My first instinct on seeing the new Vauxhall Insignia ad was not massively positive, I have to admit. But I noticed after the third time I noticed it that I was noticing it. (Take a moment and read that again - it does make sense, I promise). It is only fair as we monitor the decline of TV advertising that we acknowledge those who buck the trend and manage to catch attention. And how have they done that? Well, with a fairly neat piece of storytelling.

I mean, it is pure cheese, let's not beat around the bush. But there is something about the commitment and the total lack of any qualification when the reveal comes. Yes, they're saying, it's a new Vauxhall saloon, but goddammit, we're excited and you should be too! In the general landscape of car ads, with their pondorous "insights" it a good one. Hats off.

However, the spirit of Story is that storytelling should be more than a long ad, or an ad with a narrative. Storytelling should go a bit further. I can't seem to find a YouTube channel (or anything else) that develops the theme. There is a teaser lurking somewhere that appears to be German. The Dutch and German versions of the ad are ranked higher in search than the UK one - on the UK youtube site. The website is the usual flash car in futurist landscape noodling. The meta-description on Google is the "You must have flash installed" gubbins that you get when you haven't properly considered SEO. Or getting people to click. In fact, there appears to be absolutely no link between the ad and the website. Brilliantly, as it is in flash, I couldn't even get you a picture of what is an alright looking car from their website. I nicked one from Autotrader, I hope they don't mind.

It's a good ad though.