Bad Ads: Driving an Infiniti Will Turn You Into an Arrogant Idiot and an Imminent Danger to Others

This ad by Infiniti may be the stupidest, most dangerous ad ever made.

The setup is that a man and a woman are driving someplace that they don’t know well. The man, driving, amiably admits that he should have followed the GPS. The woman, in the passenger seat, amiably says that she’ll “ask this guy.” So she rolls down the window.

“This guy” is driving a grand prix race car through the winding streets of some unnamed European city going, like, 120 miles per hour. By not following the GPS, our amiable dunce has somehow blundered past security, through barriers and crowds of spectators, and into an active race between top drivers commanding expensive high-performance cars. The couple in the Infiniti have become an active threat to everyone around them, by being oblivious and overconfident.

So Dunce #2 asks “this guy” for directions to whatever poetry reading, wine tasting or other tourist crap that she and Dunce #1 are looking for. In the middle of the race, with cars that are obviously not soccer mom vans buzzing past at a zillion decibels.

How stupid must someone be to not realize that they are interfering in a race and that their presence on the course can get people killed? Stupid enough to drive an Infiniti.

“This guy,” at the controls of a million-dollar racing machine, isn’t shown answering or giving directions to Dunce #2. Presumably either because he told Dunce #2 in no uncertain terms what he thought of her, the other dunce and their lack of directions, or because her question distracted him for a split second and he careened off the course, killing two dozen spectators in a fireball.

It’s at this point that the narrator comes on to tell the world that driving an Infiniti will change you as a driver: “The Infiniti G sedan…because luxury should inspire confidence…no matter what road you take.”

The road taken in this case was closed off for a grand prix.

Dunce #2 then turns to Dunce #1 and insults the race car driver: “He’s not from around here.” Cluck cluck.

No, he probably isn’t. He’s a professional driver at the top of his international sport, putting his life on the line in a competition of nerves and skill, man and machine. You’re riding with someone who’s too dumb to follow voiced turn-by-turn directions and a map on a video screen.

If you take this ad at face value, driving the Infiniti G sedan will make you an oblivious idiot, so serene in your self-confidence that you won’t even notice when your actions might get you and everyone else within several city blocks killed in a fiery crash.