Lexus watermelon juice?

April 17, 2006 6:55 AM

On the NYT.com front page this morning, there is an advertisement for a hybrid Lexus SUV. It's just a picture of the SUV that says "look at the new Lexus" or something, but at the bottom near the rear wheel there is a watermelon. Why is there a watermelon?
posted by ohio to shopping (6 comments total)

If you reload to see that same ad a few times, you'll see that that particular ad starts off with a tiny ant carrying the watermelon across the screen. The words, "Unexpected Power" are above the little ant...
posted by barnone at 6:59 AM on April 17, 2006

The ad starts with an ant carrying a watermelon with the tagline "Unexpected Power".
It then cuts to the car, and the ant carries the watermelon over to the rear wheel where it collapses due to watermelon based exhaustion.

Reload the ad to see the whole thing.
posted by Lord_Pall at 7:00 AM on April 17, 2006

Sorry, I hit post too early. So, basically the ant carrying the watermelon at the end is referring to the ant at the beginning -- and how the hybrid has more strength than you'd expect.

Unfortunately, whenever I think of "carrying the watermelons" I can only think of Baby in Dirty Dancing going into that party for the first time. She was never quite the same afterwards!
posted by barnone at 7:02 AM on April 17, 2006

Ah, thanks. It never even occured to me that the ad was animated. I just saw the car and the watermelon and I was mightily confused.
posted by ohio at 7:11 AM on April 17, 2006

They're probably playing off the fact that hybrids have enormous torque; most of them accelerate like jackrabbits. Americans usually buy on horsepower, and drive based on torque. This is completely stupid, but, hey, it's America.

I think they're indirectly trying to teach people that the lower horsepower ratings on hybrids don't mean that they're less powerful. Horsepower maintains high speeds; torque gets you to the high speeds quickly.

Pretty clever way to sell it.
posted by Malor at 7:16 AM on April 17, 2006

Why is there a watermelon?

I'll explain later.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:45 AM on April 17, 2006