Ford Fiesta This is Now

The Idea

I first saw this ad over at Scamp; as I said there, the ad is pleasant and pretty (and most importantly it’s not Happiness Factory, which I found really creepy!)

Fiesta This is Now English 60″ from Fiesta on Vimeo.

But the ad is only the tip of the iceberg, there’s a lot more to this campaign as Ford focuses on art and creativity. You can find a whole lot more at the blog This is Now

• There’s a whole series of animated videos, commissioned by Noah Harris, who directed the ad above, from a bunch of young artists.
• Art students have submitted a whole series of works, focusing on the ‘This is Now’
• There’s a Flickr group for anyone to submit their art. There’s a fascinating discussion developing on that group, about rules of submission and the preponderance of moderator photos in the group. They have taken the decision to load up the group with plenty of images before opening it out, to give the appearance of activity.
• A Ford site/portal which will display all the content will go live in October, allowing you to create your own mix of the art.
• They’re going to connect with art bloggers around Europe, trying to find ways to get them involved.

(image Copyright Ford, used with Permission)

What I think

If you read the commentary on Scamp, it’s all about the ad, the tip of the iceberg, the mass marketing bit of the campaign. But Ford have learnt about using different ways of connecting with consumers, playing the long game (such as with Where are the Joneses?) and here, the supplementary activity is in a different area entirely. But does a car company have ‘permission’ to play in the art space? Well, seeing the car commercials over time and the design of new cars, I’d argue they’ve already being doing that, now they’re just inviting you to play with them. Their rules, but far more open then before.

The Pitch

A good one, then again I know the people behind it, so it’s bound to be. Nothing to comment on this.