Dr Bem & the Countryman (Commercials)
More commercial fun from MINI. This time they’ve created a character call Dr. Bem (an Evil doctor it would seem) to help show off the abilities of the Countryman in a “viral” way. Does it work? It’s a little insane and honestly not our thing but we’ve also seen worse in the name of being viral. But what do you think? Sound off in the comment section…
(All five videos after the break)
<p>Where’s Charles Hirsch when I need him? :-)</p>
<p>Nope. Doesn’t do it for me.</p>
<p>horrible</p>
<p>Ranks very low on MINI viral efforts in my view.</p>
<p>I’d rather watch Scion commercials.</p>
<p>Yeah… I couldn’t finish watching them. I just couldn’t.</p>
<p>Wow!! Must be a very very different culture at some other places, but to think that they got paid to do this.</p>
<p>I just have to say I wasted my time watching it. Just plain horrible. Maybe if I had a couple more drinks or shots, this would actually be funny. On second thought, I could be drunk and not find this interesting.</p>
<p>I watched a few of them. Honestly, I think it’s the worst advertising campaign I’ve ever seen. It’s embarrassing. If they edited out the Dr. Bem character and just left the rest as seemingly random footage of the Countryman doing weird stunts it would be at least somehow maybe watchable. Or maybe not.</p>
<p>Retarded. Just like the 4door mini. Well done.</p>
<p>This is horrible……If these commercials come out on TV i might have to get rid of my MINI due to embarrassment……</p>
<p>i don’t usually bother to comment to say negative things, but MINI — this was a big disappointment! horrible!</p>
<p>Yea, its hard to beat the original MINI viral robot.</p>
<p>Don’t be so serious people!!! I like these short movies, different than all the other shit out there. But some MINI driver here don’t like to be different I suppose!</p>
<p>Los peores comerciales que he visto en mi vida!</p>
<p>25 seconds into the first one and I had to punch out.</p>
<p>MINI has portrayed the potential buyer of the Countryman. I hope that they do not have driving license.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s a culturally different marketing appeal, but I really don’t think this shows the company justice.</p>
<p>MINI has supplied great cars through 80 countries with hundreds and thousands of enthusiasts. Because of them (us and many others), the MINI brand is what it is.</p>
<p>Personally, I have loved MINI marketing in the past. Quirky catch phrases and “parking-lot frenzy” commercials were brilliant. Unfortunately, only one Countryman advert caught my eye (multiplying MINI Countrymans).</p>
<p>I can’t say the rest of MINI Countryman’s advertising is horrible, but I can say “Dr. Bem” is the worst marketing technique not only for MINI, but THE worst I’ve seen in the auto industry.</p>
<p>Yeah, even worse than jumping Toyota families or Kia hamsters.</p>
<p>God awful. Ishtar-level awfulness.</p>
<p>This may be an effective advertising campaign in Europe but I doubt it would be a huge hit here in the USA.</p>
<p>I actually sat through all of them. Not the worst I have seen.
Dr. Bem is not a mad scientist/evil doctor; he’s a hipster which is a lot worse ;)</p>
<p>Once again, I am confused who they are targeting with this campaign whether in Europe or the US.</p>
<p>horrible! I can’t stand it!</p>
<p>I must say that it is not much worse than Fireball Tim’s videos.</p>
<p>Regarding the third video (tattoo):
Did you notice that Bem & Ini spells “Be MINI”. Coincidence? I think not.</p>
<p>Wow the time taken to view the video is time I’ll never get back, what a waste! Could ” Dr. Bem ” be anymore irritating! – Very bad Idea – The girl was kinda cute, the car hitting the sub was a good bit</p>
<p>Seriously???</p>
<p>Heads should roll for this ad campaign.</p>
<p>Ok, now I worked in the ad agency biz for about 12 years, and have worked in the web world for about 5, so I should “get” what Mini is doing here. But I gotta call a spade a spade… this was horrible. Here’s why:</p>
<p>1) This is a blatant rip-off of the “Un-Pimp Your Ride” series from VW a few years back. That one was funny and relevant. This one is… um. Not.</p>
<p>2) The series does a poor job explaining or even hinting how the Countryman is different from any other Mini. Can I shoot a goal with a Cooper S? Yeah, probably. Is a Cooper safe? Yeah. Can I hunt a bunny with it? Uh, see #1.</p>
<p>3) For a “viral” video to work, you have to want to share it with your friends. Unfortunately, this one makes Mini look dumb, so there’s no way I’d want to share it.</p>
<p>Overall, I now feel like Mini owes me… they owe me for the 10 minutes or so I spent watching this crap.</p>
<p>My. Head. Hurts.</p>
<p>A High School A.V. Class would have done a better job… This is just plain outright bad…</p>
<p>Bad…. as in not good.</p>
<p>What are the characteristic values of the car and how does this convey them?</p>
<p>If I want entertained by weirdness….well the internet is full of that already.</p>
<p>I cannot believe that Mini Corporate has money to waste on such garbage!! Give me the rapping hamsters any day and lower the cost of Mini automobiles, also fire the guys responsible for this sacrilege.</p>
<p>They should fire whoever came up with this piece of junk.</p>
<p>it reeks.</p>
<p>I made that last statement after watching only the first one. Now that I’ve watched the other 5 in the series you can multiply my last statement by 5.</p>
<p>These don’t do anything but look dumb.</p>
<p>It sure as heck isn’t Hammer and Coop – terrible.</p>
<p>Best… Steve</p>
<p>These stink.</p>
<p>the submarine bit was funny onto itself. the 2 with the kid driving, i don’t get it … why even us a kid?
whatever, Porsche vs. MINI and now this …</p>
<p>They stink. The multiplying MINIs and the parking ones were spectacular. Shelve Dr.Bem. The CEO of Mercedes was better.</p>
<p>Horrible. Simply Horrible.</p>
<p>wow those are bad commercials</p>
<p>“Ho – Kay . . . I guess we can send the focus group home now.”</p>
<p>I think I might have actually lost 5-10 IQ points…I’m not sure of the exact number because I’m dumber</p>
<p>someone had to put the Zoom-zoom kid from Mazda to work…i guess he came cheap</p>
<p>but seriously…</p>
<p>What the Fcuk was that???</p>
<p>Weak</p>
<p>I have been left speechless. Dear MINI,</p>
<p>unlike the issues with my car, you can’t blame this on Y2K.</p>
<p>I know MINI likes to be different. But I don’t get this one.</p>
<p>Disliked Dr. Bem as soon as he appeared, but was hoping to find something attractive in at least one of five till the very last moment.
Looks like I’m not clever enough to get this ad.</p>
<p>…not to pile on…. I think at some point someone should have said “No,No,No”. I think this might have okay if the actors were japanese who spoke portugese with french subtitles; but then you wouldn’t have a clue what these videos were about….just like these. Fact is, the Countryman deserves better.</p>
<p>OMG Mini, don’t ever do that again!!! Look. just have real folks drive the car – maybe on a race coarse or have a Mom after going to a grocery store race a Porsche home from a stop light.
I’m out of work and I give you this idea for free. and who ever did those vids– send them back to school —– PLEASE</p>
<p>These videos might just be the second worst idea in German history…</p>
<p>How about a Mom driving her Mini Countryman, with the children in it coming home from school, up a winding bad dirt road to their Ranch in the country?</p>
<p>Mini really missed the boat, or “We The People” on this ad!</p>
<p>Dump it now!!!</p>
<p>Sucks.</p>
<p>Very, very ….. odd.</p>
<p>I gotta say, these pegged the ‘stupidmeter’.</p>
<p>Okay, that said, the submarine thing was a little funny. Maybe the Navy should invest in MINI Countrymans in addition to destroyers and helicopters. The kid parking and the soccer goal was kinda neat. But a viable marketing campaign? I think not.</p>
<p>Is ‘e ‘avvin’ a laff? IS ‘E ‘AVVIN A LAFF?!?</p>
<p>This is appalling.</p>
<p>I am European and was equally annoyed by Dr. Bem from the first second, and couldn’t watch all of them (so don’t put us Euros down yet). Dr. Bem’s “accent” is horrid when he speaks English and if I only spoke German fluently to tell if his German is as bad as I think it is… I know, it is trying to be funny, but just kill this “viral”, please. I beg you Mini.</p>
<p>Hey, an idea came to my head. Maybe they thought they would make such a bad “viral” that when people see it they would want to make their own to make Mini look better. Kind of a viral of a “viral”. You get what I am after?</p>
<p>pmindemann: VW Unpimp my ride was great. Maybe that’s why I got a VW in the first place, now I am waiting for a Mini, but not because of these Bem videos.</p>
<p>What if they were created by a competitor and not Mini? Well, I guess I am just going through the stages of grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance). :)</p>
<p>For some reason the videos are edited a lot better here <a href="http://www.bemini.at/" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.bemini.at/</a> although, I couldn’t understand a word of it.</p>
<p>Heidi – I’m not gonna waste my time watching an edited version of it. You may polish a turd but it’s still a turd.</p>
<p>Now if someone enterprising took all the videos and cut them up into sections a few seconds long.. rearranged and put them all back together as something completely unrecognizable from the original – maybe.</p>
<p>…60 comments…hmmmm….</p>