This 'sophisticated' car spot reveals how to make an ad on a budget

We've seen several campaigns from automakers in recent weeks that have aimed to show how you can still make a car ad despite lockdown restrictions; Skoda, for example, let directors get playfully creative in spots featuring toy cars while a Honda Civic ad from Dubai also made use of a miniature set.

The latest effort comes from Dacia, a Romanian auto brand that's known in Europe as a popular budget choice; and its campaign aims to show that, like the brand, you can be ingenious on a lower budget, by revealing the workings of its own car ad. 

Created by Publicis Poke, the spot starts out like a standard car ad with a Dacia driving along a highway at night-time, with the sounds of wind and the roar of the engine. However, as the camera pulls back we see that the car is a model, sitting in front of a background video of a road. The video creators are using glasses and bottles filled with water to create the music, while a hairdryer is creating the sound of the road and even the narration is being delivered in real-time via speakerphone. "You don't need a Hollywood Budget to bag yourself a blockbuster," it says. 

The spot was directed and produced by Vania & Muggia through Iconoclast Films, and shot in their flat in Tel Aviv. It took four weeks to produce using three laptops, a drill, a record player, some bike lights and a 1:43 scale model of a Dacia Duster.