Local Car Commercials Update: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Web Exclusive)

foreign [Music] Internet it's me John Oliver The Big Bird boy that goes chirpa to Yak we are off this week but uh we wanted to give you a quick update because you might remember a few months ago we did a story about local car commercials specifically the fact that it had come to our attention that some of them looked suspiciously similar hey you know me Scott Elder here from Elder Mitsubishi I'm in a pickle my doctor told me to turn it down a notch before my heart explodes Scott Lehman here from Premier Auto Center and I'm in a pickle my doctor told me to come down before my heart explodes hey Fred Brody here from Brody Automotive doctor told me I need to turn it down a notch so my heart doesn't explode Steve Johnson here from Zumbrota Ford my doctor told me to turn it down a notch so my heart doesn't explode I mean excellent right every single pickle a star and they made that look easy which is impressive because if I may quote my favorite Pig It's Not Easy Being Green you know I believe it was Santi Meisner that said acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances and the beauty here is I truly believed every one of those men was a pickle with a fatal heart condition that could strike at the drop of a scream but the fact that these scripts seem to be recycled really bothered me I'm not going to recap our whole story right now but it turns out there was one company writing scripts for a whole bunch of dealerships which seemed like a real shame because at their best local car ads should be unique and completely unhinged not franchised out making nothing special anymore and that is why we ended our segment with what we felt was a tantalizing offer we've written a script and it's good it's really good and we're offering it to one and only one car dealership to use in a commercial for free so long as they agree to some simple terms the main one being you have to agree to produce this exactly as it is written and you can't read it before you agree yeah yeah we did do that and I would argue that that was a hell of an offer on our part and to be honest quite a risk for someone to take on do you really think we can be trusted with a situation like that because I definitely don't and yet thankfully multiple dealerships did end up contacting us and we eventually chose one zambrota Ford in zambrota Minnesota and while you or they might well have expected our script to force them to do something big wild and cartoonish like I don't know dressing as a giant baby and making them slap their baby butts while their customers go Google for savings I don't know we actually went a different way the ad that we wrote was a tense domestic psychodrama yes was incidentally about their car dealership but it was mainly about a marriage in serious trouble the first lines in our script were an individual staring out of a window and saying storms coming any minute now and their spouse responding I want to divorce that is how it began so we were fascinated to see how they handled our unflinching exploration of domestic collapse and to their Eternal credits they threw themselves at the source material so tonight I am proud to unveil the ad that will be airing in the Zumbrota area this week and add that no other dealership in America will have so sit back grab a tissue and please enjoy [Music] storms coming any minute now I want a divorce you don't mean that like you would even know what I mean you don't know me you're right I don't anymore and ever since we bought that all-wheel drive minivan from Zumbrota Ford you've changed maybe I have maybe I changed the minute I put my hands on the steering wheel of that new minivan maybe in that moment I realized how empty I feel inside I didn't want the minivan from zerota Ford of course not why would I we don't even have kids oh I'm gonna go again with the kid thing what happened to us we used to laugh we used to dance remember the lodge don't you dare bring up the lodge you're impossible and you take up too much space like our Zumbrota Ford minivan that can barely fit in the garage how many times do I have to say it I wrote the dimensions down right but the architect made the garage wrong it's always the architect with you isn't it Kevin I'm Steve Johnson of Zumbrota Ford and I'm in a pickle couples therapy schmupples therapy a new car is what you want so come on down to Zumbrota Ford and see me Steve Johnson I'm a dealer for the people I mean come on that is a plus all due respect to Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain but that is a scene from a marriage right there to me it's all the little touches that we didn't specify in the script but which they did anyway the choice to show a fairly clear sky right before the line storms coming any minute now great excellent the Cutaway to the big minivan in the small garage very very good the couples therapy schmupples therapy Graphics engulfed by what appeared to be dozens of green coronaviruses genius and very topical and finally the husband from the ad walking into the dealership and away from the wreckage of his relationship at the end of the commercial that is narrative closure that's how you doing tie up the ends look by congratulations and heartfelt thanks to the people of Zumbrota Ford we put you in a pickle and you did something that truly made me feel like my heart was about to explode thank you so much for watching we're back October the 24th good night [Applause]

Channel: LastWeekTonight

Views: 3,815,577

Keywords:

Id: 0nqJvjUNlRA

Length: 6min 34sec (394 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 17 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/FriedBeansInc]

This opens the door to television greatness for them, their next production should be even more corny, out in the corn field I suggest.

[u/olivemor]

That was awesome

[u/SnooGuavas4531]

There’s some Emmy worthy acting in that video.

[u/zhaoz]

Well, I know where I am buying my next Ford from!

[u/madcommune]

It looks like White Bear Mitsubishi has some competition.

[u/taffyowner]

Good for the dealership to have such a good sense of humor about it