I remember the first time I saw the SKODA Citigo Advert and felt immediately how wrong they actually did the whole thing. This advert as part of a campaign launched in spring 2012 is using geeky jargon, possibly in the hope of capturing a young audience. First of all they define the new Citigo a communication tool… it’s a car, a vehicle, not a phone! Then they try to re-invent the definition of firewall (here described as a useful app to avoid system crashes) which is totally misleading.
A reputable source like wikipedia defines a Firewall as:
A firewall can either be software-based or hardware-based and is used to help keep a network secure. Its primary objective is to control the incoming and outgoing network traffic by analyzing the data packets and determining whether it should be allowed through or not, based on a predetermined rule set.
So I am really wondering here how the creative director or anybody else in the process could not be bothered to check a simple technical definition. In my opinion there will be two classes of people watching this advert:
- those who know what a firewall is and realise how wrong the advert is
- those who did not know (or care) that will get a wrong message
Here is the advert… well thought but really not useful or funny, despite the cake in the face at the end: