Audi R8 - The Godfather Edition.

I love good adverts. Think Guinness Horses. I suppose a background in advertising and marketing makes it inevitable, but when a gem of an advert comes along it eclipses the show that surrounds it. When the production values and the sheer intelligence of the advert make you smile, and the little hairs on the back of your neck tingle, you know (or maybe it’s just me!) you’ve watched an advert that has impact.

Good advertising isn’t about shouting to the world about your products, or ramming them down your potential customers throats. It’s about connecting. Making people remember you. Making them at ease with your product.

Audi cars have gone from strength to strength in the last decade. But so has their advertising. They were always pretty good (Vorsprung durch Technik has worked for a very long time now) but the Audi R8 ads have reached new highs. I wrote a couple of months ago about the TV ad for the R8 and its Halo advertising impact, but they’ve gone one better with an ad that ran in the Superbowl recently.

If you’re a film buff (and even if you’re not), you will admire the Godfather series, probably the only films in cinema history where the sequels where better than the original (and the original was a damn good film). And everyone remembers the horses head in the bed bit. Well, Audi have used that, but instead of a horses head and blood you have a radiator grill and oil. And a menacing R8 revving outside. Genius! Take a look.