Not really that old but about 4 years ago, there was an ad made for the 2016 Subaru Crosstrek featuring Johnny Kramer and the lovely Cyrina Fiallo as the couple seeking an adventure.


https://www.ispot.tv/ad/ALdB/subaru-crosstrek-crossroads-song-by-the-jujus?autoplay=1


All over the comments section, there are people who think Fiallo's character is supposed to be a 12 year old girl.

"What's French for va va voom?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrShrLl38Qs

Another well known campaign here, always wondered if the Brian May song was commissioned for it or if it was just a coincidence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqTS5lYFL3s

Unless the concerned French(wo)men know some old film noirs

I'm pretty sure think they never did. From my experience of watching car adverts since the 1980s, UK television ads almost never crossed the Channel. French manufacturers often had big-budget launch campaigns with the same ad airing across the Continent back in the 1980s, but that didn't mean good stuff. Renault launched the 19 in 1988 with a Sergio Leone-directed western-style film that cost bundles, but the result was old-fashioned and a bit ridiculous. The same happened with the 1990 Clio launch ad, which compared the car to various red things, thanks to cutting edge CGI effects that have aged terribly.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ocxw

Nicole and Papa it is not.

The first memorable french Clio ad came in 1992. It was topical, shot in Russia, and had a good slogan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWXXzRwJIrE

A variation of the same campaign aired a couple years later, this time shot somewhere in an emirate. As far as I know, those ads were aimed at the french market, and other big european markets had their own Clio campaigns.

That's what other brands did, or still do. VW & Audi France often does its own thing, for instance. And I've seen quite a few Holland-only adverts in the past too, even for smaller brands like Suzuki or Daihatsu.

But Europe-wide campaigns still happen. The common denominator is their blandness. Mercedes-Benz with Nico Rosberg, Opel with Claudia Schiffer (or these horrible puppets from the Corsa ad), it's just a yawn-fest.

As for Belgium, where I'm from, it's more complicated. Small country, linguistically divided, and commercial advertising was banned until the late 1980s. This meant either cheap campaigns, or adaptations of foreign adverts. I remember we got this 1999 british Clio ad !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYXRVtu8aVU

In recent times, national campaigns have been more common, but don't expect british levels of creativity.

Anyway, don't say "Va va voom !" to any Frenchman. They won't understand.

Okay, who here is old enough to remember this one from Hyundai?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K15jW27EFgM

I always thought Saturday Night Live should've made fun of this one. Like having Nora Dunn and Melanie Hutsell imitate the two girls making fun of all the guys with the fancy Italian sports cars, and then see Rob Schneider arrive in a beater, which makes them both run up to him and try to jump his bones right away. I would've even loaned my '80 Plymouth Volare for the sketch.

Mercedes driver was at the phone..

but that bar in front of it at the beginning is a very funny sight too !

I like these Buicks but it made me laugh when they had it overtaking a Mercedes-Benz

https://youtu.be/DSb2z-AckJk

Giving the fact they are ads for the Renault Clio... not here

Am i the only one to think a Grand Caravan would be a better choice ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYqtR3e-6F8

Quality advertising from Korea:
https://youtu.be/rP8cxOuFKrc

Did this (famous) series of ads air outside the UK?:
https://youtu.be/WgBGDvgYekA
https://youtu.be/VP7BSVdumVU
https://youtu.be/jDe9rvQRHEI
https://youtu.be/vupsqOwQdmI

My commercial favourite is this one due its earworm-sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WilHxTSKP34


For the whole range:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjgSesvHoKc


Aired in New Zealand, but filmed in Britain, so a Vauxhall, not a Holden:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upHYnigkaZg


I think, there are not many other models, who got an own advertise-song or -melody:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANyWEXLo6u8


pure 1970ies sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgAeNd9OAz4


annother favourite, because so unexpected:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H_eIS91Fj4


somehow bizarre, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQzWO2SXblo


This ad I've spotted at my school exchange in 1988 to Vancouver - and never forget it. When Youtube came up, I've searched for it and finally found it again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4eOOlSxr_c&index=9&list=PLCRkFWhvWGbwC8KyTL8Zgm- EMnAcPQmQP5


No, the location is not an autobahn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0HX1k9OgVk&index=6&list=PLCRkFWhvWGbwC8KyTL8Zgm- EMnAcPQmQP5


but here we have an authentic Autobahn. Even the original from the 1940ies (the DDR never built any Autobahn. The only new route Berlin-Hamburg was made by DDR-workers, but paid by West Germany)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cUJYMsEtPw


A 10-minute-commercial. The language is Hungarian, I think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioWFY1Wq0-s


The first commercial was the first step, why the owners had the reputation being a moron:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hT1uvOVbC0


The DDR dropped TV-commercials, not just for cars in 1969/1970, but the Russians continued:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR_m6tThd74

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVYrxaeirMg


There are uncountable masses of old car commercials to find on Youtube, here a German 1950ies compilation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx0Yh1Mjxqg

annother compilation from several decades, mainly German:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iywUzkF5g6Y&list=PLqRhmyfc09j_4vnuh5tyh4IKGSZ1hB- p-3


"Have you said rev counter?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cMqAJWwRSA



This thread made me search for more unexpected precious items:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScEF6zo-cfw


From Holland:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc12l3BglHU


The morons -talking with an Dutch accent- are driving Citroen Mehari:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B44hvyDw1FY


more VW:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oaGFwLu6GU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26-nhOkbppI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywuWFsvgcDI


The first, origin actors of http://www.imcdb.org/movie_75474-Der-Alte.html
in a NSU-commercial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywuWFsvgcDI


Oh, playing with racism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrT6yOkVuKg


That are the results of a short brainstorming. More to come.