Acura commercial uses creepily life-like dolls to make a point about safety
Acura’s latest car ads are clearly trying to tie the idea of “safety’’ with its brand, but depending on how you feel about life-sized human dolls, a few other words may come to mind as well.
Acura’s latest ad “The Test,’’ shown above, features a safety engineer setting up a crash test for an Acura SUV. But instead of crash dummies, the test involves remarkably life-like dolls.
The engineer carries two child-sized dolls, puts them into the back seat, and takes some measurements. Next, he carries a doll that looks like an adult woman and puts her (er, it?) in the front passenger seat.
Finally, the engineer puts the final doll in the driver’s seat. He secures the doll’s hands around the steering wheel, stares at it, and pauses. All the while, the camera does not show the doll’s face.
As he heads back to the testing booth, we see the doll in the driver’s seat has been made to look exactly like the safety engineer. We can only presume the other dolls have been made to resemble his family.
The motto that goes along with the commercial is: “When you don’t think of them as dummies, something amazing happens.’’
Point taken.
The ad underscores Acura’s claim to be “the first luxury brand to earn top safety ratings across it entire model line.’’ That’s true for the 2016 models, according to the IIHS Top Safety Pick+ ranking, as long as the vehicles are equipped with optional front crash prevention systems. (IIHS hasn’t tested the 2016 TLX yet, but the 2015 model scored well.)
Acura is among a long list of carmakers focusing on safety technology. See which other vehicles earned a Top Safety Pick+ Award from the IIHS:
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Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to the vehicle in the ad as a minivan. It is an SUV.
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