[ZTWsquared]

ZX5focused,Mar 19 2007, 03:21 PM Wrote:im really gonna have to call repost, though i doubt i can find it. but this video is extremely old and was never produced by ford.  some freelance guy made it.
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You're right, it is quite old and I may have even posted it myself when it first came out.

But it is was in fact a "for real" ad produced by Ford's agency in the U.K. - it was primarily a viral marketing thing but it was apparently aired a couple of times (as was the pigeon one) to the predictable outcry from animal rights group. There was a whole Ford-sponsored website with fake news articles about what was happening to the animals in various UK neighbourhoods - wallpaper, posters you could buy, the whole nine yards.

Ford's plan all along, understanding the potential for a PR hit, was to take advantage of the notoriety of the ad (it was seen worldwide) and yet still have senior execs deny any "official" knowledge of the spots, and so thats what they did when the shi-ite hit the fan.

I'm quite familiar with the process, but ask anyone in TV advertising about the kind of production values inherent to those spots and they'll tell you it was a big-bucks production - no freelancer did that on their own dime and especially not a whole series complete with website etc.