Dreamy sci-fi spot promotes Volvo's car-share scheme

Volvo's car share scheme, M, has been running for a year in all major cities in Sweden, allowing people to access shared cars when they need them via app. Now, to generate new interest in the scheme, the brand has created a new campaign that starts off more like a sci-fi movie than a typical auto ad.

In the ad, created by Acne and directed by Tomas Skoging via Acne Film, real cars, toy cars and sets of car keys suddenly levitate into the air one night as if lifted by a magnetic force, accompanied by suitably mysterious music. You might think aliens are responsible.

But in fact, it's symbolic of cars disappearing to make space on the streets—eventually only a Volvo M car is left behind. 

"We wanted to create something for people who own cars, but also for the ones who might not even like them," explained David Aronson, senior creative at Acne, in a statement."The truth is sometimes you need a car, if you like them or not, so if more people use M the end result is less cars taking up space in our streets. We wanted to dramatize that sense of freedom of not owning a car, and who doesn’t want to see cars flying up in the air?"

The ad is running on primetime TV in Sweden, as well as on digital channels.