You’ve got to love car dealer commercials. Why? Because they are the epitome of so-bad-it’s-good. There’s a certain quality – perhaps born out of years of being hit over the head with it – that we have all come to expect from car dealer ads. A quality that, in any other kind of advertising, would be immediately trounced.
Here’s another entry into the pantheon of car dealer advertising silliness. This one, from John Keating Chevrolet in Crosby Texas, is called I Am The Finnisher. And, no, Finnisher isn’t spelled incorrectly. At least by us (We know. It’s hard to believe). It’s spelled that way because the man in the ad, Rik Melartin, owner of John Keating Chevrolet, is from Finland.
But not so silly is the fact Melartin, who is a resident of Bellaire, Texas has, over the past 15 years, caught three robbers at gunpoint.
So all of that neighborhood heroism combined with Melartin’s Finnish background gives us…a, perhaps, not so silly car dealer commercial. On the other hand, the ad is totally illogical. Apart from the questionable association of guns and car buying, there’s the oxymoronic statement from Melartin who in the ad, says, “I’m here to defend your right to a good deal.”
Seriously? Are we to believe that a car dealer actually wants to offer a buyer the lowest price? Is any business in the business of offering the lowest price? Of course not. The sole mission of every business, car dealers included, is to obtain the highest price for the least amount of product or service offerred. That’s capitalism. That’s the American way. It sucks but it’s, as they say, just business.
Just to be clear, in no way, shape or form do we diminish the heroism of what this man did for his community. And the man, clearly, is a hero. Reportedly, area residents are flocking to his dealership following his most recent citizen intervention. So we’re just going to chock this up to yet another typically whacked execution of a car dealership commercial.
And here’s Keating on how to protect your neighborhood:
And here’s a hilarious commercial that explains John Keating Chevrolet is only “5 inches” from downtown Houston.
