Barbara Lippert's Critique: The Suicide Squad

Last week, as the media fixated on Chrysler's 13,000 job cuts on the heels of GM's suicidal robot spot being pulled for retooling, Volkswagen launched an ad with, yes, a suicide theme.You can't make this stuff up.Sure, "Jumper," one of a trio of new dealer ads with the tagline, "Three V-Dubs for under $17,000," was in the works way before GM's highly emotive robot took the Super Bowl stage with his achy-breaky heart and caused suicide prevention groups to mobilize. But given the outrage, it would hardly have taken a genius to predict that VW's "Jumper" would be in for a similar fate.Lest you think that by running "Jumper," client and agency committed an act of bravery in the face of a few PC diehards out to squelch our civil liberties (or a group that, at the very least, had no sense of humor), the answer is, "Um, not really." I happened to see the spot while watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and was stunned—not only for its insensitivity, but that Crispin and VW could air something that seemed so desperate.That was last Monday. I called a VW spokesperson on Wednesday and was told there were no plans to pull it. By the next morning, VW had indeed yanked "Jumper," explaining that "optimism is a huge component of the VW brand. Another ... is sensitivity."Years ago, Arnold did a spot called "Bubble Boy" for the Beetle, which also touched on the idea of VW-as-Prozac—but in a delightful way. These are just grim.Maybe it's the times. For whatever reason, VW is hardly alone in joking about suicide. Once "Jumper" hit the airwaves, it was the third spot in three weeks to go the self-offing route after the GM robot and a Washington Mutual spot featuring a bunch of non-WaMu bankers headed off a rooftop, just like in the Depression.Is all this talk of suicide an unconscious metaphor for the state of the automotive industry? Or, given WaMu's inclusion, is it more of an unconscious representation of a sense of doom pervading the ad industry? Or, as The New York Times noted post-Super Bowl, could the violence of suicide be a metaphor for our unresolved war? At least we've got ourselves three fine options to consider. Meanwhile, let's get back to the VW debacle.I know some people scoff at it, but I actually like the use of V-Dubs in the tagline (a term that brand devotees have been using for years). It's catchy and brings an air of lightness to spots otherwise weighed down in darkness. But while the concept of a drive-by shouting, instead of a shooting, as some unseen men in a VW speed past and yell the phrase is an attempt to introduce that aforementioned "air of optimism," a drive-by is by definition an assault, so it comes off as aggressive and threatening. But even if you find it funny, it backfires in the context of this campaign: a) the guys shouting are not enunciating clearly, and b) a two-door Rabbit is not everyone's idea of a reason for living. Also, unlike the GM spot, which would benefit from having the suicide-dream sequence edited out, "Jumper" cannot be saved. Perhaps the powers that be were loathe to pull it because, sadly enough, it's actually better than another V-Dubs spot, "Apocalypse." At least "Jumper" has things people can relate to. When the dude on the rooftop begins reciting his list of misery to the crowd below, it includes, "There's no affordable housing." I particularly liked his line, "You think I wanted global warming ... or reality TV?" The actor has some dramatic chops and, in this one, at least, the viewer can understand what the drive-by guys are saying.While no special interest groups will protest "Apocalypse," it's so awesomely bad it's hard to believe it got on the air. (I'm not piling on; I was a fan of previous Crispin VW work, and I really liked the guitar spots.) The commercial is wordless. We watch a pathetic street character carry a cardboard sign reading "The End Is Near" as the guys drive by shouting their line. These placard-carriers are mainstays of New Yorker cartoons, but they're never funny. These people are at best mentally ill, and along with the cardboard sign usually comes the cardboard shoes and the need for a warm lunch—not a desire to ditch the sign for a test of the Jetta's new options.Adding insult to injury, the drive-by guys are unintelligible. It sounds to me like "Treetops Townsend." But the tone is what's truly awful—it's like they're Howard Stern groupies trying to punk the phone lines on the call-in portion of Larry King. Or, even worse, it's just a step away from those horrible tapes showing thugs having fun beating up homeless people.In all the spots, the final shot of the three cars pulling into white space looks great. But there's hardly time to focus on which cars they are, never mind what you get for that price.The third spot, "Poets," although it trades on the cliché of a spoken-word poet, is amusing. I like the writing; it's a great example of overheated prose ("Conflict boils over like an angry sludge") from deluded, self-important artists. When we hear the drive-by guys shout their message, our hipster waits a beat and then solemnly announces, "Hope. Springs."If only.

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Barbara Lippert's Critique: The Suicide Squad

Barbara Lippert

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Barbara Lippert