Take a car range that’s not selling too well, and try to pull the patriotic heart-strings to see if you can move a few.
   Trouble is, this ad for the MG 6 Magnette, which is running on some of our sites, is pretty awful.
   It’s not convincing, for starters. Brand Germany has its positioning so well sewn up that it’ll take more than a low-budget campaign to shift consumer perceptions, even in Britain. Whomever did this creative obviously hasn’t realized that even the Metropolitan Police doesn’t always buy British any more—though, by and large, the French police will buy French, and the Polizei will buy German.
   It’s worse than Citroën’s effort in trying to convince us that the C5 is Germanic, though at least in its case, it came off mildly aspirational.
   And how ‘Beautifully British’ is the MG 6 anyway, when it was Chinese funds that propped it up, and most of the car is made in China for only final assembly in the Midlands?
   As Edward Sheldon pointed out in the AROnline Facebook group, a much better approach would be to distinguish the MG 6 by making the notion of “buying German” seem me-tooish. Target the MG 6 at the non-conformist, those individualistic buyers who don’t want to drive yet another Focus or BMW Dreier. Even the off-the-cuff copy that Edward came up with in conversation (‘Exclusivity is a myth. Follow your Heart’) is better than the drivel MG originated.
   While it might not be the better car, at least those who opt for a 6 know they are bucking the trend—after all, people have bought outclassed French cars in some segments because they didn’t want to seem like the chap next door.
   What is even more interesting is that the promotions for the same car in China are far more interesting, with a greater need to cut through the clutter that is 2010s Chinese advertising. The use of MG’s history, the ‘Morris Garages’ legend, and a ridiculous storyline that makes the Milk Tray Man seem dull help turn the 6 into a far more appealing proposition, even if not all of it translates well into English. But Britishness, in this case, seems to work far better—it looks like the Chinese agency understands subtlety, using the smallest of hints. Granted, I am comparing a web ad to a video, but still …