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How Volvo Lost The Plot. Depending on your sense of history, you might remember when Volvos were deemed “boxy but nice.” Maybe even farther back you recall the sleek P1. But no matter what era you’re from, you almost certainly equate Volvo with safety.

And believe it or not, Volvo’s advertising hasn’t followed the plot in a long time, and through the disaster that was Ford’s ownership the brand is still trying to claw back to what it once was. Volvo’s advertising highs and lows are a direct window into how that happened. In the late 1. 98. Acura, Lexus and Infiniti were just coming on the scene and Volvo was a small, standalone car company selling a lot of station wagons to families. Volvo’s advertising used great visuals that highlighted the strength of the car in crashes, as well performance- oriented messages that said things like, “until Ferrari makes a station wagon, this is it.” The company tagline was “A Car You Can Believe In.”At that time, Volvos were practical, and generally defined as a “need to have car.” In fact, if you were a new parent, a college professor or just saw yourself as responsible, when it came time to buy a new car, your DNA probably said, “I guess I HAVE to check out a Volvo.” In 1. Volvo was selling 9. U. S. Its agency at that time, Scali Mc.

Cabe Sloves, only had to worry about print, TV, and radio as there was no internet—or at least, not as we know it today. Volvo Starts The 1. With A Crisis. As the saying goes, “shit happens.” Around 1. Scali attended a monster truck event and took note that a row of cars that were crushed included a Volvo sedan. What struck this person was that the Volvo was much less deformed than all the other cars. What a great idea for a Volvo ad, he decided. Scali went to Volvo and sold them on the idea that the visual of the Volvo, uncrushed among all the crushed cars, would make a great TV and print ad to highlight Volvo’s vehicular strength.

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Volvo agreed. So Scali’s creatives went about staging a monster truck event that would be the centerpiece of a new ad. It is worthwhile noting that the commercial was staged at a real monster truck event, set up and filmed before the real event started, with the actual audience for the event in their seats. Agency creatives realized that the Volvo they had put in the line of cars for the ad would stand out MORE if it didn’t deform at all, while the other cars were flattened. So, to achieve this dramatic effect, all the pillars of the cars to be run over were weakened, with the exception of the Volvo. It received a welded- in rollcage. All of this modification occurred in front of the audience, but one or more people in attendance were apparently disgruntled Volvo or Scali employees who took careful note of what they were seeing. Bear Foot, the famed monster truck, drove over everything perfectly.

The results were obvious as the Volvo was still standing, almost untouched. So all the creatives went out that night on Volvo’s account, and had a pleasant expensed dinner and congratulated themselves on a job well done. Little did the agency realize that this commercial would become the basis of a shitstorm destined to become infamous. Let me digress for a moment and tell you that while creatives everywhere who worked on ads dreamed up all kinds of supernatural fantasy things we could show a car doing, a client rarely approved it as they were afraid of liability. On the occasion it was approved, we knew to have a disclaimer saying something to the effect of “closed course, professional driver, do not try this yourself.” You see these in ads all the time. There were no exceptions to using that disclaimer because years before, Honda had shown an ATV going up the side of a barn in an ad and some idiot tried that, killing himself in the process. His relatives sued Honda and I assumed they settled.

The fate of the failure of the Scali and Volvo relationship was sealed when the “Monster Truck” ad was produced and published. The reason for that seems lost to history but its presence was lacking in both the TV and print ads. So, the idea that it was just a mistake is highly improbable, and serves as a teaching moment for all creatives since. When the ads came out, “our” angry employees took note and filed a complaint with the Texas Attorney General, where the ad had been shot. That office started a case which resulted in Volvo having to a pay a substantial fine.

As one might imagine, Volvo was blindsided and “A Car You Can Believe In” seemed less genuine, to say the least. Major news outlets picked up the story. The negative coverage had the momentum of a freight train, seemingly unstoppable.

The result of this clusterfuck was predictable; the account went into review in 1. Scali was not invited to defend it. A New Start. The winner was a young, upstart agency, whose name was tough to pronounce unless your dad happens to be some kind of Count: it was Messner Vetere Berger Carey Schmetterer. British born agency creative Michael Lee led the effort. In looking at Swedish culture, newly renamed MVBMS discovered that people in Sweden routinely said “Drive Safely” to their loved ones as they were headed out the door in the morning. A new tagline was born. Creative direction was finalized, support music developed and a strong voice- over actor was chosen to represent the brand: Donald Sutherland.

This combination would serve Volvo for over 1. Download Get A Job (2016) Movies. Between 1. 99. 1 and 2. U. S. The account was now worth $2. During that decade, the campaign changed to “Volvo for Life” with a global message of “Revolvolution” when the convertible version of the C7. At the same time, Volvo Cars’ design language evolved from boxy to more rounded, and so did the public’s view of them. The public liked what they saw.

They did not just need a Volvo, they now wanted a Volvo. And, with the introduction of the C7. In industry- speak, Volvo had produced its first “desire to have” car. In that period, every car maker started to talk about safety and include messages about anti- lock brakes and safety cages, airbags and more. Euro RSCG and Volvo looked at abandoning safety as a message, but it was deemed integral to their DNA, so instead they doubled down. The ads started to show people living wonderful lives where they relied on the car to get them where they needed to go, safely. During that time, “A Volvo Saved My Life” campaign, and club, would be started.

People who had been in horrific, threatening crashes, and survived because they were in a Volvo, were highlighted. It was nothing short of moving. Then, shit happened again, in the form of Ford. Enter Ford. You see, that scrappy car company was doing so well that in 1. Ford, who was creating the Premier Automotive Group, simply called, inelegantly, PAG. PAG was an umbrella corporation that included Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Lincoln and, as of 2. Volvo. It was all run by a guy whose name sounded like European royalty: Wolfgang Rietzle.

Then CEO of Ford, Jacques Nasser, wanted Volvo so badly, he paid $6 billion with Ford family money for it. In 2. 00. 1, people I had known for years were gone and replaced with Ford people, and they saw Volvo as part of the collective PAG group, which I deemed to be lacking some soul.

That soul was replaced with chaos that I experiences personally. At the time I produced a presentation for an executive that was to be sent to PAG executives in London. The slot to present it, on the day of the presentation, was pushed aside to discuss the future of aromatherapy and lifestyle accessories. This was followed by Volvo’s sponsorship of hip- hop artist Ghostface Killa. Volvo even decided that sponsoring video games made sense.

My last Volvo client left soon thereafter, or was institutionalized, and I was on the outside looking in. Can Volvo Beat BMW And Audi? Between then and 2. Volvo introduced the XC9.

XC6. 0, C3. 0, S4. XC7. 0 and much more.

Yet Ford, and the marketing people it hired, felt that safety was really of no interest as a talking point.