3:05pm Wednesday 28th July 2010
By Christopher Gray
I do not wish to speak ill of a company that does so much to keep Oxford’s economy buoyant. But what possessed BMW to commission such a ghastly series of new newspaper and magazine advertisements for its cars? I am possibly the only one to find anything salacious in these. But I have found them salacious and, having done so, am unable to view them in any other way. I also consider them pretty damn awful. This could, of course, help to make them more memorable, and therefore more effective.
My problem is with the word ‘Joy’. For someone of my age — and, I would suggest, of the age of many elderly boy racers who might fancy themselves behind the wheel of a BMW — this is still thought of as a popular girls’ name. The car company’s advertising agency (possibly German?) appears to have overlooked this. How else to explain their unwitting creation of a character likely to raise eyebrows by her activities.
In the advertisement above, for instance, we are told, successively: 1 Joy makes the most of every drop.
2 Joy presses you back into your seat.
3 Joy is futureproof.
No. 3, of course, is meaningless. Another reason to dislike the ads.
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