Youtube round-up: Singing dog, car orchestra, burning shed
Ode to a Ford - performed on the new Focus
Author: Chris Barker
Published: 18 March 2008
Once again it's time to round-up the car videos that have had you talking at the water cooler this week, with a few videos that are likely to have entered your recent consciousness, and one or two that may have escaped you.
Either way, there are some crackers in this car video round-up with Clarkson and Co destroying a shed with a jet-powered barbecue on the way to seriously annoying Sir Steve Redgrave being perhaps the funniest of the bunch.
Top Gear may have long ago stopped pretending that their antics aren't stages, but it doesn't actually make them any less funny.
To round off there are three of the more noteworthy car adverts currently doing the rounds. We really want to hate the Volkswagen singing dog advert, but it's just too funny, dammit.
Ford Focus Beautifully Arranged
Ford's car orchestra advert has certainly had you intrigued.
In a sort of 'You Bet!' ITV1 Saturday tea-time friendly way (whereby members of the general public would challenge themselves to recognise three seconds of an exhaust note) you lucky folk now get to debate whether that's an inlet manifold from a Ford Focus being used as a bassoon, or a drive-shaft. With yourself.
We refer of course to the recent telly ad that had a bunch of foppy-haired session musicians prattle away on various integral components of the latest Ford Focus for our listening pleasure.
Praise the Lord that no-one thought of this advertising concept roughly 20 years ago, as we can't imagine for a minute that the old tappet-note-perfect CVH engine of a 1987 Ford Fiesta could be resuscitated long enough for the tone-deaf to rejoice in its distinctive cam-rattle and baffle roll.
• View the Ford Focus car orchestra video
Volkswagen Polo Confidence
Budding thesps may be told to avoid the pitfalls of working with animals and children at all costs, but lets face it, how else are jobbing actors with only a laughable credit for a walk-on role in ratings-rationed BBC lunchtime soap 'Doctors' to their name ever going to get this sort of prime-time exposure?
Cute canines plus nostalgic music plus lashings of sappiness equals a memorable advert for the Volkswagen Polo, otherwise known as 'the one with the singing dog'.
And possibly a 'brief walk-past the fruit machine' part in a forthcoming Eastenders for the advice-ignoring character actor.
• View the Volkswagen Polo singing dog video
Top Gear does Ground Force
Clarkson, Hammond and May doing what they do best – causing anarchy and showing a blatant disregard for someone else's property.
Upturned mini-diggers, sheds ablaze, exploding water-features, rocket-roasted chicken and a particularly peeved sporting celeb taking umbridge, viewers have to remember its all in the name of charity.
Sports relief presents 'Top Ground Gear Force' might have been interrupted with occasional bucket-shaking weepies but Jezza and Co. leave us all in tears of hysterics as they go native and get to grips with horticulture with hilarious consequences.
Hammond shows his artistic persuasion, (if not digger-driving skills), May insists that gardens only serve as a bit of colour around the base of a shed and Clarkson believes that a shotgun can remedy any landscaping hydras.
• View the Top Gear does Ground Force video
Renault keyless entry advert
Some messages get lost in translation. Others require no subtitles whatsoever and are met with universal derision. The Germans may not be known for their sense of humour, however the French have a certain flair for tickling our fancy as this video agonisingly illustrates.
In some circumstances the tried and tested solution to counter the antisocial effects of a jellyfish sting - relieving oneself on animate objects - might be frowned upon in polite circles; yet in the depths of a particularly harsh, unrepentant winter, some car owners might just turn to nature's secret weapon to get themselves out of a predicament.
Acting as a sort of unofficial Scandinavian Government Health Warning, this chap painfully discovers that no matter how bright the idea seems in the heat of the moment, nine times out of ten what seems perfectly plausible in theory will be met with an icy response when put into practice. And this is no exception.
• Watch the Renault keyless entry video.
Car adverts, music videos, the finest film car chases, and some stuff crashing. All here in our videos section.
Rolls-Royce Peony Phantom widens the gap between the haves and have nots of Abu Dhabi. Inspired by a revered flower, the Peony is a limited edition dealer special that comes with its own bespoke scent.
The excess and inexperience of ad execs in the 80's combined to produce some of the most visually exciting, baffling adverts in TV history. So we present the 20 best 1980's TV car commercials of the decade.
Citroen's Unmistakably German advert has won a gong for 'Best Car Advertising Campaign'
Fiat's new advert for the new Grande Punto feature the Italian supermini bouncing up and down on a trampoline.
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