(Nissan)
Yes, it's that time of year, folks. When (some) advertisers on the upcoming Super Bowl can't help themselves and start showing their commercials early. Let's start with Nissan's effort. The 60-second spot titled "Thrill Driver" is part of a 360-degree campaign featuring the all-new 2023 Nissan Z and the all-new, all-electric 2023 Nissan Ariya. The spot features Emmy Award-winning Actor and Co-Creator of Schitt's Creek, Eugene Levy. It also includes a special guest appearance by Nissan Brand Ambassador Brie Larson, along with actors Danai Gurira, Dave Bautista and Catherine O'Hara. Watch it here. 
(Kia)
Kia returns for its 13th Super Bowl with a 60-second spot for its all-new, all-electric Kia EV6 entitled "Robo Dog." It is part of a comprehensive marketing campaign that includes broadcast, print, out-of-home and social media elements, a special Robo Dog “Turn Around Dance” on TikTok and a QR Code-based “Robo Dogmented Reality” experience that allows users to search for adoptable animals in their local areas through a partnership with the Petfinder Foundation. Watch it here.
Editor-in-Chief's Note: Yet another new Super Bowl spot, this one for Zero Carb Bud Light Next entitled - "Zero In The Way Of Possibility" - complete with a rare appearance by a Barbara Streisand music track. Watch it here. -PMD
Editor's Note: Toyota's spot for the Super Bowl is called "Brothers." Watch it here. -WG
(BMW)
BMW will debut a new :60 spot during the Super Bowl to showcase its all-new, fully electric BMW iX Sports Activity Vehicle, which arrives in the US next month. The star-studded spot features legendary actor Arnold Schwarzenegger - as Zeus, the Greek god of lightning - and Academy Award nominee Salma Hayek Pinault, who plays his wife, the goddess Hera. The spot was conceived by BMW’s lead U.S. creative agency, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, and directed by two-time Academy Award nominated director Bryan Buckley, highly acclaimed for his work on more than 65 Super Bowl commercials. The ad also marks Hayek Pinault’s debut in a Super Bowl spot and the first time she and Schwarzenegger have costarred in a national ad. It will air during the third commercial break of the first quarter of the game. Watch it here.
Editor's Note: And GM weighs in with Dr. EV-il. This is the :90 version, which is far preferable - and funnier - to the :60 that will be on the game itself. Watch it here. -WG
And...here are two more spots for Budweiser. The first is for the Super Bowl, watch here. And the second spot you may have missed from last September, marking the 20th anniversary of 9/11, called "Respect." Watch it here.
(Alfa Romeo images)
Alfa Romeo has officially unveiled the all-new 2023 Tonale, the model that "marks the brand’s metamorphosis," according to Alfa PR minions. The smaller crossover/SUV (think BMW X1) has two powertrains available: PHEV Q4 AWD, with a six-speed automatic transmission, combines a 15.5-kWh lithium ion battery with a 90 kW electric motor and 1.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine to deliver best-in-class 272HP and an electric range of more than 30 miles (48 kilometers). And a Q4 AWD 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, with nine-speed automatic transmission and best-in-class standard horsepower rated at 256 and 295 lb.-ft. of torque, equipped with engine stop-start technology that meets the super-ultra-low emissions 30 (SULEV 30) standard. The Alfa Romeo Tonale has fully-integrated driving applications for optimized maneuvering and performance with three modes of operation: Dual power/Dynamic, Natural and Advanced efficiency. In a world exclusive, the Alfa Romeo Tonale is the first car on the market equipped with an NFT (non-fungible token) digital certificate. Based on blockchain technology and uniquely linked, the Tonale NFT certifies the car upon purchase, then evolves to represent its use during the car’s life cycle, with major benefits in terms of protecting residual value. (Yeah, sure.) The all-new 2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale will be available in three different models: Sprint, Ti and Veloce. Orders for the 2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale open in the fourth quarter of 2022, with availability in the first quarter of 2023. (Knowing Alfa, we're guessing May. -WG) Editor-in-Chief's Note: This is Alfa Romeo's first all-new vehicle in six years. It is also going to be Alfa Romeo's last all-new ICE vehicle. From here on out, all of Alfa's development money is going into EVs. -PMD
(Photos copyright and courtesy of Gooding & Company. Image by Mathieu Heurtault.)
Editor-in-Chief's Note: As you know, we're not much into the auction "thing" around here. Too often greed fests that artificially inflate prices, it's a dimension to the enthusiast car culture that continues to be a major disappointment. That said, occasionally special machines come up for auction that are difficult to ignore, like the two machines here. -PMD
Gooding & Company’s upcoming Amelia Island Auction has unveiled two additional star consignments, led by the incredible Figoni et Falaschi-bodied 1937 Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS Teardrop Coupe (above). Considered by many to be one of the most enduringly beautiful automobiles of all time, the creation of the Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS Goutte d’Eau, or Teardrop, was born out of a collaboration between Anthony Lago and Joseph Figoni, two Italian-born visionaries who became fixtures in the vibrant Parisian automotive scene throughout the late 1930s. The T150-C-SS was sold as a bare chassis and priced in the same realm as the Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 and Bugatti Type 57S. Between 1937 and 1939, Talbot-Lago produced an extremely limited number of these chassis, which were bodied by a variety of coachbuilders. The auction house will also offer a Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance® First in Class-winning 1954 Bentley R-Type Continental Fastback (below), widely considered to be one of the most beautifully designed and proportioned automobiles of the postwar era. The live auction will take place at the Omni Amelia Island Resort on Friday, March 4, at 11:00AM EST, and will offer online bidding for interested parties worldwide.
The AE Song of the Week:
Well, I dreamed I saw the knights in armor coming
Sayin' something about a queen
There were peasants singin' and drummers drumming
And the archer split the tree
There was a fanfare blowin' to the sun
That floated on the breeze
Look at mother nature on the run in the nineteen seventies
Look at mother nature on the run in the nineteen seventies
I was lyin' in a burned out basement
With a full moon in my eyes
I was hopin' for a replacement
When the sun burst through the skies
There was a band playin' in my head
And I felt like getting high
Thinkin' about what a friend had said
I was hopin' it was a lie
Thinkin' about what a friend had said
I was hopin' it was a lie
Well, I dreamed I saw the silver spaceships flying
In the yellow haze of the sun
There were children crying and colors flying
All around the chosen ones
All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun
Flyin' mother nature's silver seed
To a new home in the sun
Flyin' mother nature's silver seed
To a new home
"After The Gold Rush" by Neil Young, from the album "After The Gold Rush" (1970)*. Written by Neil Young. Publisher: Broken Arrow Music; Words & Music a Division of Bid Deal Music LLC, lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind. Listen to it here.
"After the Gold Rush" is widely known as an environmentalism song, with its chorus, "Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970s" (changed to "in the 21st century" once the '70s ended). The song is actually far stranger than that, though. In the book Shakey, Jimmy McDonough summarizes that strangeness as well as anybody when he says, "Accompanied by a mournful French horn, Young tickles the ivories and sings a tale of time travel that culminates in an exodus to another planet." The song is structured to take listeners through time. The first verse in set in the Middle Ages, the second in the time it was written in, and the third in the future. In 1992, Young explained it thusly: "[It's] about three times in history: There's a Robin Hood scene, there's a fire scene in the present and there's the future... the air is yellow and red, ships are leaving, certain people can go and certain people can't... I think it's going to happen."After The Gold Rush is an acoustic album that led to many other confessional singer/songwriter works in the early '70s (James Taylor, Carole King, etc.). Young had injured his back lifting a slab of polished walnut and standing up to play his electric guitar was impossible. In addition, he had dropped Crazy Horse as his backing band so he prepared an album of acoustic songs. In his extensive biography on Mr. Young, author Jimmy McDonough reveals that After the Gold Rush was an album loosely conceptualized around a screenplay of the same named written by child star, and Neil Young neighbor, Dean Stockwell. Apparently the only two songs on the album that are based on the as-yet-unproduced screenplay are this song and "Crippled Creek Ferry," the closing song on the album. (Knowledge courtesy of SongFacts.com)