably that the new E-Class is an "intelligent car", in an aphorism. I don't know, but I guess the "beauty" in the slogan was not initially there but added for the slogan because i think it's a standart value for mercedes... but well, just a guess. Outgoing from the slogan it's not a very far step to blonde-gags. The gag itself works with absurdity. I'm wondering if maybe a gag like that was out there already before the spot was created...
Conclusion:
This is just a small exerpt of a load of Mercedes spots you can find on YouTube. But it shows already that there are a lot of spots that show the car only at the end or not at all like in the "guardian angels" and the "ADAC" spot. It also shows there are commercials with pretty complex shots, while others are not that difficult to shoot but have a nice or funny idea to it. Since I'm not able to spend loads of money, I will go for a nice idea, a "micro-narrative-story"-spot. Still have to think more about the approaches to making commercials from key-messages...
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