National Car Rental has a Bad Day
Brand: National Car Rental
Execution: TV
Link: Click Here (it is the fifth spot) or Click Here (it is the seventh spot)
Target: Small to midsize businesses
Rating: *
Reviewer: David
Description:
These seven :15 second spots all feature short funny situations, many of which are embarrasing or just plain mean. All start with the caption “The Quickest ____” where the blank is everything from Game of Charades (a hairy guy starts to stand up and play and someone guesses “Planet of the Apes” correctly) to Job Interview (a woman knocks over a hand-built sailing ship as she shakes her prospective boss’s hand). After the setup, we see another screen saying “The Quickest Way to Rent from National.” Then we see a car leaving a National Car Rental lot as the voiceover says, “With the Emerald Club, you can bypass the counter, choose your own car and get an e-receipt. National. Green means go.”
What Works:
These spots are all funny and the pace is brisk. The brevity is helpful and keeps our attention. The campaign is very consistent and National Car Rental fans will certainly recognize it.
What Doesn’t:
As our loyal readers know, this advertising blog believes humor is a very tricky tool for advertisers. Used properly, it can reinforce the brand positioning and create a memorable spot tied to a memorable brand. More commonly, very good humor overshadows the commercial message and wastes the money spent. This campaign is a good example of the second case. All of these spots are funny, but the link between ‘quick disaster’ and ‘quick car rental’ is shallow and flimsy. There is no branding in the first half of the spot.
The brand positioning for National is also questionable in this spot. National must be talking to its own customer base, because it is advertising a standard category benefit (Emerald Club direct-to-car is a clone of Hertz #1 Club gold and similar programs from other agencies). There is no superiority claim made here, which is an odd strategy for a brand which is not in the top three in its category. If Emerald is indeed speaking to frequent Emerald renters, trying to keep them loyal then television would seem to be a foolishly expensive medium given the relatively small number of targets and the fact that Emerald can already reach them through direct mail, during a rental or in other more efficient ways.
Finally, it should be said that some of these spots are just mean. That does not reflect well on a brand which is in no way linked to a counter-culture.
Branding Bottom Line
National Car Rental takes the wrong lesson from Desperate Housewives
September 20th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
These ads are annoying. They're so short that they're strung together with other commercials that contain more audio content. The other ads allow the viewer to do other things while listening. Then we hear "PLANET OF THE APES!", look up, and catch the plug for National, without knowing what the first topic was. This has bugged me for months now, and it took Google to find out it was the "quickest game of charades".
All of the National commercials share this flaw and I'm sure they bother far more viewers than just me.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Remember when people rented cars mainly for the purpose of vacation transportation? These days, things have changed. The car rental industry has grown by leaps and bounds; the most current estimates available put annual car rental revenue at a whopping $17.6 billion. Cheap Car Rental Tenerife http://cheap-car-rental-tenerife.blogspot.com
November 10th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Does anyone besides me think the current (11/10/08) National Car Rental ad where the tennis pro knocks out a guy who is about to pick out the car the pro wants is bad, not at all funny?
November 14th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
John McEnroe ads are so annoying; we watched him be a bad boy when he played tennis; spare us this repeated bad behavior.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
This ad mortified me ~ I'm in total agreement with John J. & web. It definitely does NOT make me want to rent a car from National. Don't we have enough violence in this world!?!?!
January 9th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
I'm glad I was not the only one thinking McEnroe hitting someone on the head with a tennis ball was not at all funny. I notice National has cut that out of the ad. I guess people complained.
May 2nd, 2009 at 6:33 pm
The National Car Rental Ad with McEnroe having to choose a car has a salesman that looks like Governor Mitt Romney's son. Does anyone know the name of that guy? Just curious.
October 27th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
enough of the McEnroe commercial. Just bad taste on Nationals part. Just hate it1 The last few days you made a change now it's back to Mac again.
October 31st, 2009 at 11:54 am
I don't know his name, but I thought he might be McEnroe's son (if he has one that age)…Very handsome guy….with dimples. And 'yes' the ad is annoying, screaming for no reason at a nice salesman trying to help him. Please spare me this annoying banter on the t.v.
November 4th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Chill out, people…McEnroe (and son?) are laughing at McEnroe.
(BTW, how can someone who uses the name 'Clitoria' be condescending to or about anyone??)
April 15th, 2010 at 3:07 am
How many more million times will National air the same 2 tedious 15-sec. spots? Pathetic, insulting cheap to go so long without updating the ad campaign. Am I the only one racing for the remote to spare myself seeing the cutsie McEnroe schtick yet another time? Am I the only one vowing to never patronize National again?
April 15th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
I wish someone would get the word back to National and the ad agency that did the ads and maybe they would get the message that I and my friends will never rent a car from a company that is so rude and nasty. There is NOTHING funny about the ads, and I want companies who are friendly and courteous to their customers. The attempt to show the agent is keeping his cool does not make it and should be dropped along with the ad agency. There are other car rental agencies out there with ads that show friendly courteous companies.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:36 am
The words I would like to use to describe how I feel about these commercials would probably cause my post to be deleted. These National car rental commercials have driven me to the point where I not only hover over the mute button when a break in network or basic cable programming is about to start, but have also caused me to browbeat my wife into doing the same when I am in another room so that I won't have to hear "NATIONAL CAR RENTAL!!!!" shouted at me. Should this company turn out to have the best rate available next time I go to a travel site to rent a car, I will immediately move to the company with the second best rate!
Flashback to 1997 – National Car Rental also succeeded in having the most annoying sounds-on-hold I ever experienced. Imagine hearing this:
CLAP CLAPCLAPCLAPCLAPCALPCLAP "LET'S GO!!!" real loud, from at least two clapping and shouting men. Now imagine this being repeated over and over and over. That was the last time I ever called that company.