Hasta La Creative!

San Francisco agency Duncan/Channon have a new campaign for DriveTime that attempts to mine buddy comedies and old cop shows to make funny spots about buying a car with poor credit.

The two new spots, directed by Adam Brodie & Dave Derewlany, feature a team of two adorably dorky women (I’m intentionally avoiding the term “adorkable” here) driving around a homemade rescue vehicle. When the two see credit-crunched car shoppers they come to the rescue, bringing them to DriveTime where they can expect low-priced leases and loans despite poor credit. In one of the spots, the couple rescue a woman denied a car loan at a dealer; in the other it’s a man crammed into a packed bus who thinks he “can’t afford a car.” With DriveTime’s low-priced leases, he “can’t afford not to get a car” the two say at the same time.

Its brand of cutesy humor isn’t anything new, but it is kind of a fresh approach for selling this type of brand, usually populated by more downbeat messages about how you no longer have to let bad credit stand in your way. As such, the spots are welcome, even if one of them (“Keepin’ It Real”) falls flat on its face. “Next Stop Freedom” (featured above) is a little more successful thanks to an unexpected bit thrown in at the end. There’s potential for the approach to go places, and at the very least it moves away from the tired “Do you have bad credit?” opening spots we’ve all seen a million times. I’m interested to see where Duncan/Channon take this in the future. Credits and “Keepin’ It Real” after the jump.  continued…

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