• by Karl Greenberg , October 15, 2015

Acura is talking safety. Specifically, it is talking about the fact that it is the first and only auto brand to earn top safety ratings across its entire model line. The Honda Motor luxury brand received the recognition from both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Institute of Highway Safety.  

The company is launching a campaign that, like other automakers’ safety campaigns, makes the point with crash-test dummies -- but with a twist. Instead of showing cars full of crash dummies colliding with a barrier in slow motion, Acura is showing engineers preparing to run the test with an MDX SUV -- but the dummies are real people who are behaving, well, just like real dummies. 

In the spot, an engineer is preparing to crash test the MDX. Another engineer rolls over a Bleacher on which dummies sit. But they are people, staring straight ahead, motionless, eyes open wide. As he picks them up and places them in the vehicle, we see that he seems, strangely, to care an awful lot about them. When we see who the dummy/guy is whom he puts into the driver’s seat we realize why: he’s picturing his own family, and the guy he just put behind the wheel is him. 

Leila Cesario, national advertising manager for the Acura Division, tells Marketing Daily the campaign continues a strategy the automaker and its agency, the Los Angeles office of Mullen Lowe, kicked off last year: focusing on Acura engineers in ads. “Obviously, what we are talking about here is our safety leadership, as marketers we plan to take credit for this; its important to luxury shoppers; it's a competitive advantage. It is a truth, and it communicates motivation in the underlying passion of our engineers.”

She adds that the campaign comprises both TV, just one spot, and digital, including banners, and video. “We will hit strongly this weekend :30 and :60 second spots during NFL games. We are going to be concentrated over the next month to drive this message home.”