Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear once said that you aren’t a true car enthusiast unless you’ve owned an Alfa Romeo, well, that might be true in Europe, but here in North America, the Italian car maker and its history of beautiful sports cars and exciting hatchbacks haven’t been driven on our shores in over 30 years. However, there’s has been some shifting going on in Italy, and now, Alfa has returned. Alfa Romeo will be selling cars in North America for the first time in over 30 years, their lineup will be simple to start out with, a sports sedan called the “Guilia” to rival cars like the BMW 3-series and Mercedes C-class, and an SUV called the “Stelvio” named after the famous mountain pass near the Swiss/Italian border. Of course with this being such a big step for the company, they want to get it right, and in doing so have employed quite the aggressive marketing strategy, and this is what I’ll be taking a look at today. Marketing strategies are important to a company; if you can’t get your name out, you can’t sell your products to the customers that will want to buy them. Alfa Romeo know this, and on their return to America, they decided to take over one of the advertising world’s Holy Grail: the Super Bowl. What better way to mark your return than and get your name that to put your ads on the most watched event of the year, and Alfa dominated the ads, having more commercials than any company there. Alfa has also stepped up their game in terms of online advertising, with online ads appearing everywhere. The ads themselves focus in on those who would normally consider buying a 3-series or a C-class as their new luxury sedan, by marketing themselves as a more stylish and attractive option to the Germans. They want you to consider them over their completion because they have all the class and style you would normally associate with an Italian designed product. Alfa is also going to great length to integrate their vast motorsport history into their marketing. Most car enthusiasts know of Alfa’s motorsport history with cars such as the Tipo 33 and the 8c 2900, cars which known for their success on the racetrack, as well as their design as well. Alfa wishes to capture the essence of these cars to ensure people that buying one of these cars will allow to experience something (at least vaguely) similar to those classic racers. Alfa Romeo has also done a great job appealing to younger buyers also. Their first advertising for their new SUV the “Stelvio” featured a creative and exhilarating freestyle rap about the vehicle that incorporated many of today’s modern slang into it. You can watch it here. Many people are praising Alfa Romeo’s return, and the first reviews of the both the Guilia and the Stelvio seem to be positive. Many people are praising both cars’ high performance, or “Quadrafoglio” versions of the cars, that both come with Ferrari developed engines. Only time will tell if Alfa Romeo will be able to stay in North America, but the company has certainly cemented itself as a real contender against its German rivals.
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Certain things in this world are truly timeless, from old video games to classic movies, there are just somethings that will never get old. I had the recent pleasure to watch a classic movie that has, even to this day, remained relevant and can still be experienced even today, and enjoyed in a modern and engaging way. The movie I’m referring to is the 1961 romance film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. The film follows the story of a wayward author and a delusional, yet surprisingly philosophical, women. The two form a bond together, and as one thing leads to another as usual in romance films, the two eventually find love. What makes this movie so special, and why I believe it has held up for so long, and still remains applicable when compared to today’s movie’s is how simple everything is. This may sound odd, but I find the story has a form of simplicity that allows for the characters to be so relatable, as well as making the story unforgettable. The notice of this simplicity is with the setting and the design of the characters. The apartment in which our female protagonist, Holly Golightly, lives in is simple, with a few pieces of well-designed furniture, solid colour walls, and overall looks quite clean. There is almost nothing in the apartment, except for maybe to rotary phone that dates the apartment. Same goes for the fashion that the characters; Paul dresses in a simple suit and tie, while Holly’s dresses are usually solid colours and pencil skirts that would still look modern by today’s standards. I’ve said that this movie could easily be remade today, and all a director would have to do is to replace the cars in the city scenes with modern ones and the movie would probably still be a hit. However, it’s not by setting or fashion alone that makes the movie so timeless, the key is in the storytelling. What makes Breakfast at Tiffany’s such a timeless piece is how relatable the characters are. Most romance movies are so intent on setting up some magical fairy-tell romance that it makes the story seem petty and predictable. You know the two are going to be in love by the end of the movie because the director is intent on making sure these two are so obviously in love, but are so oblivious to it that most of the time you feel like whacking them over the head and just yelling at them for being so idiotically oblivious. Not in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. There are points in this movie where Paul seems, for lack of a better word, friend-zoned, or sections where you honestly think that everything is not going to work out, hell, the first kissing scene isn’t until the very end of the film. This movie finds a way to keep you engaged in the romance aspect of this film, without ever being obnoxious about it. In many ways Breakfast at Tiffany’s feels more like a drama in its events or even, and I know this is an odd and probably shocking comparison, a slice-of-life series. You never feel burdened by the storytelling, and in most cases, is probably how some actual people fell in love. In conclusion, Breakfast at Tiffany’s has held up all this year because it was able to craft an excellent romance film, without using any of the cheesy and cliché romance fil tropes; instead it focuses on keeping the characters simple and relatable, which are, in my mind, the key to making something truly timeless.
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About Me:Welcome to my blog! Here you'll find various articles about all sorts of topics. Politics, Music, Video Games, eSports, and many other topics I feel the need to write about. Archives
February 2018
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