On “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” the comedian and namesake host opined that car commercials tend to use the same theme ... over and over. So, he and his writers offered to write a new commercial for any dealership willing to agree to his terms, and Zumbrota Ford in Minnesota took him up on his offer.
How did they make the cut? “They found some similar commercials on YouTube, and one of them was ours,” Zumbrota Ford owner Steve Johnson said after his pickle ad was featured on the show.
Having found the ads, Oliver wrote his own commercial for the car dealership. The catch with the commercial was that the dealership would have to agree to produce the ad without reading the script.
And they went for it. Johnson shared that his daughter, who is a business partner at the dealership, had initially reached out to the show. After some back and forth, it was agreed that they would do the commercial.
“I had not seen the show before because I’m old. I go to bed at 9 o’clock,” Johnson explained.
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Oliver aired the TV spot, which stars the dealership’s general sales manager and finance director as a couple going through domestic troubles.
The ad starts with one spouse staring out the winding saying, “Storms coming any minute now,” as the second spouse replies, “I want a divorce.”
While the commercial is about the car dealership, it details the marriage troubles of the two main characters as they argue about purchasing a minivan.
Johnson said that it was funny the two employees had been chosen as they were known to have some back and forth in the workplace.
“In real life in the workplace, there sometimes is some bickering that goes on,” Johnson said. “They get along great together, and at the same time, we’ve worked together for a long time, so people here in our dealership who saw that interaction thought it was funny.”
The ad quickly cuts to Johnson, back in his pickle suit, telling customers to make their way down to Zumbrota Ford and forget couples therapy. Instead, get a new car.
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On his show, Oliver said details that the dealership added were not in the script, like a clear sky before the opening line about a storm coming, the cut to a Chrysler minivan — being that Ford doesn’t make a minivan — in the small garage, and the husband at the end walking into the dealership and away from his marriage.
Johnson said he was happy with its comedic choices.
“We weren’t trying to aim for perfection. We wanted to put something together that would be funny, light, and original,” Johnson said.
