Claim check: Chrysler Town & Country, the Jenga mobile
Sometimes car advertising is a literal balancing act. Decades ago Lincoln showed a diamond cutter performing his craft in the back seat. More recently, Lexus famously balanced a pyramid of champagne glasses on the hood of a running (but not moving) LS.
Now Chrysler shows kids playing Jenga in the back of a Town & Country minivan to advertise its "smooth ride" and flexibility of the Swivel n' Go seating. But can you really play Jenga in a moving minivan? Off to the Consumer Reports test track to find out!
Posted by: DanielP_22 | Dec 4, 2007 5:11:18 PM
Wow, thank you for clearing this up. What’s next, a ford edge can't really drive on the side of buildings like the almighty TV says it can?!
You need to give the average consumer a little more credit.
Posted by: Nick | Dec 4, 2007 6:32:45 PM
Somehow Chrysler's ad people thought a smooth ride can mitigate the laws of physics and inertia, or expected potential buyers to not understand these things.
Posted by: Noonz | Dec 4, 2007 10:04:58 PM
Way to have a sense of humor, Daniel_P.
Posted by: Auto Parts Car Parts | Dec 4, 2007 10:22:45 PM
a teacher of mine once told me that there must always be "truth in advertising". well, there was truth actually, only to some degree though.
Posted by: Steve Bier | Dec 4, 2007 10:34:19 PM
Looks as though the Chrysler T&C failed the "Fight Back! Commercial Challenge". David Horowitz would not be happy!! LOL
Posted by: Civisi | Dec 5, 2007 10:29:11 AM
Actually, you can play Jenga in the back. It just leads to really short games and a lot of looking-under-the-seats for the pieces.
And honestly, if I had 4 noisy kids in the back seat, anything to keep them occupied like this is a win for me.
Posted by: JLBird | Dec 5, 2007 11:41:41 AM
Maybe if you strapped outriggers to the van you could duplicate the Jenga Commercial?
Posted by: Mark Hoffman | Dec 5, 2007 5:51:44 PM
It wasn't a Lincoln used in clefting the diamond, it was in the back seat of a 1973 Mercury Marquis, the cheaper cousin to Lincoln.
the guy that did the diamond clefting worked for Cartier
Posted by: Steve | Dec 6, 2007 1:40:47 PM
Maybe it's not the van but the guy from CR is just a bad Jenga player. I'll bet he can't cut a diamond in the back seat either
Posted by: daoushy | Dec 10, 2007 3:49:25 AM
First, he played a BAD move.
Second, he was able to play while the car was driving below 30MPH... Speed limit in most streets is 25MPH (if you can find a smooth enough, flat, straight with no stop signs or lights !!)
Third, I actually OWN a '08 T&C and it is really a smooth ride...
This is a commercial, not a statment in court ! come'on, the next thing is to say that the car won't "put itself together" like they are showing !!!
Posted by: Rodney | Jan 10, 2008 8:50:53 AM
Are people so stupid that will believe that what happens in a commercial is real. It's because of people like this that have to put in toy commercials that "Dolls don't actually talk."
Posted by: JB | Jan 22, 2008 11:57:30 AM
After owning two Chrysler minivans,I was all set to purchase a new Honda van. I took my wife just to see the 08 Town & Country. She immediatly fell in love with it. Needless to say we never made it to the Honda dealer. The kids love the van more than we do. P.S My Navigator hates the new van,since it had to move out of the garage.
Posted by: Carol | Jan 30, 2008 11:04:13 PM
Why do HOnda and Toyots get so many points? I have a seven year old Chrysler minivan with 131,000 miles and have had no problems. My next car will be another Chrysler product. Want to improve the economy for Americans? use your tax rebate to buy American- it keeps Americans out of the unemployment line so they can buy more American products!