[JamieA]

C'mon guys lighten up!

In many markets (including Australia for instance) it is illegal to show car advertisements where the car is driving at speed or cornering too hard or in any danger of being driven in a fun manner whatsoever.

Even in Australia, the original Mazda Zoom-Zoom ads had trouble... I know it is the wowserish state of society that we live in here today perpetuated by socialist governments that are intent on stamping out any last vestige of pleasure that we may still have, but I digress.

Simply put, car companies have needed to adopt more artful ways of showing off their cars. In this instance you know a BMW is going to go hard (they show the 650 badge of which the "50" part is well understood by BMW customers) you know it is going to handle well. There are endless examples of advertising which show this, so in marketing speak, how do you get the "cut through".

I understand that the whole "joy" thing isn't to everyone's tastes, but the whole campaign has had a common theme - enjoy driving again, rediscover the unabandoned thrill of discovery and excitement you experienced on a day to day basis as a child - think about it why do you love driving fast, or manhandling a large beast around a difficult corner at impossible speed with ease and fluency? Because it takes you back to these times. BMW are surfacing this in their advertising in my opinion. After years of ownership of a BMW, and using it to drive a common stretch of country road that I do on a fortnightly basis, I still feel a thrill when I get it around a particularly difficult stretch of road very fast and so effortlessly, my car just seems to thread through these hills like it is on rails.

Also consider that in today's carbon constrained orthodoxy, driving cars for pleasure is a cardinal sin! We must only drive them when absolutely necessary and with the maximum efficiency possible. This political environment around cars is oppressive to car enthusiasts, and for one, I am sick and tired of it, and of staring down the glares of Toyota Pious drivers as I have fun while driving. Prima facie, Efficient Dynamics is at some real odds with what BMW customers want - the experience of the ultimate expression of the car that begs to be driven as a toy. But when you think about it further, what BMW are saying to us with a wink and a nod with the "Joy" campaign is don't feel guilty enjoying your car. Feel the freedom to use your car, knowing that you are polluting the environment less.

Clearly these two guys are not gay. They are two men who rediscover the childhood pleasure of running around in water on a summer's day. They use their cars just for the fun of it.

Do you remember running around in the water, chasing your friends on hot days when you were little? How did you feel?