• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, April 8, 2013

When I think of impulse buys, I think of the candy section at the grocery store and the trial-sized beauty supplies that consume the checkout line at Sephora. But a car, as an impulse buy, is something I’m not buying.

While this ad for Volkswagen Canada is clever -- not to mention challenging for the production team -- I’d position the car as affordable without labeling it as an impulse buy.

“Butcher” promotes the 2013 Jetta, which costs $14,990, a decent price for someone in the market for a new car. The ad begins with a woman buying meat from her butcher. She then asks him “How fresh is the Jetta?” as you’d ask how fresh the fish of the day might be. The camera pans out to show two silver Jettas hanging behind the counter, suspended from the ceiling. The best part is how the cars sway, just like a piece of meat in a butcher shop. After considering the price, the woman takes the plunge and buys a Jetta, but insists on the “one on the left.”

The ad, created by Red Urban, was shot inside the stables of Casa Loma in Toronto.

“The biggest challenge was to hang the cars so that they would hang authentically – and even sway a little the way a piece of meat would,” said Christina Yu, Executive Creative Director at Red Urban.

“To accomplish the stunt, we removed the engine, transmission and fluids from both vehicles to reduce the overall weight. A European trailer hook part was installed and reinforced before employing a custom rig solution to hoist the cars up inside the Casa Loma stables. No CG was employed.”

The cars still weighed more than 3,000 pounds after certain parts were removed.

Red Urban also seeded a behind-the-scenes video illustrating how the agency was able to suspend the Jettas.

As to positioning the Jetta as an impulse buy, Yu states: “We chose this angle because it allowed us to appeal to our audience’s appreciation of both good quality and good value. The impulse buy that we depicted isn’t taken literally by viewers. The position of the vehicles, swaying slightly as they hang from a ceiling hook, is surprising and funny. The customer notices them and makes her purchase."