How Volvo Lost The Plot. Depending on your sense of history, you might remember when Volvos were deemed “boxy but nice.” Maybe even farther back you recall the sleek P1. But no matter what era you’re from, you almost certainly equate Volvo with safety. And believe it or not, Volvo’s advertising hasn’t followed the plot in a long time, and through the disaster that was Ford’s ownership the brand is still trying to claw back to what it once was. Volvo’s advertising highs and lows are a direct window into how that happened.
In the late 1. 98. Acura, Lexus and Infiniti were just coming on the scene and Volvo was a small, standalone car company selling a lot of station wagons to families. Volvo’s advertising used great visuals that highlighted the strength of the car in crashes, as well performance- oriented messages that said things like, “until Ferrari makes a station wagon, this is it.” The company tagline was “A Car You Can Believe In.”At that time, Volvos were practical, and generally defined as a “need to have car.” In fact, if you were a new parent, a college professor or just saw yourself as responsible, when it came time to buy a new car, your DNA probably said, “I guess I HAVE to check out a Volvo.” In 1.
Unfortunately, all was for naught, as although Bendsneyder and his bike slid across the finish line, he was handed a DNF for the race for not being in contact with.
Volvo was selling 9. U. S. Its agency at that time, Scali Mc. Cabe Sloves, only had to worry about print, TV, and radio as there was no internet—or at least, not as we know it today. Volvo Starts The 1.
With A Crisis. As the saying goes, “shit happens.” Around 1. Scali attended a monster truck event and took note that a row of cars that were crushed included a Volvo sedan.
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Depending on your sense of history, you might remember when Volvos were deemed “boxy but nice.” Maybe even farther back you recall the sleek P1800. 1080P Hd Video Download The Shack (2017). But no matter. The Spade seems to hit on all those points: It’s easy to ride, it’s not going to scare the daylights out of you on city or back roads, and it’s a conversation.
What struck this person was that the Volvo was much less deformed than all the other cars. What a great idea for a Volvo ad, he decided.
Scali went to Volvo and sold them on the idea that the visual of the Volvo, uncrushed among all the crushed cars, would make a great TV and print ad to highlight Volvo’s vehicular strength. Volvo agreed. So Scali’s creatives went about staging a monster truck event that would be the centerpiece of a new ad. It is worthwhile noting that the commercial was staged at a real monster truck event, set up and filmed before the real event started, with the actual audience for the event in their seats. Agency creatives realized that the Volvo they had put in the line of cars for the ad would stand out MORE if it didn’t deform at all, while the other cars were flattened.
So, to achieve this dramatic effect, all the pillars of the cars to be run over were weakened, with the exception of the Volvo. It received a welded- in rollcage. All of this modification occurred in front of the audience, but one or more people in attendance were apparently disgruntled Volvo or Scali employees who took careful note of what they were seeing. Bear Foot, the famed monster truck, drove over everything perfectly. The results were obvious as the Volvo was still standing, almost untouched. So all the creatives went out that night on Volvo’s account, and had a pleasant expensed dinner and congratulated themselves on a job well done. Little did the agency realize that this commercial would become the basis of a shitstorm destined to become infamous.
Let me digress for a moment and tell you that while creatives everywhere who worked on ads dreamed up all kinds of supernatural fantasy things we could show a car doing, a client rarely approved it as they were afraid of liability. On the occasion it was approved, we knew to have a disclaimer saying something to the effect of “closed course, professional driver, do not try this yourself.” You see these in ads all the time. There were no exceptions to using that disclaimer because years before, Honda had shown an ATV going up the side of a barn in an ad and some idiot tried that, killing himself in the process.
His relatives sued Honda and I assumed they settled. The fate of the failure of the Scali and Volvo relationship was sealed when the “Monster Truck” ad was produced and published. The reason for that seems lost to history but its presence was lacking in both the TV and print ads.
So, the idea that it was just a mistake is highly improbable, and serves as a teaching moment for all creatives since. When the ads came out, “our” angry employees took note and filed a complaint with the Texas Attorney General, where the ad had been shot. That office started a case which resulted in Volvo having to a pay a substantial fine. As one might imagine, Volvo was blindsided and “A Car You Can Believe In” seemed less genuine, to say the least. Major news outlets picked up the story. The negative coverage had the momentum of a freight train, seemingly unstoppable. The result of this clusterfuck was predictable; the account went into review in 1.
Scali was not invited to defend it. A New Start. The winner was a young, upstart agency, whose name was tough to pronounce unless your dad happens to be some kind of Count: it was Messner Vetere Berger Carey Schmetterer.
British born agency creative Michael Lee led the effort. In looking at Swedish culture, newly renamed MVBMS discovered that people in Sweden routinely said “Drive Safely” to their loved ones as they were headed out the door in the morning.
A new tagline was born. Creative direction was finalized, support music developed and a strong voice- over actor was chosen to represent the brand: Donald Sutherland. This combination would serve Volvo for over 1. Between 1. 99. 1 and 2. U. S. The account was now worth $2.
During that decade, the campaign changed to “Volvo for Life” with a global message of “Revolvolution” when the convertible version of the C7. At the same time, Volvo Cars’ design language evolved from boxy to more rounded, and so did the public’s view of them. The public liked what they saw. They did not just need a Volvo, they now wanted a Volvo.
And, with the introduction of the C7. In industry- speak, Volvo had produced its first “desire to have” car. In that period, every car maker started to talk about safety and include messages about anti- lock brakes and safety cages, airbags and more. Euro RSCG and Volvo looked at abandoning safety as a message, but it was deemed integral to their DNA, so instead they doubled down. The ads started to show people living wonderful lives where they relied on the car to get them where they needed to go, safely. During that time, “A Volvo Saved My Life” campaign, and club, would be started.
People who had been in horrific, threatening crashes, and survived because they were in a Volvo, were highlighted. It was nothing short of moving. Then, shit happened again, in the form of Ford. Enter Ford. You see, that scrappy car company was doing so well that in 1.
Ford, who was creating the Premier Automotive Group, simply called, inelegantly, PAG. PAG was an umbrella corporation that included Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Lincoln and, as of 2.
Volvo. It was all run by a guy whose name sounded like European royalty: Wolfgang Rietzle. Then CEO of Ford, Jacques Nasser, wanted Volvo so badly, he paid $6 billion with Ford family money for it. In 2. 00. 1, people I had known for years were gone and replaced with Ford people, and they saw Volvo as part of the collective PAG group, which I deemed to be lacking some soul. That soul was replaced with chaos that I experiences personally. At the time I produced a presentation for an executive that was to be sent to PAG executives in London. The slot to present it, on the day of the presentation, was pushed aside to discuss the future of aromatherapy and lifestyle accessories. This was followed by Volvo’s sponsorship of hip- hop artist Ghostface Killa.
Volvo even decided that sponsoring video games made sense. My last Volvo client left soon thereafter, or was institutionalized, and I was on the outside looking in.
Can Volvo Beat BMW And Audi? Between then and 2. Volvo introduced the XC9.
XC6. 0, C3. 0, S4. XC7. 0 and much more. Yet Ford, and the marketing people it hired, felt that safety was really of no interest as a talking point.
The 2. 01. 8 Kymco Spade Is The Cheap New $2,9. Motorcycle Of Your Dreams. No need to swing a leg over the new Kymco Spade—just go ahead and walk up from behind and plop down on the 2. Crank up the engine, twist the throttle wide open and let the engine fly through the gears.
In your mind you’ll be burning up a race track. In reality, you’ll barely be in danger of breaking the speed limit.
What’s not to love?(Full Disclosure: Kymco wanted me to ride the Spade so badly, they let me borrow one for a long weekend and didn’t complain when I put a couple hundred miles on it.)What Is It? The Spade is a 1. A low seat, 1. 2- inch tires, one cylinder and air cooling. It’s happy carving up your urban commute or rocking a back roads jaunt. And it’s yours for a paltry $2,9. While the Taiwanese company is best known for its reasonably- priced scooters, it has been making motorcycles and engines since it started as a manufacturing partner for Honda in the 1.
Kymco bought out Honda’s stake in 2. ATVs and side- by- sides around the world since. Why Does It Matter? Everybody in the motorcycle industry is hyperventilating about losing the millennial demographic. Bikes are too expensive, they say.
Bikes are over- powered and too high- tech, they whine. Give us something cheap, simple and hip, they plead. Maybe then all that ails us will be cured! The Spade seems to hit on all those points: It’s easy to ride, it’s not going to scare the daylights out of you on city or back roads, and it’s a conversation starter (I had several people ask me what it was at gas stations and at stoplights.) “Where’s the rest of it?” was my favorite good- natured jab.
Most importantly, it’s great fun to ride. So this may all sound familiar if you’ve ever heard of the Honda Grom or the Kawasaki Z1.
Pro. Both come in at about the same price (the Honda is about $3. Where they differ is in style.
The Honda and Kawasaki have that futuristic streetfighter look, while the Spade looks more like a Universal Japanese Motorcycle of yore. There’s also an increase in performance with the Spade. It has five gears, compared with the four on the Honda and Kawasaki. While the Japanese manufacturers don’t advertise horsepower for their minibikes, dyno testing by the good folks at Motorcycle. Z1. 25 has 8. 3 horsepower, while the Grom churns out 8.
Motorcycles are kind of an odd religion in and of themselves. But as with any group, you. Nobody seems to mind when you cut between traffic or park it on the sidewalk while running into the store. It’s like having a scooter, without the (unfair) stigma of having a scooter. The handlebars are all of 3. I just rolled it into my back door at night so I wouldn’t have to worry about someone making off with it.
Twice, while hooning the bike through twisties, I had law enforcement vehicles come up on me through blind corners in the opposite lane. Both times I had to fight the instinct to grab hold of the brake lever in an surreptitious- as- possible manner (my usual, not- always- successful tactic to divert police attention). But both times it wasn’t necessary. The the low seat height combined with revving the engine along the redline creates a grand illusion of speed, but neither time I thought I was speeding had the bike venture into extra- legal territory. Plus, I like to imagine officers would probably just be too amused by the little bike to really do something as terrible as write it—and you—a ticket. The bike is fitted with both a side stand and a center stand, and there’s a power outlet in the dash to keep you electronics charged. Handy. Weak Spots.
The bike’s utility is limited by its speed—or lack thereof. At full bore on a flat road, I managed to eke about 6. I acknowledge my 2. Despite the inexplicable joy of riding a slow bike fast, there’s little doubt that this bike is best suited on roads where speed limits are 5. The suspension also didn’t quite seem to be up to the match of my weight, jarring my backside when I hit the occasional pothole. Though I acknowledge the bike is probably be aimed at a more slight and svelte clientele. The 2. 20mm front disc brake does a good job for most slowing down, but the 1.
I could live without. Anything more than a gentle depression of the foot brake tends to induce lockup on the rear tire—which makes for some fun screeching noises on the road, but doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence in a panic stop. At a claimed 9. 1 mpg, the 1. But the lack of a fuel gauge requires a bit of guesswork about when you’re about to run out. There is a low- fuel light, but it seemed rather pessimistic about actual remaining range. That said, there is something satisfying about topping off the tank with all of one gallon of gas. I spent all of $2.
Costco the weekend I had the bike. I also managed to inadvertently touch down my boot while trying to shift in a traffic circle, and dragged a peg going around a switchback. Just a little bit startling under not- so- hard riding conditions. Value. Kymco isn’t exactly a household name in the U. S., so it might not carry the long- term cachet of the Honda Grom on the used market. But starting at just $2,9. Movies For Apple Ipod Born In China (2017).
These bikes have a good chance of being the kind of motorcycle you buy, flog around until you start lusting for a new challenge and then sell for a similar amount that you bought it for. In other words: The best kind of motorcycle. Kymco already has an aftermarket provider in small bore experts MNNTHBX, offering everything from their own upgraded fork springs to a custom exhaust system.
Also available are . Pretty cool stuff. But if you get carried away with the accessories catalog, it’d be pretty easy to double the price of the bike before you get out of the dealership.
Verdict. I’d love to have one as a second bike, to throw into the back of the van for family vacations, to show up the paddock scooter crowd or to ride to a prime parking spot during busy downtown events. My regular ride touts more than 1. Spade, plus all sorts of electronic aids absent from the minibike like traction control, ABS, ride modes and so on.
But the Spade offers boundless joy at a fraction of the performance and —more importantly—the price. FOR DAILY DRIVING.. Great for local runs, stay off the highway. FOR THE ENTHUSIAST.. Great for carving, stay off the highway. POWERTRAIN0. 1. 5 1.