Volvo doubles down on its safety USP with powerful storytelling

Volvo’s latest ad emphasises the importance of ‘safety’ by showing an emotional timeline that would have never occurred if it weren’t for the car manufacturer’s emphasis on this value.

The primary selling point associated with car manufacturer Volvo is ‘safety’, and in its latest advert, FOR LIFE, the very human appeal of this life-preserving brand value is laid bare.

The short film features a young man who receives news that his girlfriend is pregnant. He is then shown engaged in an emotional call with his mother, discussing his fears and excitement about becoming a father, as a montage of magical moments from his daughter-to-be’s life flash by.

While he is on the call, we see simultaneous clips from his pregnant girlfriend’s day, as she leaves the couple’s home, to run an errand. At the same time, we see another woman stepping into a Volvo: the same car that will (at the advert’s climax) be shown breaking sharply, narrowly avoiding a collision that could’ve made all the preceding collection of happy moments from the daughter-to-be’s life never occur in the first place.

The contrast of the quiet, unassuming family scenes makes the impact of the final moment all the more powerful. And it’s a twist that turns the preceding narrative on its head.

Our take

The effectiveness of Volvo’s storytelling is in how the director brings the viewer in on a couple’s life-defining moment, before depicting the hopes and dreams that the father imagines as he comes to terms with bringing a new life into the world.

The car is a small accessory in this story, yet its safety features are vital to preserving the precious life we’re emotionally drawn into.

‘Safety’ can often be overlooked by car buyers as a feature that can play second fiddle to aesthetics, economy, or luxury. But while safety features might be less ‘cool’ to many buyers, this advert uses storytelling to make a powerful case for why it should be at the top of every priority list.

It’s also notable that in recent years, Volvo has become subtly ‘cooler’, and beyond the emotional content of this advert, it also stands as a testament to the new aesthetic that Volvo inhabits.

While the style of Volvo’s late 20th century models was at best ‘utilitarian’, the recent XC90 is reliable, practical, safe… and subtly sexy. The actors in FOR LIFE match this new image. The lead actor, for example, is a Millennial, dressed in a comical retro t-shirt, surrounded by tasteful home furnishings, and looking artfully dishevelled.

Ultimately, Volvo’s advert shows us that our hopes and dreams can lie on shakier ground than we might imagine, and preserving a life is far more important than the chic interior decor we choose. Although the two needn’t be mutually exclusive.