Volvo Trucks created a series of bizarre yet interesting advertisements back in the day, and we bring some of them to you today
Volvo has been known to make some of the safest vehicles in the entire world, and the automaker not only sells passenger cars, but also manufactures heavy vehicles including buses, trucks, tippers, pullers and other equipment vehicles. While safety is one of the biggest agendas of the Volvo brand, this 7-year-old advertisement from the manufacturer certainly points in some other direction.
In order to prove its FMX truck’s 300 mm ground clearance, a Volvo Trucks technician was buried in the middle of nowhere, neck-deep, with only his head popping out. According to Volvo, Roland Svensson’s head measures 275 mm, which is just 2.5 cm less than the truck’s ground clearance.
Volvo intends to prove what a few centimetres more space can do, but this is honestly a very bizarre way to do so! Volvo claims that the test was performed by professionals in a restricted area, but it was enough to give us the chills. Nonetheless, the advert was uploaded on YouTube by Volvo Truck in 2013, and we don’t expect the carmaker to repeat this in the future, considering Volvo’s take on safety.
Apart from this video, Volvo Trucks has made some other interesting advertisements in the past as well. Volvo has made some of the most interesting advertisements. Another Volvo Trucks advert features Jean-Claude Van Damme, the Belgian actor, filmmaker, fight choreographer and retired martial artist standing on top of two trucks, with one leg on top of each truck.
The two trucks are shown reversing, and slowly start moving a little further away from each other, as Van Damme continues to widen his legs until he is in a full-split position. This particular advertisement was made to show the stability and precision of Volvo Dynamic Steering. Named ‘The Epic Split’, this ad was also uploaded by Volvo Trucks on its official YouTube channel back in 2013.
Volvo also released an advertisement featuring a hamster, in order to show how easy it is to operate the steering wheel of Volvo trucks. For this test, Volvo built a special truck with the hamster on the steering wheel and the driver of the truck used a treat to lure the hamster, hence, moving the steering wheel too.