Autoblog Night Watch: VW encourages you to explore the darkness
We've grown pretty cynical towards the moribund car adverts populating the airwaves. There have a been a few notable exceptions in the past, but the vast majority do little to stir our emotions and inspire us to go for a drive. Volkswagen's new Golf campaign does just that. Night-Drive.com is the creative hub for V-Dub's product push, and is far and away one of the cooler sites we've frequented. The minute-long TV spot is the tip of the inspired iceberg, serving to set the mood with darkened scenes, an ambient background and a Burroughs-esque spoken word piece.
From there, you can piece together your own video with a multitude of angles and audio clips, which isn't anything too revolutionary, but has already wasted away a good half-hour of our time. However, the real fun begins with an embedded Google Maps app that provides detailed routes of VW's choice four-wheeled excursions around the world. Even better, you can submit your own by choosing a start point, and then plotting a route to create your own ideal Night Drive.
We've always liked the idea of a vast drivers' road resource (Pashnit is a good one, primarily geared towards bikes), and Night-Drive.com is a soothing step in the right direction.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
F451 11:28PM (5/24/2007)
Simply brilliant!
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supercujo 11:34PM (5/24/2007)
Cool site.
I never knew that other people liked driving at night like I do. 3am till 5am in most places is just great. No morons to get in your way and a complete lack of authority figures. :)
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Craig 11:35PM (5/24/2007)
Oh, and I added my favourtite drive too. Near Jarrahdale in Western Australia. Just watch out for the roos.
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spm 12:00AM (5/25/2007)
Cool song/poem. Anyone know who that is?
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Jonathan Fung 12:08AM (5/25/2007)
Oh wow. This is a seriously cool site. While not as entertaining as VW's Midlife Crisis Retreat campaign site for the UK, this one is definitly great, and I'm enjoying it immensely now.
I just pity those people with 56k. It'd take them an hour just to load up that intro.
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andehans 1:40AM (5/25/2007)
Well its actually Dylan Thomas reading Under Milk Wood, not Burroughs. Cool commercial.
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Aamar 2:35AM (5/25/2007)
very brilliant!
http://www.pakcar.com
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Phillip 2:50AM (5/25/2007)
Way cool, waaaaaaaaaaay cool
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Mike 4:38AM (5/25/2007)
Awesome
http://www.jimimorrisonshead.com/
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Joe K. 9:24AM (5/25/2007)
Anybody else notice that he runs a redlight just before they show the cops (goes straight through a light looking sideways and that light is green) Interesting... Anyways, there are/were nights in the summer that i just hop in the car, through the top down, turn off the radio, hit 611 in PA between New Hope and Easton, and drop the pedal... Listen to the engine, under the stars, just by myself...
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bmoredlj 10:21AM (5/25/2007)
The site sets a cool, immersive mood. Very nicely done.
I believe the music was done by Cliff Martinez, from the score to Soderbergh's "Solaris" remake (the one with George Clooney).
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curtisinasia 12:25PM (5/25/2007)
I don't know what Dylan Thomas sounds like but the voiceover sounds like Richard Burton the actor who was married to Liz Taylor. I did some looking around on the web and Burton was the narrator for the 1972 version of “Under Mike Wood”.
Very Cool...
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curtisinasia 12:26PM (5/25/2007)
sorry Milk not Mike fat fingers....
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Warren Anthony 6:07AM (5/29/2007)
Thanks for all the positive comments. We tried to bring many aspects of night driving to life through the website and advertising here at DDB and Tribal. There's loads of great drives that have appeared on the map now too - get amongst it if you haven't already!
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Andy 12:53AM (6/04/2007)
I'm curious what city the filming was in? It must be in the United States (funny that it's a UK model driving around), I noticed palm trees but couldn't pick out anything else.
Warren Anthony 9:11AM (6/06/2007)
The car footage was all shot in LA, some of it Downtown and some in The Valley and around the suburbs.