How Mercedes stole the thunder from BMW on its 100th Anniversary

It has now become almost expected for the big competitors to pretend to celebrate an important event in the competitors history, while also paying them some left handed compliments in the bargain.

When BMW celebrated its 100th birthday this year on March, what do you think Mercedes did?

Paid BMW a left handed compliment to make a point about themselves while overtly congratulating BMW.

They also went all the way and and invited all BMW employees to to the Mercedes-Benz Museum “to discover the complete history of the automobile” from March 8 to 13. Mercedes also trolled BMW on social media. Their short film got 7757 comments and over 302k views.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey9uYX0hSwE

Porche another competitor was a little more genuine with this ad which they released.The ad read “The future presents us with great challenges. We face them with sheer driving pleasure. Porsche bows to 100 years of moving automobile history and wholeheartedly congratulates BMW on this jubilee”.

How Airbus stole the thunder from Boeing

Boeing, creator of some of the world’s most iconic aircrafts of the 20th century, commemorated its centennial year last year in March. But it was European arch-rival Airbus, that stole their thunder by releasing a classy, congratulatory message for the aircraft maker. Something you would hardly ever expect from your fiercest competitor. The video, titled ‘One thing to say to Boeing’ was launched four days before the anniversary and has already garnered close to 3.5 million views collectively on Facebook and YouTube. The video which ran across social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter among others, also featured congratulatory messages from senior management.

The video ended with “At the 150,000 Airbus Group people have just one thing to say to Boeing. One thing. Congratulations… Here’s to healthy competition in the next 100 years. Here’s to the future. From all of us to all of you. Happy Birthday Boeing and thank you for the competition that makes us all better.”

McDonalds pokes fun at Burger King in France

And then last year in France, McDonald’s erected a cheeky road sign advertising that it was 258km to the next Burger King drive-thru.

The fast food chain’s agency Buzzman quickly put together this little film, in which a couple notice the sign and indeed drive to the nearby McDrive. But, there’s a twist — they’re only stopping there for a coffee. Because it’s a long drive to their nearest Whopper, 258km further on.

So is it normal for competitors to behave this way? A little tongue in cheek humour seems normal. After all its a day to have some fun.

But the trick seems to be how to do it with elan and style without really insulting the competitor in any way.

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