I have often suggested that brands should abandon the idea of owning a target audience - and try to own a target moment instead.
Volkswagen's Night Driving campaign is a spectacularly good example of this.
Rather deftly it connects the brand to the last remaining mode of driving which is still unambiguously enjoyable.
For many people, surely, the prospect of a damn fine night drive is a pleasure like little else. It can even act as an inducement both to sobriety and sexual continence.... "Appreciative as I am of your kind offer to 'come in for coffee', I can't help noticing that the old motor's running rather smoothly at the moment and the thought of a nice run home rather trumps the idea of a few moments spent entwined in the throes of ecstasy, if it's all the same to you. How about a coffee to go? It's just I've got these new cup-holders...."
The promise of a trip on the night-bus will rarely have this effect.
This idea understands all that.
Mind you, when you think about it, the idea has been done before.
Don't worry, chaps; not in advertising. No, it's been done by Edward Hopper.
I have always liked Hopper more than any other 20th Century artist. For one thing, the people depicted in his work are not French, and so it is easier to develop affectionate feelings for them. But the really wonderful thing about Hopper is the way he captures and reframes of a particular mood-moment - often after dark.
Night Hawks you all know. There is also a particularly fine depiction of a deserted gas-station. All of his signature pictures seem to reposition the idea of solitude. Once you have seen these works, certain moments are never quite the same again. A stop for petrol at a remote BP station at 1am suddenly acquires a poignancy you'd never quite expect.
It's a wonderful thing to do. And wonderful to see advertising doing it.
