You'll see race cars and racing heros, with images of the Tag Heuer Carrera watch (a chronograph, actually) interspersed in between the racing shots. The racing bits bring out the excitable 10 year old boy lurking in every man, while the close-ups of the Carrera's dials instigate the rich man to indulge that boy within.
Tag Heuer, the Swiss luxury watch maker has had a history with F1 (including making the sport's official time keeping system), and that legacy is used to good measure in many of their ads, including this one. 2013 saw 50 years of the existence of the Carrera line of chronographs and that's given the company a valid pretext for showing again its historical association with F1. For anyone who follows the sport, the mere mention of Juan Manuel Fangio or seeing shots of Aryton Senna and Alain Prost in one frame is enough to get them to notice. Non-motorsports enthusiasts are still in for a visual treat with the even if they don't recognize the faces. The production quality is just so brilliant that anyone would want to watch the ad a second time.
The Carrera, the first sports watch designed specifically to measure lap times for motor sports, measures time more accurately than most wearers would care to remember. But that's the whole point. That of indulgence, that of aspiration, that of wearing such opulence. Hence the ad unapologetically talks to your heart and not the mind. It makes no qualms about saying that the device is for you to feel good - to flaunt - and that's that. At no point does the ad say that your life will change for the better in some tangible way. It makes no such presence. I like the approach.
The one element that stands out as a sore thumb in the ad is the use of Jenson Button. This brand ambassador, is a former world champion, granted, but his last season left a lot to be desired. Even when he was in form, he wasn’t the kind of driver you would put alongside the other greats that the ad shows – Fangio, Senna or Prost. Button is a more subdued in style; not the kind of image you’d use to sell a rich man’s indulgence.
Overall though, this is a brilliantly produced ad that does justice to a rather rich history of time keeping and affluence alike.