BMW X3 Not An SUV

Commentary

BMW'S NEW AD CAMPAIGN FOR THE X3 IS CERTAINLY WELCOME

By Marty Bernstein, Marketing-Advertising Editor
The Auto Channel

Advertising for SUVs is almost dead. Well, at least comatose … and this is good for most television viewers. Let’s face it; the majority of SUV commercials are and were boring. Really boring.

According to reliable surveys, less than 10% of all SUV owners ever drive off-road. Yet for year’s television viewers have been subjected to commercials with scenes of big, four wheel drive vehicles crunching though a forest, cruising in an arid desert, fording a stream, slithering through rocks and boulders, crashing through mountains of snow and generally boring most viewers.

Gas guzzling did at least one good thing. It killed the sameness of SUV advertising. And now the new BMW ad campaign for the new X3 follows-through with spread ads headlined, “This is not an SUV,” and body copy that is conversational, appropriate and above all, candid and honest. And isn’t that welcome?

The layout is simple, almost stark in keeping with the new campaign’s design from GSD&M in Austin – a campaign some reviewers, including me have criticized -- but this hits the mark.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the TV looks like. Stay tuned.