BMW scoffs at Tesla and its waiting list
Technically Incorrect: In a new ad campaign, the German auto manufacturer wonders why on earth you'd want to wait for a Tesla, when you can buy a BMW now.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
He's waiting for his Tesla. He's miserable.
Good things may come to those who wait.
If you believe the nonsense that's peddled in proverbs, that is.
Germans understand that it's the concrete apfelstrudel that matters, not the pie in the sky.
Indeed, BMW has decided to ask you: "Why, oh, why are you waiting for a Tesla when you can buy a BMW plug-in hybrid right now?"
In a new ad campaign, the Teutons are getting their cute on.
They're deriding Tesla in what they think is a witty way, but you might think is rather a smack in Tesla's gum region.
In one ad, the voiceover muses: "You will do your taxes twice, maybe more. You will ring in the New Year twice, maybe more. You will wait and wait and wait some more, all before that electric car company's new model ever even arrives."
You just know they're talking about Tesla.
By May, Elon Musk's company had already mustered 373,000 people prepared to wait until who knows when for its Model 3.
BMW chuckles at this. After all, you can buy a BMW plug-in hybrid now.
"Well yes," you might concede, "but it's a BMW. And if you drive one of those, you're, you know, sleazy and self-righteous."
BMW is insistent. In another ad, the tone is even more blatant. It suggests that you are truly very silly if you just wait and wait and wait for a Tesla.
How silly? Sillier than the British when they wait for buses that never come, it seems.
Here we see a woman. We think she's one of Tesla's waiters. No, not in the company restaurant. On the company's waiting list.
But no, it turns out she's an enlightened BMW driver who's already bought her BMW 330E so that she can laugh at all her friends who might get a Tesla in 2017. Or not.
Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
It's a persuasive argument BMW has here.
It might have been more effective, however, if it tried to paint a picture of the future.
In 2017, President Trump bans electric cars. He insists that cars should now be coal-powered. In addition, all cars must be colored gold. BMWs are banned because they're foreign. Oldsmobile makes a comeback with its brand new Coalsmobile.
That would sell them, wouldn't it?