BMW: Still "The Ultimate Driving Machine" after all

Oops. Seems that Al Ries' column in Advertising Age was a little off base when he accused BMW of dropping the famous slogan "The Ultimate Driving Machine" in favor of the "Company of Ideas" theme central to the brand's new ad campaign that was devised by its shiny new ad agency, GSD&M.

It turns out that "The Ultimate Driving Machine" remains BMW's tagline. Broadly speaking, the idea behind the "Company of Ideas" campaign is that it takes a Company of Ideas to come up with The Ultimate Driving Machine.

A couple of quotes from the original press releases about the campaign should have been a clue:

"BMW has carved out a unique niche in the industry by placing a premium on constant
innovation and inspiration and this campaign will reveal the company behind The Ultimate
Driving Machine." - Jack Pitney, VP Marketing, BMW North America (pdf)

"BMW, which retains "The ultimate driving machine" as its tagline, ...] - AdWeek (pdf)

The ad pictured above, for BMW's Performance Series of concerts and films, is a good example. See other examples from the GSD&M campaign here.

You may now return to your regularly-scheduled programming...

[via Kicking Tires]