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Vroom Shows the Torturous Side of Car Dealerships in its Super Bowl 2021 Commercial

Whether you’re an avid football fan or just a casual observer, everyone likes to watch the Super Bowl for one reason or another. Some people like to watch the actual game and some just tune in to watch the commercials, but either way, it’s typically a lot of fun. What’s not fun, though, is spending …

Whether you’re an avid football fan or just a casual observer, everyone likes to watch the Super Bowl for one reason or another. Some people like to watch the actual game and some just tune in to watch the commercials, but either way, it’s typically a lot of fun.

What’s not fun, though, is spending long hours sitting at a car dealership and being pressured to buy a car, a process that can feel torturous. And for this year’s Super Bowl, Vroom dramatically displayed the torturous side of buying a car from a dealership.

Jumper cables are included

The 30-second commercial starts by showing a car dealership salesperson holding jumper cables and walking through a dark and grimy dealership to approach a customer that’s nervously sitting in a chair and strapped to it with duct tape. The salesperson, chewing gum with a sinister look on his face, asks the customer if he’s going to buy the car, to which the customer replies, “Please! If I can just go home and discuss things with my wife. I’ve been here all weekend.”

After which, the salesperson says that he can leave anytime he wants, but then attempts to shock the customer with the cables. The customer then falls through the floor and winds up sitting next to his wife in the front yard of his house while the Vroom delivery truck pulls up to deliver his car. The commercial ends with the customer saying, “That was painless.”

A screenshot from the Vroom ad
A screenshot from the Vroom ad | YouTube

Vroom offers a painless car-buying experience

For those not familiar with Vroom, the company is a used-car retailer that operates solely online. Much like other online used-car retailers like Carvana, Vroom offer buyers a “no-hassle, no-haggle” buying experience where customers can simply pick the car they want from the online inventory, setup the payment or financing, and then have the car delivered straight to their house. Unlike a traditional car dealership, there’s no need to wait for hours to get the process done and, best of all, there are no sketchy sales people to deal with.

It’s a great business model and a great commercial ad that dramatically shows the difference between the two car-buying experiences. According to Motor1, this is the first Super Bowl commercial to come from a used car selling service since Carmax’s commercial in 2014. We are unclear as to what other automakers will be airing ads at this year’s Super Bowl, however, we’ll just have to wait until the big game to see.

Many companies won’t be running ads

Vrooms’s clever ad should be well-placed among other advertisements from Toyota, M&M’s, TurboTax, Pringles, and Mountain Dew. However, automakers like Hyundai has already stated that it will temporarily sit out of advertising during the game this year. Last year, we saw ads from Audi, GMC, Porsche, and even Genesis, however, it’s not clear as to whether or not those brands have something cooked up for the airtime during the downtime moments in the game.