BMW i3 – Newfangled Idea / Gumbel and Couric talk Internet - (2015) :60 /USA)

In 1994, when Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric discussed the internet, they were famously clueless about it, and that exotic new mark suddenly seen everywhere, the @-sign. "I've never heard it said, I've only seen the mark" says Gumble "What is 'Internet' anyway? Do you write to it like mail?"

I had email in 1994, and remember laughing at the cluelessness of TV presenters who were now introducing ways to email their show. "Do you have email?" used to be a common question, kids. BMW decided to take the clip that shows how new things can perplex people, to illustrate that new ideas can take really off despite initial doubt. So here we are, with a Katie and Bryant reunion inside a BMW i3 car, trying just as cluelessly to figure out how it's powered. Maybe by windmills? Cute spot, that will have some of the target market (if they are the 40+ crowd) smirking.

But then there's the button:

"Can You Twerk?" asks Bryant.
"Maybe" responds Katie.

(mental image of Katie in her pink 90's faux Chanel, twerking, has just ruined my day. Don't do this to us visual people, it's cruel.)

Client: BMW
Ad agency: Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners