"Human Car"

The automobile industry is one of the most competitive industries in the market. Great automobile companies such as Ford, GM, and Toyota are always trying to bring innovations to their products in terms of technology, marketing, labor costs and etc. But an interesting thing that I found about Ford is that they brought some kind of innovation that differentiated their advertisement compared to other companies’. Every time you watch a car commercial on TV you see that there’s always a nice woman or a handsome man driving on a spectacular view on the background. When we watch those kinds of commercial, we are supposed to desire that car not for the car itself, but because we idealize that moment. We want to be that man/woman driving. We want to have that peace and joy that person has while driving the car. And we unconsciously think that if we possess that car we will be able to enjoy everything we see on the television. Now, what Ford did, was advertising their cars, with people. They show people actually “making” (illustrating) a car with their own bodies. The message that they leave to the costumer on the video is that “a car is just a car, until it’s powered by you.” It is actually true because what gives power to a car is not technology. A car without a person to drive, it’s nothing but a useless machine. I think that what Ford is trying to do is add consumer’s value to their cars, saying that we are the most important thing for them. Technology is always changing and innovative devices are always being added, which means that the cars are also constantly changing. But our value as a consumer never changes, and that is the most important thing for Ford.


Jin Chung
20600642