Car adverts sell lifestyles. That’s why they often feature a wholesome suburban family bantering about shopping bags, or a very serious man philosophising in an expensive suit like Bruce Wayne vlogging on an off-day. There’s usually dramatic music, words like “precise” spoken in a sexy voice, and a level of contrast so high it belongs on the cover of an Atlanta trap mix. But even by those standards, the new Ford Edge advert makes absolutely no sense.
An eight-minute-and-two-seconds-long drama called Le Fantôme, it follows a detective (Mads Mikkelsen), a greasy criminal, a woman in witness protection who is given a new face, and a widow who keeps trying to kill everyone with the knives she keeps in her hair. Trying to follow the plot is like listening to a drunk person attempt to describe Charade, Chinatown and Casino Royale before realising they’re three different films.
It eventually turns into something more conventional when Mikkelsen delivers a platitude about love and a 10cc song starts playing, but any fantasy relating to “travel” and “mystery” has been comprehensively lost. The only thing it makes me want to do is invest in some hair knives.
