BMW’s long-form print ad draws looks online

On the day it announced VML Group’s Contract Advertising as its new creative agency of record, BMW’s long-form print advertisement in The Times of India drew both praise and disappointment from readers.

Cursive in style, drenched in blue ink and handwritten in appearance, the ad takes the form of a letter from one half of a couple to the other. The trope is not hard to miss. The brand and its agency suggest that a partner cannot be a best friend because that honour belongs to someone else entirely. Here, that someone is a BMW car.

The print execution is part of the carmaker’s new Drive Your Match campaign, which has also rolled out across outdoor and online platforms. Across these formats, BMW positions itself as a tailored fit for each customer rather than a mass-market option.

It is the print ad, however, that has captured the most attention online, particularly on LinkedIn. With brands increasingly designing print for online discourse, BMW and Contract appear to have achieved that goal, if that was the brief.

Here are some of the opinions expressed online: