RE: Ford in 1991: PH Ad Break

RE: Ford in 1991: PH Ad Break

Friday 1st March 2013

Ford in 1991: PH Ad Break

A Brian May-composed soundtrack can't hide the irony in this musical masterpiece



Continuing our series of looks back at car ads of old, we’ve found this classic. Unlike our previous Chrysler Laser ad, this one’s probably far more likely to have some of you stroking your chins and smiling fondly with recognition, as it comes from our shores.

'I think we need more screens, Bob...'
'I think we need more screens, Bob...'
It’s Ford’s 1991 ‘Everything We Do’ ad, and it’s surprisingly well-known among car ad geeks. Set to a rousing soundtrack – a cheesily-tweaked version of Brian May’s excellent ‘Driven By You’, to be precise – it features a selection of shots of Fords being variously bumped, jiggled, bonked, smashed, scribbled, yumped and – a touch oddly – watched on a huge multiplex of TV screens. The message is obvious: ‘We spend oodles of time making sure our cars are built right, and we do it all for you.’

The only slight fly in that worthy ointment is that some of the cars shown in the ad were, to be frank, a bit pap. The crescendo of irony comes, for example, when the lyric ‘we’re working night and day to make a dream come true’ happens to fall at the exact same time as an early, CVH-powered Mk5 Escort Cabriolet – widely acknowledged to be one of the worst cars Ford’s ever made – wobbles across the screen.

'A dream come true', apparently...
'A dream come true', apparently...
Still, there are some redeeming moments. Check out the slow-mo Sapphire Cosworth rally car flying across the camera at the start, for example. Or the moment the same Sapphire Cosworth rally car hurtles sideways at you toward the end. Or the brief flash of the Sapphire Cosworth rally car arriving at the finish of a faux rally stage. So, basically, all the bits that feature a Sapphire Cosworth rally car, then? Er... something like that, yes...

Nevertheless, if you want a minute and a half that’ll brighten up your day with a satisfying glob of genuinely earnest nostalgia, you’ve found it. Enjoy!

Thanks to TVArk for posting the video!

 

 

Author
Discussion

Itsallicanafford

Original Poster:

2,750 posts

158 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
...I remember this add well when it first came out, thought it was cool then...still cool now!

...was bettered only by the RS2000 'you will be great again' advert

Edited by Itsallicanafford on Friday 1st March 12:58

Steamer

13,834 posts

212 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Itsallicanafford said:
...I remember this add well when it first came out, thought it was cool then...still cool now!

...was bettered only by the RS2000 'you will be great again' advert

Edited by Itsallicanafford on Friday 1st March 12:58
Both great adverts, again slight irony with the RS2000 advert..

"The people want you back"... yes please!! In original MK2 RWD form though!!

Andy ap

1,147 posts

171 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
i had to hit mute!

Devil2575

13,400 posts

187 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Indeed, wasn't the MkV Escort RS2000 a bit of a dog crapping on the RS2000 name...

forzaminardi

2,280 posts

186 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
I liked the song back in the day, and remember the ad well. In fact I have the CD single of the song!

Good bit of a Benetton F1 car in there somewhere too.

chriswt

11 posts

200 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
forzaminardi said:
I liked the song back in the day, and remember the ad well. In fact I have the CD single of the song!

Good bit of a Benetton F1 car in there somewhere too.
I too bought the single as a Ford mad 13 year old. They don't make 'm like they used too.


monthefish

20,439 posts

230 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Great ad.

the article said:
irony
What irony?

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Luckily the end of the 4 post dynamics rig test never made it into the final cut. (The bit where they open the drivers door at the end of the test, and the entire interior of shiney britle plastic comes tumbling out the door like a waterfall of small broken bits of plastic......)

Great advert though, remember it well (and strangely the blonde in the red dress too, must have been "at that age"...... ;-)

Rawwr

22,722 posts

233 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
I loved that advert! Still do actually boxedin

bob1179

14,107 posts

208 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
I too remember this advert when it came out.

Nice to see lots of Sierra and Granada Scorpio goodness in it!
smile

JREwing

17,540 posts

178 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Surely there is no irony as it was designed as a completely serious advert? It would only really be irony if Ford were saying "our cars are st, but this song glosses over that".

PascalBuyens

2,868 posts

281 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Best feature of any Ford at 0:42 for sure smile

Baryonyx

17,988 posts

158 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
The Cosworth content, man. Best cars ever made! Legendary stuff from Ford. Great advert too. They don't make them like this anymore. Later on the 90's, car adverts became artistic wk-wagons, nowhere near as good as this sort of thing.

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Do you think in 10-15 years time we'll all be posting Audi adverts on here?

Baryonyx

17,988 posts

158 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
GravelMachineGun said:
Do you think in 10-15 years time we'll all be posting Audi adverts on here?
No.

k-ink

9,070 posts

178 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Shockingly bad. How can I vote -100 ?

*Al*

3,830 posts

221 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
I only noticed and paused on a cracking pair of legs! Was that wrong? smile

TonyHetherington

32,091 posts

249 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Is driven by!!!

DRIVEN BY!!!

Driven by youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu



Man I remember that well biggrin

Munter

31,319 posts

240 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Oh yes. Oddly I didn't recall the escort cabrio (or the one in the red dress), but I did remember all the cossie action and the soundtrack. cloud9

Twincam16

27,646 posts

257 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Baryonyx said:
The Cosworth content, man. Best cars ever made! Legendary stuff from Ford. Great advert too. They don't make them like this anymore. Later on the 90's, car adverts became artistic wk-wagons, nowhere near as good as this sort of thing.
Thing is, you could still make this advert today (the cars going at high speed were all on rally stages so there wouldn't be any 'encouraging reckless driving' aspects). It's better than any car advert on telly I care to think of. So why doesn't anyone do anything like that any more.

Y'know, an advert that might actually make you feel good about buying a car.