Mini Clubman: roomy enough to host giant rolling highway orgy

This new spot for Mini's Clubman from Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners is designed to show how roomy the car is, but it also seems to be endorsing all kinds of moving violations as well as making a claim about virility usually reserved for sports cars. In the spot, which was shot in England but features American actors (or at least, American accents), a cop pulls a Mini Clubman over and asks the driver if the car is his. "Uh, no. It's, uh, Barry's," the gold-lamé-clad driver answers, as '70s-style disco music plays in the car. "Well, where is Barry?" the cop asks. What follows is an artfully shot sequence in which the car is made to seem much larger than it is, like maybe a Mini stretch limo. Barry eventually appears in tighty-whities and an open shirt. "I'm Barry," he says with questionable authority. "Is there a problem, officer?" Voiceover: "Mini Clubman. Plenty of room for ... whatever." What's clever about the ad is that it makes two claims. Yes, it shows the Clubman is roomy. But it also makes a case that middle-aged out-of-shape guys can be hosting mobile orgies, if only they buy the right car.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman