A Shift From Luxury To Fun

Have you noticed that recently the luxury car companies are focusing a lot more on fun than luxury?

As a former advertising executive (it actually feels like another lifetime!) I pay attention to advertising. And I've noticed a shift in the television commercials for several luxury car brands, namely Lexus and Mercedes.

While they used to sell their cars as status symbols, and luxury indulgences, as something to aspire to, they aren’t focusing on that so much these days. Rather, their TV commercials focus on how fun these cars are to drive.
I've actually noticed this shift among other non-luxury brands, too.

But it's the luxury brands that prompted me to wonder why the shift in messaging? Is it a reflection of our times? Are we starting to realize that life is about enjoyment, having fun, and not just looking good and accumulating stuff?

Could it be the car companies are appealing to this sense of "live in the now" attitude many people seem to have adopted after the rough financial ride our world has been through the past few years?

No way to know for sure without seeing what's called the "creative brief" in the advertising world - the document that guides the strategic messaging and creative direction of the advertising.

But just by watching, one can't help but notice there has been a shift.

Pay attention to the TV commercials for these luxury brands. They feature drivers racing, skidding sideways, and doing 360's. Not what most of us do in our cars, but hey, it does look exciting and fun. Perhaps even egging us on to live a little... and not take ourselves so seriously.
Although each ad also features the obligatory mouse type on the bottom of the screen warning "Professional driver.

Closed course," implying "kids, don't try this at home."
I just finished reading a book titled Spin Sisters by Myrna Blyth and in it she says often the media is so caught up in their own world (which is VERY different from their readers' world) that they're the last to catch up to what's really going on. Perhaps the luxury car brands are waking up to the fact that we've discovered status and looking good isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Perhaps they're now realizing what many of us are now realizing, too... that in life it's better to BE happy than to just LOOK happy.