In William Saroyan’s one-act play The Oyster And The Pearl , the protagonist — a barber with a philosophical bent of mind — presents a humdinger of a world view. He suggests that the only thing worth doing is to attempt to bring solace to “the tired old human heart”. He believes creating a cheerful book, a delectable work of art, a piece of uplifting music or a philosophy of hope can achieve this end.
There are instances of automobile companies making such an attempt, venturing into these specialisations, with modest to significant success.
In 2004, Mercedes-Benz started bringing out mixed tapes featuring musicians who operate on a track running parallel to established grooves of music. It sustained the initiative for nearly 12 years, bringing out 63 mixed tapes over the period. A tape would feature 15 and sometimes 10 musicians. Significantly, Mercedes-Benz facilitated limited free downloading of songs from these compilations through its website. The choice of musicians, most of them operating outside the glare of publicity, was often impressive. Some of the musicians and bands I Google for today were introduced to me by these tapes.
When Mercedes-Benz announced on a Facebook page two years ago that it would not offer these tapes any more, followers expressed disappointment in a manner that underlined the success of the initiative.
Audi and BMW also have their programmes promoting such finer aspects of life. There is Audi ArtExperience, which includes Sommerkonzerte in Germany, that features up-and-coming musicians. One element of BMW Art Journey is enabling promising artists to go on an exploratory tour of art forms across the world.
Why do automobile companies go to such trouble? An obvious answer is, of course, brand-building. The logical next question: Why choose this form of brand-building? The best possible answer is: Motoring blends in with the other finer pursuits of life, especially music and art. There is art in the styling of cars and bikes. Driving music is an established musical genre. And we know of people who hear music in exhaust notes.
From Russia With Love on Star Movies
From automobile commercials, especially the older ones, we know how motoring has benefited from popular forms of music and cinema. ‘Watching all the Fords go by’, a charming Ford commercial from 1956, was an adaptation of the song ‘Standing on the Corner’ from The Most Happy Fella , a Broadway musical. Similarly, a John Barry soundtrack from the James Bond film, From Russia with Love , was used with permission in the 1966 Ford Falcon advertisement.
By the same token, music, literature and art have benefited from motoring. Steppenwolf’s ‘Born to be Wild’ and Bruce Springsteen’s ‘I’m on Fire’ are charming largely due to the notion of motoring underpinning them, as also the vehicles that roll through them.
The symbiotic relationship between motoring and art and literature is nowhere as evident as in Think Small , a book of cartoons and humorous writings about the Volkswagen Beetle. Roping in leading cartoonists and humorists of those times, Volkswagen brought out the book in 1967. The publication, given away as a gift to VW customers, was a celebration of the immensely successful ‘Think Small’ advertisement campaign promoting the Beetle. The book helped VW consolidate the gains from the campaign, and the book is still popular because of a great motoring subject — the Beetle, quirky, droll and cute.
