We have to agree with AdWeek’s David Gianatasio on this one. To “demonstrate the precision and control of the new Volvo FH series truck,” Swedish ad agency Forsman & Bodenfors set up a slacklining stunt whereby slickliner Faith Dickey would walk a tightrope between two moving trucks approaching tunnels.
As with other stunts similar to this that attempt to illustrate the superiority of a machine or vehicle, as Gianatasio argues, it’s really the skill of the operator as opposed to the technical precision of the machine that truly matters. Volvo could have grabbed two 20 year old 18 wheelers, a pair of great stunt drivers and accomplished the same thing.
Sure, this stunt is fun to watch but does it really demonstrate the capability of the vehicle? We’d buy into this more if Volvo had hired two overweight, beer gut-sporting slobs who’d just each downed a six pack and put them behind the wheel of a vehicle that actually could maneuver itself through the use of a sophisticated computer-aided guidance system.
Of course we take nothing away from Dickey’s accomplishment here. As she says in the video, she’s done a lot of slacklining but never before between two moving trucks. SO there’s that.
