Mercedes recently launched an advertisement/film supporting its new C-Class Cabriolet that is layered with messages, yet a word is never spoken. It’s a commentary on what it takes to live a successful life, yet makes no actual comments. It suggests that Mercedes drivers have something powerful in common, yet nothing is ever said. It’s a beautifully executed spot and with few words speaks volumes.
Give it a look and I’ll break it down.
On Mercedes own YouTube page, they call this spot “Amazed Again,” but I think that name completely misses the larger point this film is making. To me, watching this curious little boy allow himself to be inspired by his surrounding life — from the mobile above his crib to the dragon balloons to the video games to everything in-between — led him down his life’s path.
The most overt clue supporting this point was the karate video game, which led to the boy doing actual karate. The external video game inspired his internal life’s path. But it’s a consistent theme throughout. From the serious, when the boy sits before a complex chalkboard of overwhelming math equations and seems to be eating it up, to the more trivial when the boy accepts the pool’s invitation with a fall, arms wide.
Be open to outside inspiration, Mercedes is telling us. But it’s more than that.
Underneath this celebration of external inspiration is what is required to recognize it: curiosity. This little boy never stops looking, never stops discovering, never stops taking it all in.
Without curiosity, perhaps the mobile would have been missed. Or the girlfriend. Or the karate. Or the pool.
Or the Mercedes.
Yes, the Mercedes C-Class Cabriolet is a convertible, so the product story of noticing external inspirations is right on.
But the boy’s curiosity leading ultimately to a Mercedes is where the high-end rubber meets the road with this film, leading to its uber message.
Without barely a lick of heavy-handedness, Mercedes gives every current Mercedes driver a pat on the back while giving potential new Mercedes drivers aspiration to join in. With this film, Mercedes redefines the perception of the car from “for rich people” to “for people who follow their path.”
Mercedes defines success not as merely having money, but as having curiosity. Which leads to inspiration. Which leads not to “hard work” but to “working hard” for what you want. Which leads to success.
Which leads to the ability of this little baby boy to one day afford a Mercedes.