MINI Mexico Shocks Women With Bathroom Airbag Stunt

MINI Mexico - Makeup Crash Stunt

The stakes keep rising in the competition to attract people’s attention online. Agencies around the world continue to release videos featuring (supposedly) unsuspecting people reacting to elaborately orchestrated pranks.

In this example created by Publicis for MINI Mexico, they hope to raise awareness of the danger of distracted drivers, particularly among women who apply makeup while driving. Women who stopped to freshen their makeup, screamed in shock when an airbag exploded out of the specially rigged soap dispenser.

The clip attempts to make a tenuous connection between data like “6 out of 10 women wouldn’t dream of going to work without makeup” and “1 out of 4 believe that not wearing makeup could cost them a promotion” to make the conclusion that that is why some women apply makeup while driving. Or maybe it’s not such a far-fetched thought, as a 2009 UK study found that more than 1 in 5 women drivers admitted to having applied cosmetics while driving.

[via Design Taxi]

Mexico

MINI Netherlands Analyzes Test Drive Style for the Perfect Coffee Blend

MINI - How do you drive your coffee?

MINI is extending an offer of free coffee delivery to businesses in the Netherlands. Besides the customized coffee bar built into the back of a MINI Countryman; MINI will bring along a fleet of 6 coffee-coloured cars for employees to test drive.

Data from each person’s test drive will be recorded, analyzed and used to determine the perfect coffee-blend match to their driving style.

The ‘How do you drive your coffee‘ initiative was put together by JWT, Amsterdam.

Netherlands

[via AdRants]

MINI Horn Section Pays Tribute to British Olympic Team

MINI Horn Section

The 2012 London Olympics are still a few weeks ago, and preparations all over the city are in high gear. After creating recordings all 205 National Anthems for the Games, nine members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Gareth Newman came together to create a tribute to the British Olympic team by beeping their way through ‘God Save the Queen’.

The video was created by London agency WCRS.

via The Drum

UK

Driver Sets Parallel Parking Record at Mini ‘Chinese Job’ Launch

Mini 'Chinese Job' Parking RecordOne of the most challenging parts of my student driving driving was practicing the fine art of parallel parking. We actually had to drive 15 minutes into the local town to actually find parking spaces to practice in. I was not a natural parking savant, so trying to get the car correctly backed into a tight parking spot without banging into the car in front or behind took a lot of awkward attempts.

Just a few weeks ago in Beijing, Chinese driver Han Yue managed to slide his Mini into a space just 15 cm (5.91 inches) longer than his vehicle. While Han’s skill at parking is incredible, I’d really like to see him get the car out of the space just as easily.

The folks from the Guiness Book of World Records were there to certify the record, beating the previous record of 22cm set by Patrick Folco ‘Lo Show dei Record’ in Rome, Italy, on 17 April 2012.

The event was held by Mini to promote the launch of the ‘Chinese Job’ special edition, based on the Mini Cooper S and Clubman.

China

MINI Belux Invites Facebook Fans to Play with Fire and Win a Car

MINI Belux - Fan the FlamesFans of the Benelux MINI Facebook page have the opportunity to both play with fire and win a new car thanks to the ‘Fan the Flame‘ contest. A Mini Countryman has been placed on a ramp in the parking lot at the European Auto Show in Brussels.

The car is held only in place on the ramp by a thick hemp rope. Facebook fans can take their turns remotely flashing a flame from an Arduino-controlled burner placed under the rope. The fan whose flame finally burns through the rope wins the car. The contest is open to anyone over 18 with a valid Belgium and Luxembourg driver’s license.

The Fan the Flame contest launched on January 10 and after 9 days there have already been nearly 19,000 attempts to burn through the rope.

No one likes to wait in line so MINI has turned line-jumping into part of the contest. Contestants receive points for participating and for sharing a link to the contest with friends. They can then use these points to challenge others ahead of them from positions 11-30 line ahead of them. If they can answer the challenge correctly they get to switch positions in line with the person they challenged. If they lose the challenge they lose points and remain in their position. I was able to get to the 11th position twice, but my inability to read Dutch without re-typing it into Google Translate had me pumped way back down the queue.

Fan the Flame was created by the Brussels office of Agency.comTBWA.

Paratroopers, Falconer, Sushi & More. Mini USA Creates the Best Test Drive Ever

Mini USA: The Best Test Drive EverBack in October MINI USA asked it’s fans on Twitter and Facebook to describe their idea for ‘The Best Test Drive Ever’ using just six words. At the end of the contest period, Portland, Oregon Graphic Designer Mathew Foster’s submission:’stewardess, salt flats, sushi, paratroopers and falconer’ was chosen by the judges from over 14,000 entries.

That 6 word submission has been turned into an epic 2-minute video starring Mathew himself. The film opens with Mathew (well, maybe a stunt driver) sliding his MINI Coupe through the streets of LA. Matthew’s co-pilot turns out to be a beautiful stewardess who announces “Thank you for choosing to fly MINI Air, our cruising altitude today will be 10,000 feet.” He then drives off of a huge ramp, launching the car into the middle of the salt flats. Overhead several paratroopers drop from a helicopter and take their place as human pylons, before the car slides through a mocked up sushi restaurant filled with sullen manniquins. The film ends with Matthew pumping his fist into the air as Swedish metal band Falconer rocks out in the background.

The film began airing in theaters across the US over the holiday season, but can also be found on the MINI USA website, YouTube channel and Facebook page.

The campaign was created by MINI USA’s agency Butler, Shine, Stern & Partner. The video was directed by Erich Joiner of Tool USA and the team used stunt driver Diajiro Yoshihari for the trickier parts of the driving.

via Autoblog

Race Your MINI on Streets All Over the World

When creating any branded game, it’s important to provide an experience that immediately engages the user. The MINImaps Facebook Application does a great job by allowing users to drive their personalized MINI on a Google Map anywhere in the world.

MINImapsSo where did I take my MINI first? Paris, Tokyo, London? No, no and no. I dropped my mini in the middle of Mississauga and drove it home to my building. Boring choice maybe, but the game had me imagine driving a MINI around on the streets I see everyday.

The application allows you to create a race track anywhere in the world and race your MINI on it. The tracks can then be saved and shared with your friends or made available for anyone to race on. Each track even has its own leaderboard.

While the keyboard controls are clunky and the car very hard to control, I was having a ball driving the MINI around familiar roads in Ontario and Nova Scotia.

The game was developed by DDB Paris and built by Unit9.

This is not the first time that Google Maps have been used as the source for a driving games, including the A-Team Drive the Van and Vodofone’s Hometown GP.