I don't think the issue here is so much "I wish I had the money for a Lexus but I don't, so grr" as it is that the implication is that you're in a better place now than you were then. You live in a very large house with a girl who is taking pictures of you in front of a car which she bought you. There are better endgames out there. Like, I don't know, being on the floor with your bathrobe-draped kid as he goes nuts over his new console. How much fun are you really going to have with a leased vehicle you can't even drive ridiculously dangerously since it's, you know, a lease?
The entire cars-for-christmas lineup of commericals, which are not a new thing and which I recall, in some form, for most of my childhood christmases, even, seems horribly out of date. Cars don't move the heart and soul of America anymore. Post-war, these images blossomed of be-pearled wives and barrel-chested husbands and squealing youngsters making memory-bursting roadtrips on the new intercontinental highways...and all that rot about sock hops and making out, making it, making whatever in the Chevy etc...but we've gotten past that. With the internet, really, the car is no longer the number one choice of escape. Teens don't need to steal the keys, they can lock themselves up with their laptop for a couple hours and achieve the same level of immunity from their OMG Get A Life Parents.
So, car companies...deal. It's over. You've been left on the side of the road in a skewed bow-tie, holding a drooping flower. Trying to stick us with a hypodermic of nostalgia, and jamming "car, car, car!" in there right after it, isn't going to work.
Eh. If this were a Mercedes or Jag ad, I'd agree more, but Toyota/Lexus make pretty competitive cars and rely less upon "most expensive means best" mentality. This is their least expensive model, too. The vitriol is a bit misplaced here, I think.
Regarding it being a lease, the real gift is usually the permission of the missus anyway. :P
Eh, I guess I may be numb to all these stupid commercials that are so far from reality, but I wasn't bothered when I first saw these ones.
But the best Christmas - ERR I mean Holiday - ever is a lease?! Oh god, I can't wait until someone gives me a rent-to-own HDTV for Christmas! Or maybe someone will rent Resistance 2 for Christmas and let me use it! Sweet dude.
If someone gets me a car for any reason, let alone Christmas, I'd like to own it, I'd like it to look more impressive if it's gonna be expensive, and I better be able to fit in it comfortably. Most cars seem made for short people.
YES! This ad's been pissing me off ever since it started. I'd like to bitch slap everyone involved with this (except the kid -- I'd smack the parents).
NO WAY is a rented fancy Toyota better than a console as a kid.
Glad to see other Kotakuites feel the same way at this blasphemy.
Ah, I remember seeing this last week. Honestly, I thought it was an ad for a current gen console when I first saw it (was thinking 360). When I saw it was actually for a car, I got pissed off.
Yeah, I've been seeing these ads during Adult Swim...Honestly, best holiday for me was my birthday, turned 5 years old (1967), and the steel mill my dad worked at was on strike (again), which meant that money was even tighter than it normally would be (I was number 8 child at the time).
I got a boat carved out of a 2x4 with a small paddle powered by a rubber band (my dad and my eldest brother made it for me) and a cake made from scratch (my mom and my elder sister's creation) with icing (also from scratch).
I had a ball going to the tub, filling it up a bit so I could run the boat around inside it. And the cake was great, too.
Now that I have the money to get the stuff I want (for the most part), those memories will carry with me for as long as I will be able to remember (or the end of my days, whichever comes first ^_^).
And they think a CAR LEASE is the "best Christmas ever"?
@Teh_Volz: Nobody gets cars for Christmas, but the car companies sure want that to change. That's why, if you notice, all the holiday car commercials are making getting cars seem so casual and normal. This is a subliminal message to consumers;
"Look at everyone around you (based on this commercial). THEY'RE buying cars left and right. You, being stingy with your money? Can't afford it? UNcool, my friend, uncool. Better get one of these on credit or through a lease, because you're BEHIND the times!"
Commercials are doing this type of thing more and more; trying to make people feel bad by making buying expensive items SEEM like no big deal. When it actuality it is.
@RockyRan: yeah, it's not bad enough that the economy is in the shitter and the (former) top 3 in the US are going under. just like when gas kept climbing and climbing and climbing, yet every other commercial i saw on TV was, literally, an ad for a car, truck or SUV. way to be completely out of touch.
I friggin' hate the Kay Jewellers tagline at the end of their commercials. Whether it's for Valentine's Day or Christmas. It's like, get your special someone an expensive rock, and they'll love you forever. /eyeroll
My favorite Christmas memory is camping out with my Mom Christmas night, drinking hot chocolate, and trying to eat the candy canes without my mom noticing anything missing from the tree. Even though we're not religious, we had the Christmas songs playing anyway. Good times.
Good to know that I wasn't the only one annoyed by that Lexus commercial.
@superfrogsavestokyo: every jewelry commercial is like that. makes me sick to my ass.
i was unfamiliar with the concept of a guy buying jewelry for me for a very long time. even now, if someone were to give me jewelry, my reaction (after "oo shiny pretty thing!") would be, "why?"
12/08/08
12/08/08
The entire cars-for-christmas lineup of commericals, which are not a new thing and which I recall, in some form, for most of my childhood christmases, even, seems horribly out of date. Cars don't move the heart and soul of America anymore. Post-war, these images blossomed of be-pearled wives and barrel-chested husbands and squealing youngsters making memory-bursting roadtrips on the new intercontinental highways...and all that rot about sock hops and making out, making it, making whatever in the Chevy etc...but we've gotten past that. With the internet, really, the car is no longer the number one choice of escape. Teens don't need to steal the keys, they can lock themselves up with their laptop for a couple hours and achieve the same level of immunity from their OMG Get A Life Parents.
So, car companies...deal. It's over. You've been left on the side of the road in a skewed bow-tie, holding a drooping flower. Trying to stick us with a hypodermic of nostalgia, and jamming "car, car, car!" in there right after it, isn't going to work.
At least, not for many gamers, it seems.
12/07/08
12/07/08
Regarding it being a lease, the real gift is usually the permission of the missus anyway. :P
12/07/08
But the best Christmas - ERR I mean Holiday - ever is a lease?! Oh god, I can't wait until someone gives me a rent-to-own HDTV for Christmas! Or maybe someone will rent Resistance 2 for Christmas and let me use it! Sweet dude.
If someone gets me a car for any reason, let alone Christmas, I'd like to own it, I'd like it to look more impressive if it's gonna be expensive, and I better be able to fit in it comfortably. Most cars seem made for short people.
12/07/08
12/07/08
12/07/08
Seriously...who gives someone something for Christmas, that HAS to be returned in a coupla years? WTF?
12/07/08
12/07/08
NO WAY is a rented fancy Toyota better than a console as a kid.
Glad to see other Kotakuites feel the same way at this blasphemy.
12/07/08
12/07/08
2 years from now, you'll have a new leased car in the garage, but the 2600, well, that 2600 will be in the garage FOREVER.
12/07/08
12/07/08
I got a boat carved out of a 2x4 with a small paddle powered by a rubber band (my dad and my eldest brother made it for me) and a cake made from scratch (my mom and my elder sister's creation) with icing (also from scratch).
I had a ball going to the tub, filling it up a bit so I could run the boat around inside it. And the cake was great, too.
Now that I have the money to get the stuff I want (for the most part), those memories will carry with me for as long as I will be able to remember (or the end of my days, whichever comes first ^_^).
And they think a CAR LEASE is the "best Christmas ever"?
Screw that, I'm takin' the boat.
12/07/08
12/07/08
12/07/08
"Look at everyone around you (based on this commercial). THEY'RE buying cars left and right. You, being stingy with your money? Can't afford it? UNcool, my friend, uncool. Better get one of these on credit or through a lease, because you're BEHIND the times!"
Commercials are doing this type of thing more and more; trying to make people feel bad by making buying expensive items SEEM like no big deal. When it actuality it is.
12/07/08
12/07/08
My favorite Christmas memory is camping out with my Mom Christmas night, drinking hot chocolate, and trying to eat the candy canes without my mom noticing anything missing from the tree. Even though we're not religious, we had the Christmas songs playing anyway. Good times.
Good to know that I wasn't the only one annoyed by that Lexus commercial.
12/07/08
i was unfamiliar with the concept of a guy buying jewelry for me for a very long time. even now, if someone were to give me jewelry, my reaction (after "oo shiny pretty thing!") would be, "why?"
12/07/08
12/07/08
12/07/08
Lexus is the luxury division of Toyota.
12/07/08
12/07/08
12/07/08