The Acura Season of Reason campaign is back for the third year, this year featuring superstars Bette Midler and Gordon Ramsay promoting the value of Acura for affluent but recession-fatigued shoppers. The spots open with a holidaymaker making the well-intentioned announcement that they had hired celebrity talent to make for an extra-special holiday. In the spot starring actress Bette Midler, a local caroler brings her on to make his singing troupe the best on the block only to have the ostentatiously dressed Midler commandeer the group and deliver an outlandish performance. In the spot featuring Gordon Ramsay, a woman brings the celebrity chef into her home to prepare a special holiday dinner only to find her buttoned-up family sitting in awkward silence as Ramsay chews out and fires his staff. “At a time when it’s easy to go overboard, Acura invites you to be smarter and over-save during the Season of Reason sales event,” a narrator offers at the end of each spot.
“The ‘Season of Reason’ has become a humorous, annual reminder of Acura being a smart choice for customers seeking innovation and luxury,” said Susie Rossick, brand manager of Acura National Advertising. “Our goal is to stand out in the pack of end-of-the-year automotive advertising by being clever and wry, and these spots portraying holiday zealots overspending to hire personal celebrities is a funny twist on our successful past holiday campaigns.”
The TV campaign will launch on high-profile programming, including the NFL on CBS. Online banner ads will complement these featured spots, appearing on 18 top auto shopping sites, including KBB.com, Edmunds.com and Cars.com. The campaign will also include print, POP and radio ads.
Credits
The Acura Season of Reason campaign was developed at RPA by executive creative director John Hage, director of art Phillip Squier, associate creative director/art director Eric Goldstein, associate creative director/copywriter John Guynn, art director Puja Shah, executive producer Jack Epsteen and senior producer Carolyn Casey.
Filming was shot by directors The Perlorian Brothers via Furlined with executive producer David Thorne, directors of photography Bryan Newman and Curtis Clark, and line producer Josh Porter.
Editor was Stewart Reeves at Arcade Edit with post producer Ali Reed and managing partner Damian Stevens.
Music was produced at Elias Arts by executive creative director Jonathan Elias, creative director David Gold, composer Christopher Kemp and executive producer Ann Haugen.
Post production was done at Airship Post by VFX artist Matthew Lydecker and post producer Lisa English. Colourist was Mark Gethin at MPC.
Audio post production was done at Juice West by sound engineer Bob Gremore.