The Chase - Audi & Jason Statham star in Big Budget Superbowl Commercial

Ad mocks Lexus as unworthy

By Michael Gauthier
February 2, 2009 4:52 PM
Filed Under: Audi, Entertainment, German, Movies

Audi made waves with last year's Godfather inspired R8 Super Bowl commercial and this year the company continued their marketing push by teaming up with Transporter star Jason Statham.

The commercial starts out with Statham being chased in an old Mercedes that he crashes and then abandons. From this point we are transported to the 80's and a Miami Vice like chase where Statham takes a BMW 5-series and then crashes it into a sign. From that point we make it to the early 90's where Statham decides to forgo stealing a Lexus ES from its elderly owners, a not so subtle hint about the brand's driving virtues and clientele. Eventually we make it to the present day where Statham's car of choice is the recently updated Audi A6 and because of its supercharged engine our hero escapes.

Audi's latest commercial ties in with the company's recent marketing push that "Progress is Beautiful" and follows up on last year's Super Bowl ad that stated "Traditional luxury is dead." The minute long ad most likely cost the brand over six million dollars but the company has high hopes that it will finally get consumers to associate Audi as an equal to BMW and Mercedes.

Source: Audi

email print digg facebook fark reddit delicious myspace

Tags: Super Bowl Commerical, Jason Statham, Audi A6

VIDEO: Making of the Audi Super Bowl Commercial (8 comments
Jason Statham and A6 Facelift set to Star in Audi Superbowl Ad (8 comments
The R8: The Slowest Car Audi Ever Built
Audi R8 TV Commercial

Comments

orlandocroccia

February 2, 2009 5:30 PM

LOL, what a desperate move from Audi trying to be seen as a BMW or a Mercedes. If Jason was caught while driving the Merc and the beemer, the fault was not from the cars!!!! Poor Jason Statham that begins with good cars and ends up with an audi:)! My condolences,lol! PS - Do you remember the stupidity of Audi publicity in 'I Robot'! Desperate moves!

Edited by user on February 2, 2009 at 5:31 PM

afterace2

February 2, 2009 5:33 PM

This new A6 looks preety cool in black though

orlandocroccia

February 2, 2009 5:44 PM

Yes, The A6 is a nice car despite the publicity tipe.

BDSawicki

February 2, 2009 5:48 PM

I'm not a PR specialist, but I would judge the spot controversial... Audi appears there to be a car good for a thief... Not too wise I'd say.

kumbze

February 2, 2009 6:28 PM

ofcoarse Audi is equal to BMW and Mercedes, even better

500lbman

February 2, 2009 6:49 PM

I thought the commercial was entertaining and I laughed my a$$ off when he sighed at the sight of the Lexus!

p0ssuid0

February 2, 2009 7:11 PM

maybe in the past audi was not step to step with bmw or mercedes, but in the last few years, audi has improved it's car's dynamics, and made their cars some of the best looking pieces of art with wheels... are you really saying that a 3 series bimmer is better looking in comparison to the new A4?! i don't think so... and the number of cars sold prove it! but that's just my opinion!!!

Windtalker01

February 2, 2009 8:03 PM

Yes,I always like Audi and BMW!! I thought Audi made the most beautiful car when (old version) TT was released. However, since then they just make the rest of their cars look the same...... Now I think they are boring to look and age very quickly (How many facelift did A6 have?!).....

Audi may make a nice car, but I want a car which is energetic and always look fresh! BMW takes my vote. I admire the gut for BMW willing to risk. It make the World more interesting!!!

Moko

February 2, 2009 10:26 PM

yoooo, i feel bad for lexus lol ahah a hahah

Uptohere

February 2, 2009 11:02 PM

Too much! Wow! Gorgeous car. I went to their website to check pricing, which is the whole point of this ad. Looks awesome in black.

Windtalker01

February 2, 2009 11:14 PM

Btw, I find the Ad. very simular to those BMW short films - The Hire, which were filmed few years back!!!

Boboo

February 3, 2009 12:46 AM

Audi will never have the dynamics and handling in driving as the BMW has, just for illustration BMW 335i 3.0 L6 with 306 BHP beat on a circuit the Audi S5 4.2 V8 with 350 BHP- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-HSS0cKD_w

Uptohere

February 3, 2009 4:27 PM

They will. Just be patient a few more months and the 335 will be trumped in every category.

out4ride

February 3, 2009 3:36 AM

Doesn't R8 handle better then any BMW. Why you say "Audi will never have the dynamics and handling in driving as the BMW has"? Why they never compare these two in rain. What are you saying "Unffair advantage"? Well if BMW has better dynamics then isn't that unffair too. I am tired of this war. You buy what you like or what you can afford. I think you need a company like BMW so the other can learn from but you shouldn't put others down just becouse they are different.

Kalos

February 3, 2009 7:59 AM

Kumbze, Audi themselves know that their brand is far less to BMW and Merc otherwise they'd be called the bench mark by now and as it happens both Merc and BMw are benchmark in the luxury and sports sedan areas respectively. if they were better they'd be very relaxed and not - 'trigger' happy as they are know. They are quite pedantic i must say.

Kalos

February 3, 2009 8:01 AM

The X6 will handle alot better than the R8. That's just how good BMW is. A tank handling far better than a tooth pick from Audi.

xenomorph

February 3, 2009 1:02 PM

I really hope that was a joke. Otherwise there is something seriously wrong. Hopefully the other posts are jokes too though because they are just as rediculous.

Kalos

February 3, 2009 8:10 AM

...to answer your question out4ride, in 2007 in South Africa a Van der Linde racing driver put several cars through the paces at an old air field. They had made a track with twists and turns on this same old air field. Now the R8, M3, M6, Zonda, RS4 and other 'mad cars were there to compete. I kid you not, the guy said that if i had to choose what present to recieve for christmas it would be the M3 as it provided him with the most exhilarating ride of the lot. A British driver also said the same thing when he was given several cars to test on a race track, he in the end took the 4 door M3 home as the best and whoa ha!!! fun of the lot. Dynamics is not gripotherwise a train on rails would then be reffered to as the most dynamic - but it ain't.

Kalos

February 3, 2009 8:33 AM

"New Fast & Furious 4 Trailer Released During Superbowl".

Even if you are a 'nutter' of a fan for Audi - boy! you know your cars work has been cut short. Picture this a Black A6 vs a Black Nissan GTR, which car do you think people will want to watch and dream of between the two?. YOu are right - it is the GTR, and i have seen Transporter 4. there was nothing exciting about the car chase. it ws over the top like "speed racer" type.

Uptohere

February 3, 2009 4:39 PM

Egads! More of these BMW fan boys who can't stay on topic. Contribute something useful!

Boboo

February 3, 2009 5:06 PM

Thank you Kalos, R8 is just not good enough...

RCarvalho

February 3, 2009 6:05 PM

"Even better"?????? ...than BMW end Merc??...??? How old are you? 7? 8? 11 years old maybe?? Grow up man! BMW will always be the best! Audi isn´t even as good as Renault! In the States BMW and Mercedes doesn´t have competitors in the premium segment, not even Jaguar!

loyo

February 3, 2009 6:49 PM

Why don't you drive one first? or if you don't have a license yet, at least get into one and compare the quality, read some major car publications (that is 'magazines' for you kid), and then maybe you can post something intelligent.

RCarvalho

February 3, 2009 6:12 PM

And think about this commercial. Who needs to mock other carmakers to make publicity? Just stupid! I think Lexus should process audi! This commercial shows how desperate audi is....!

radmeister

February 3, 2009 7:47 PM

Desperate? You're kidding right? Audi is FAR from desperate, their sales are good, and have one of the biggest and newest line ups on the market. It was meant to be a joke, the commercial was very well funded with no real purpose other than to give people a chuckle, nobody is going to see that commercial and go out and buy an Audi because of it, they may get a laugh though. Which with today's times it's good to know that a car manufacturer is still somewhat human and has a sense of humour, you want to talk about desperate look at GMs current commercials, thats desperation, when the only message they carry is "buy now, buy american" with no reason other than "just do it".

out4ride

February 4, 2009 12:07 AM

So Kalos, you still haven't answer my question "why not in rain"?

The_woo_factor

February 4, 2009 10:30 AM

Audi is the NEW benchmark. Get used to it BMW fan boys.

The_woo_factor

February 4, 2009 10:35 AM

The new Audi line-ups totally leave the competition speechless. It is not hard to understand as Audi has superior presence, design and quality. Driving dynamic is purposeful and sure-footed. Audi ticks all the right boxes. A truly worthy winner!

The_woo_factor

February 4, 2009 10:40 AM

Audi not as good at handling as Renault? X6 handles better than R8? GTR vs S6? I hope World Car Fans web site remove comments from people that are not just offensive but plain STUPID!

Karfan_123

February 15, 2009 12:28 AM

I really like the looks and design of the Audi R8 but i think the motor is rubbish, unless if your talking about the new V10 engine but the old V8 engine was almost the same of the Audi Q7 which gave the R8 a big disadvantage but i think they have a success with the new motor.

View Comment Rules