From the looks of the licence plate, this is a Belgian campaign, but I haven’t heard from it (yet). It’s definitely not the first time a tow truck is used to grab the attention of the city traffic. We’ve seen it before in the guerrilla for the Gröna Lund amusement park near Stockholm, the so-called Bumper Car Guerrilla. One of the flaws of human nature is the fact that we are attracted to danger and disaster. If something happened on the freeway, everybody drives slower to see the remains of the accident. The disaster tourist in each of us makes us look back and wonder. It’s probably that glimp of Thanatos every one of us is carrying. It’s also why a tow truck with a mashed car, or crashed cars in general always attract our attention. The licence plate reads FAN 001, which kinda tells you already that it’s a marketing stunt, in case you were still wondering.
Remotely related is this campaign for Monster Jam, where a squashed car has been put in a random parking lot somewhere. Definitely worth a closer look for the passers-by. You can almost smell the gasoline.
Any pointers to the credits for both campaigns are welcome.
wagg.it
February 27, 2007 at 6:29 am
- Coolz0r – Marketing Thoughts…
- Coolz0r – Marketing Thoughts…
frédéric
March 1, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Think I know the guy who built it; at least he told me about a year ago of a setup he was going to build which involved a huge bottle on the remains of a BMW 7 series. Too much of a coincicence it seems. So yes, it’s probably Belgian. I’ll ask it if I bump into him one of these.
flip
March 19, 2007 at 11:25 pm
I’m quite sure McCann-Erickson Belgium made the Fanta campaign. It’s not that original though, since a different Belgian agency did something quite similar for a Belgian bank (think it was VVL-BBDO for KBC) to promote their insurances the year before and that won a few awards. In their campaign it was cars being crushed by piano’s etc…
matt soles-mummery
March 5, 2008 at 8:10 pm
You guys are the best monster truck drivers in the univeres