Television commercials
for four-wheel drive utility vehicles (utes) that, typically, have a cab
with a high-sided tray behind are boring. No matter what brand: Ford,
Holden, Isuzu etc. they invariably show the same sequence of events.
They go through puddles, rivers, over rocks, up dry gulches and the sides
of steep hills, through forests to arrive - very shiny - at the
predictable end.
Well here's something different, and COMPLETELY IN TUNE WITH THE
TIMES:
ISUZU D-Max 30sec TVC
Scene is an Isuzu D-Max ute, black, shiny, with unmarked impeccable
tyres and a sparkling windscreen It's parked outside a high street
florist's shop.
A man emerges from the shop carrying a large bunch of flowers - a
bouquet no less. He is thirty-ish, well-built, bald headed, wears a black
suit and floral tie with his shirt hanging out from his waistband -
the height of male fashion.
He looks at the flowers, smiles, briefly glances into the distance
and climbs into the Isuzu whose engine roars into life.
Next we see a series of shots, all quick cuts, loudly accompanied
by background music: 'The Ride of The Valkyries'. The ute smashes through
boulder-strewn rivers, up steep, rocky inclines, deep into and out
of lakes, over desert dunes, across snowy terraces, into and out of
forests where small shrubs and trees are mown down by its progress.
Some scenes are in driving rain, others in blazing sun
We cut now and then to close-ups of the driver's face. He is
laughing joyously, throwing his head back and staring with manic eyes
through the windscreen. Close ups, also, of wheels rising and falling
over large stones and outcrops, the suspension obviously being put to
test.
While the music rises in crescendo there distant shots from a
helicopter showing the ute making its way up a tortuous river bed. As the
laughter becomes madder we suddenly dissolve to a scene of the
Isuzu turning into a suburban street of houses and gardens.
The ute is miraculously all shiny again.
The car stops, the driver gets out carrying the bouquet behind him
and walks up a path to a front door. He knocks on the door. It opens and
an identical man to the driver, dressed exactly the same, smiles at
the driver who produces the flowers and hands them to the other man.
The driver goes down on one knee and says' Marry me!'
They kiss and hug. The Isuzu ute is seen in the background as the
shot freezes.
The graphic caption comes up:
ISUZU D-Max.
Yours and his through thick and thin.