Just saw a new RL commercial during the PGA Tour Honda Classic coverage today. It featured Davis Love III driving the RL and showed both the interior and exterior of the car. There were no other models in the ad. One problem: THEY NEVER MENTIONED THE NAME OF THE CAR! At the end he gets out of the car and tosses the fob to someone offscreen with a voiceover talking about technology as the screen fades to Acura Advance. Contrast that with the TL ad a few minutes later that specifically lists features and makes a point of mentioning the model name a couple of times. The RL ad a was a good one but what the hell is going on when you don't even mention the name of the model?

 

I think the marketing decision makers are just as stupid as the people they think an ad like that attracts.

My guess would be they use the RL features to impress upon consumers that this is the technology Acura offers, and perhaps, without qualifing, consumers would assume all this technology appears in all Acuras (we know better).

I can almost see some sleazy marketing guy dressed finer than his scruples would attest saying 'Yeah, let's bait 'em to come in the door thinking all models offer the toys. And if they balk at the RL, we can easily sell them on a TSX, TL or one of our SUVs. The have almost the same features...."

In fact, they simply lost another opportunity to define the RL in the market.

 

I totally agree with this. This is something that would result in a firing on "The Apprentice".

Mr Trump: How could you NOT mention the name of the product in your own ad? How the hell are people supposed to know what you're selling?

Project Manager: Well, we thought the features would sell themselves so well that we only mentioned the brand name and not the product.

Mr. Trump: Boneheaded move. We don't even need a boardroom. You're fired!

 

This is highly reminiscent of the Infiniti Q45 ads of the early '90s where they showed rocks, trees, and gardens but never the car. What gives?

 

I forgot to mention the marketing genius likely has a bad comeover too!

 

I can see it now in the Acura marketing boardroom....

Marketing Exec dumbass with bad comeover: "Hey, let's copy those ads Infinity did for the Q ship! They were brilliant. Consumer like trees& rocks! Musta been a huge success?....

Mid leve Manager leans over and whispers in his ear: " Well not really, the Q ship died a painful death and is extinct. But the sales of trees and rocks has skyrocketed".

Marketing Exec dumbass with bad comeover: "Let's GO with it!"

 

But it wasn't like those ads at all - it was very similar to the other Advance ads showing the car driving around. The Infintit ads barely showed the car if at all. This was a very straightforward RL ad - without mentioning it was an RL.