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The Chevrolet Aveo; small is the new big

If you happened to glance at any of the New Year newspapers, I’m sure you’d be struck by almost universal apocalyptic forecasts for the year ahead; triple-dip recessions, global political upheaval, environmental collapse… dear oh dear.

So 2013 is the year to think small. Small is the new big, if you like.

To celebrate this new smallness, I’ve decided that my first blog of 2013 will be about the 1.2 litre Chevrolet Aveo. The car that fits into tight urban parking spots, but also carries four adults, luggage and umpteen bags of shopping all at once.

When you Google the Chevrolet Aveo you’ll find all manner of upbeat reviews, even one by mumsnet (the scourge of politicians) and another by a Lancashire newspaper calling the car “fun, funky and fashionably frugal”.

Strawberry Frog

Amsterdam-based ad agency Strawberry Frog contacted me with the brief that I was to shoot the Chevrolet Aveo in Miami and highlight its flexibility and usability.

So with a crew of some 20 people, we set about emphasising the fashionably frugal funkiness of the car in various Miami locations.

One idea by the creative director was to set the Chevrolet Aveo against a monster truck based on the Ford F150, which is a sort of colossal Tonka toy.

These trucks might look fun, but they’re terrible to drive; in fact, not really roadworthy at all.

We managed to heave-ho it into a multi-storey car park that we rented for the day. The plan was that I would shoot a truck that had unsuccessfully tried to park – and got stuck. Even the local Miami PD were involved in the shoot (you can’t do anything in America without the police lending a hand), swelling our numbers to close on 30.

The picture illustrates that the Chevrolet Aveo is at home amid the tightness of urban living, while bigger motorised beasts are clumsy dinosaurs by comparison. Like I said, small is the new big!

Chevrolet Aveo, Production

All out to sea in a Land Rover lookalike

For another shot we had to take a car into the middle of the sea(I’m serious – that’s what the art director wanted). In America, you stick something oily and smelly into the water and a lot of local people don’t like it. They thrash Jetskis around, but you can’t put something that’s not designed to go in the sea into the sea.

So we flew my problem fixer, Dick, out to build a car into a boat. We also hired a fishing boat to look for a location where we wanted to put our lookalikecar – a sort of hybrid that roughly resembled a Land Rover. We couldn’t use a real one. There are regulations about using current cars in comparison ads.

Chevrolet Aveo, Production

Chevrolet Aveo, Production

The bloke who owned the boat used to be a captain on Airforce 1, the presidential jet. That was his retirement boat. That shot would not have happened without him and his boat.

Lost in the supermarket with a Lamborghini lookalike

The last shot was outside a supermarket. We had to remodel the back of a Lamborghini for the same reason as remodelling the Land Rover. The emphasis was that a supercar has no boot for putting the bags of shopping, while the trusty Aveo has the storage space.

Chevrolet Aveo, Production

Incidentally, driving around Miami in a Lambo is just one of the perks of the job, but somebody has to do it!

Chevrolet loved the pictures, as did Strawberry Frog. The series ran across Europe in magazines, billboards and on websites. The impression for the Chevrolet Aveo was to make the car look like it was everyday life. Ordinary.
One interesting aspect is that they didn’t want me to polish the vehicle too much, either on site or in post production. It had to be ordinary with a quirky background, to highlight its ordinariness. That’s what I liked about the shoot!

Chevrolet Aveo, crew