Passionately Italian Fiat 500
Owners have an emotional attachment to their Fiat 500’s with its retro-chic Italian styling that few car brands can equal. Its free-spirited, ultra-cool ‘La Dolce Vita’ image has captured the hearts of many.
As can probably be expected, Fiat 500 commercials are more about image, impulsive reactions and emotion than Teutonic rationality in highlighting technical selling features. However, the generally unstereotypical nature of their advertising makes for much viewing enjoyment and brand appeal.
1. Fiat 500S, Tested For Bad Boys
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett Milan
Directed by Nicolas Caicoya, the ‘What Bad Boys Drive’ has proven to be a popular and successful theme for the Fiat’s 500 turbocharged S model with its more ‘muscular’ performance and predominantly masculine appeal.
2. Fiat 500S, The Latin Lover’s Car
Advertising Agency: Drori Shlomi, Tel Aviv, Israel
Directed by Rami Carmel this commercial builds on the ‘ What Bad Boys Drive’ theme with amusing effectiveness and viewer enjoyment.
3. Fiat 500 Abarth, House Arrest
Advertising Agency: Doner, Detroit
Directed by Luca Maroni, the commercial features actor and bad boy Charlie Sheen who parodies his own headline making house arrest. 82,000 hits were recorded within 48 hours of the commercial’s release on YouTube.
The soundtrack tune is ‘Dog Scratched Ear’ by Henry’s Funeral Shoe, a Welsh power duo who play a ’70s-style blend of blues and hard rock.
4. Fiat 500 X, Blue Pill
Advertising Agency: The Richards Group, USA
Filmed on location in Pitigliano, Tuscany, Italy, this superbly directed commercial by Antony Hoffman, amusingly uses a ‘blue pill’ as a visual metaphor for the Fiat 5OOX Crossover.
The imaginative ‘ready for action’ analogy was loved by many viewers, but some viewers found the idea irrelevantly silly and irrational. Of course the idea was always meant to be entertainingly ‘tongue-in-cheak’, frivolously passionate and the exact opposite of teutonic rationality.
5. Fiat 500L, Italian Invasion
Advertising Agency: Doner, Michigan USA
Directed by Paul Goldman and filmed in Old Harlem, North Carolina, the commercial is an amusing spoof of Paul Revere’s famous midnight-ride in 1775 to alert the colonial militia to the arrival of British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concort.
The soundtrack features ‘Children of the Revolution’ by T.Rex.
6. Fiat 500, Immigrants
Advertising Agency: The Richards Group, Dallas USA
Directed by Robert Logevall, the introduction to this cinematic commercial was filmed on location in and around Positano on Italy’s scenic Amalfi Coast.
The soundtrack features a version of “Torna a Surriento,” or “Come Back to Sorrento,” sung by Arianna and Pitbull.
7. Fiat 500L, Welcome to the Motherhood
Advertising Agency: Krow Communications U.K.
Many Fiat 500 ‘immigrants’ also reached the shores of England and were passionately embraced by the ‘British Motherhood’.
This commercial produced by the Rubber Republic collective is a highly entertaining rap parody of the busy, stereotypical modern day Mum presented with unstereotypical panache and style.
It was a huge online success motivating over 3 million views on YouTube within a matter of hours.