Kyle Johnson
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New Commercial: Opel Tries Selling Ampera-e with Insect Snuff Film

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Opel Ampera-e Cockchafer murder commercial

When considering an approach that an automotive brand might take to hype up its all-new electric vehicle, one could reasonably conceive of a bunch of different approaches. In the case of the Opel Ampera-e, you could start with the impressively long electric range or surprisingly affordable starting cost, for example. Those are qualities that would presumably make someone think, “hey, you know, I would buy one of those.”

Instead, Opel went with this:

Oh. Well, that works too, I guess.

From Opel’s press release:

Opel’s new viral clip does not deliver a technical explanation to transport the range message but instead looks to deeply black humor—including a minor shock. The Ampera-e not only surprises the animal kingdom but also the Almighty himself: Who could expect an electric car to come along in the middle of nowhere when crossing the road[?] However, at least one of the cockchafers in the spot finds out the hard way that he should expect the unexpected: “You know how far away the nearest city is. Do you really think that an electric car can get this faaaaaaaa …,” he says before meeting his maker. Up in heaven even God is lost for words. Even he did not think that an electric car could have such a range.

Did Grumpy Cat write this? What is going on over in Opel’s marketing and PR departments? Presumably, it’s one part hallucinogenic drugs and one part outright weirdness.

Apparently, the idea with this commercial is that having an Ampera-e run over a cockchafer (heh) somehow demonstrates the stupidity of range anxiety. What, you didn’t get that? Clearly, this was the single most effective method for conveying that idea.

Opel Ampera-e commercial god Ben Becker

The god proxy in this commercial is played by Ben Becker, who is described as serving the role of “humoristic spearhead” by playing “a God who is imperfect and is definitely not up to date when it comes to electro-mobility.” Like, what even is going on here? Did one of the hosts from Westworld write this?

Is this commercial different? Yes. Is there bug murder? Of course. Will this commercial sell a single Opel Ampera-e? Not a chance.

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