Welcome to a new segment of the blog called “What were they smoking?”. I will be looking at advertising and marketing that completely missed the mark.

For our innaugural entry we have something from the mighty Ford Motor Company. Dear readers I present the print ads for the new 2009 Ford Focus.

Now, there are 2 things that I noticed immediately upon seing this work:
1.The Focus sold in the States is COMPLETELY different to the one sold in the rest of the world
2.Thank god for that, because the one sold in the USA is one of the vilest vehicle designs I have ever seen.

Now, I quite like Ford cars, but it looks like the front and rear of this car were designed by 2 different people who were straight out of design school, spent the whole night smoking crack and had no idea what the other was doing, and then the 2 halves were mashed together by a third, blind person.

If someone from Ford is reading this (HAH!), please could you write to me and tell me exactly what went wrong? I know you are more than capable of designing good looking cars (GT /  Mustang / Euro Focus / Fiesta), so how in the name of Henry did this get off the drawing board, especially when you have something as awesome as the Euro Focus in your stable?

Then, when you finish writing that letter, you need to find the person who’s idea it was to sell this car on LOOKS, and FIRE them.

Let me explain. I realize that not every car can be a GT or a ‘64 Mustang, so possibly the designer of the new US Focus had restrictions of the temporal or financial kind, and that’s fine. I have read reviews and although it may not be a looker, it seems the Focus is a decent enough car in terms of quality and price.

However there is no excuse for trying to sell something on a quality which it clearly lacks! Would you try and sell beef by saying it has a lot of vitamin C in it? No. Seriously, fire the person because it is clear that they are either working for Chevrolet or blind or in a coma, or all 3.

Courtesy of Ads of the World

For more of the ugly click here.