Til debt do us part

At Chancery Lane tube station, there is a large cross-track poster for CarGiant, a "car supermarket", that tells the heart-rending story of Chris, with a close up of Chris looking vexed. Poor Chris's missus wants him to buy a family car. But Chris doesn't want to blow his savings. So Chris goes to CarGiant, buys a great set of wheels for a low price. Now picture Chris looking very pleased with himself. So far, so ordinary.

But the payoff for CarGiant's cheeky-chappie ad is the final line - where we we learn Chris uses the money he has saved to take his girlfriend to Paris, nudge nudge, wink wink. Or "tweet tweet", as the rather bizarre copy style of the ad puts it.

It's a brave marketing move to clearly identify your market segment so confidently - not just young men who want a good deal on cars, but who also proudly commit adultery. One of the keys to successful advertising is, once you have identifed your customer, to project a selling proposition back to that customer whereby he has an affinity with the product because it shows him as he likes to see himself, not as he necessarily is in reality. So, for example, the demographic for sherry drinkers is OAPs, but you'll never see an ad for Harvey's Bristol Cream featuring an old person; they may be old, but they don't want to identify with a product that defines them that way.

So when I see the CarGiant ad campaign, I wonder who the target audience is that would identify with Chris as a figure to aspire to. What sort of relationship would you be in to dream of being Chris with a new car to pay for hilarious philandering? Maybe they could extend the campaign - Chris could also put those savings to good use on alimony payments when his wife finds the hotel bill in Chris's jeans.