MOTOR SHOW

You are invited to return to your childhood through the advertising campaign for the “Special Edition” of the 2009 Motor Show, set to be held at BolognaFiere from 4 to 8 December 2009. Designed by Armando Testa – who has been responsible for the marketing of the Bologna show for a decade – the campaign is geared towards highlighting the uniqueness of the Motor Show and of those who visit it. The Motor Show has something of a history of playing with irony and engaging in light visual provocation.

The creativity underpinning the entire campaign (which will be rolled out via billboards, the press, TV, radio and virals) uses the metaphor of play, as expressed in the claim/invitation “Come and play”, in order to demonstrate the main attractions of the Motor Show – the cars and bikes, also on the move – and to ironically and playfully re-cast the cliches surrounding “women and cars”.

The billboards and press images depict a retro-style home in which the toys – in cartoon versions to emphasise the idea of a “return to childhood” – come to life and “play” at taking themselves seriously. With spinning tops and building blocks in the background, a Barbie-style doll in a mini-skirt and high heels pretends to be a model and strikes all of the predictable poses of an imaginary advert while leaning against her brightly coloured die-cast Spider.

Fiction also becomes reality in the 30-second radio advert, which – by taking its cue from the typical stereotypes of automotive advertising – has an announcer attempting to describe a toy car as if it were a real, full-size car.

The idea of toys coming to life and playing with the hackneyed images of car adverts is also used for the TV ad, which will be broadcast shortly. The ad has been put together by Federico Brugia, the leading director of automotive commercials.

The entire advertising campaign for the 2009 Motor Show – which will be rolled out starting in early November on TV, on radio and on billboards (the press and web campaigns are already under way) – can be seen, heard and downloaded by clicking on this link.

The creative direction of Motor Show advertising campaign, realized by Armando Testa agency, is by Nicola Lampugnani and Francesco Guerrera in collaboration with the copy Federica Saraniti Lana and the art Nicola Rinaldi. The press campaign and the affixing campaign have been edited by LSD studio. The TV ad has been realized by The Family, with Federico Brugia’s direction and the music of Ferdinando Arnò. The radio advert was produced by Eccetera.