Bear Grylls stars in ad for Nissan X-Trail
Nissan has launched a TV spot featuring Bear Grylls for the X-Trail that debuted on Discovery Channel last night.
In the ad, created by Whybin\TBWA Melbourne, the Man Vs Wild adventurer races an X-Trail as he scrambles across a mountainside.
The director of the ad, Dean Friske, described working with Grylls as ‘like playing with a giant action figure. Before you could say “hey Bear, can you jump off that cliff, eat that snake, urinate on that rag and tie it around your neck?’ he’d be doing it.”
The campaign comes less than a month after an ambush marketing push by Jeep that seized on Bear Grylls’ visit to Australia. The Jeep ad was later pulled by Discovery.
Credits:
- Creative agency: Whybin/TBWA Melbourne
- Production company: Thinkbone
- Executive producer: Andrew Marsh
- Director: Dean Friske
water bottle holder!
User ID not verified.
What? No iPod connectivity? I thought that was the most important feature in cars these days.
User ID not verified.
poor execution, nice idea
User ID not verified.
someone please run that man over for me
User ID not verified.
nice! I’d buy a car from that guy…
User ID not verified.
Would’ve made the advert more interesting if it was more true to his “Man vs Wild” show:
Bear : “Knowing where to find water”, scene cuts between woman putting water bottle in holder and Bear drinking his own piss
Bear: “Keeping warm on a cold night”, scene cuts between driver adjusting the climate control button, and Bear smearing the fat of a dead deer all over himself for warmth
And so on…
User ID not verified.
Not a fan of the over-dramatic Bear Grylls, so I wanted to hate it, but it’s a good simple idea, well done
User ID not verified.
Yep, I was hoping for something a little more surprising in the execution.
Little like this one > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFeN2J_EKQs
The Nissan spot is, in a word, predictable.
User ID not verified.
Rubbish.
Good thought to get Bear Grylls associated with the X-Trail. But that’s obviously where the thinking ended.
What they’ve ended up with is Bear being Bear (having fun being all adventurous) and a bland central-casting family driving a car. But a complete disconnect between the two.
Bear may be TALKING about the X-Trail, but he’s nowhere near the thing, so he’s not associated with it at all.
Open on adventurous guy not using car/cut to boring family in car/cut to adventurous guy not using car/cut to boring family in car…
What the hell is this supposed to do except reinforce the perception that soft-roaders are for school pick ups in the outer suburbs? And I’m fairly certain that wouldn’t be the brief for X-Trail.
Someone obviously thought they were being clever not having Bear within a hundred feet of the X-Trail, but they weren’t really being clever at all.
User ID not verified.
Oh dear Hmmmmm you are an overanalytical twat aren’t you. The spot is absolutely in tune with the vehicle and it’s target audience. This audience does’nt include opiniated wankers like you but is made up of young people who like to go a little bit off the tar from time to time and broaden their outlook. You stay at home with your head up your bum and leave the outdoors for the real people.
User ID not verified.
Sorry for being critical of your work, groucho. But you’ll find that thinking about campaigns is sorta WHAT PEOPLE IN OUR INDUSTRY DO for a living.
Anyway, these ‘young people’ you speak of… they’ll relate to the middle-aged beige married couple with school-aged kids, how exactly?
User ID not verified.
Hmmm people in ‘our industry’ are supposed to think about campaigns I agree. Some think about them with their heads up their arses and fuck up the industry by giving clients the impression we are all superficial wankers. if you think the people in the spot are ‘middle aged’ then your head is really far up. As for beige is that compared to your brightly coloured? You are clearly superior to most of us then. And out of touch too. And it’s not my work, I’m 550 kms away from Melbourne, but unfortunately not far enough away from you.
User ID not verified.
Not to turn this into a little catfight amongst ourselves, but if I was a client and I overheard a discussion amongst two advertising professionals…
one of those advertising professionals put across his argument as to why he thought a particular campaign was poorly thought-through… and the other responded with childish personal attacks littered with gems such as “twat” “wanker” “head up your bum”…
Then I suspect I’d probably rather engage the services of the former, and definitely not the latter.
If you can’t accept any criticism for a piece of work you may actually have either done yourself or merely quite like, then I suggest you’ve got a fair bit of growing up to do.
So, just to get this straight: when you say X-Trail is targeting ‘young people’, you really mean families, yes? Because they’re actually two quite different segments.
User ID not verified.
Or perhaps Hmmm your imaginary client would have thought you were nitpicking.
I’m sure the use of the term ‘young people’ is used as not yet middle aged.
I’d recommend him myself; life is not meant to be boring and beige.
User ID not verified.
Loosen up Hmmmm or you will never get your head out.
User ID not verified.
I’ve been up Groucho’s bum and I can assure you there is no X-Trail there.
FYI lads
User ID not verified.