A friend asked me about the Mitsubishi Pajero ads the other night. Is it true that the name has some rude meaning in Spanish? Read on to find out while checking out some well made TV adverts for the Mitsubishi Pajero…
Apparently “pajero” looks like the Spanish word for ‘wanker’, but as it’s pronounced in non-Spanish countries (pah-jeer-oh) it sounds different to the Spanish (pah-hair-oh). The word comes from ‘paja’, or straw. In Nicaragua a pajero is a plumber. In the Canary Islands a pajero is omeone selling or transporting straw. Mitsubishi came up with the name, “Pajero” from the scientific name of the Pampas cat, “Felis pajeros”. All this info comes from Chameleon Translations.
The off-road 4-wheel-drive SUV vehicle is known as the “Montero” in Spain and the Americas, and as the “Shogun” in the United Kingdom. But down under it’s “Pajero” all the way, despite the large number of Argentinian and Uruguayan people living here.
Beaten Track
Roger Tompkins, of Cranbrook Films, directed “Beaten Track”, featuring the beautiful wild country of New Zealand.
Click on the image below to play the video.
Clouds
Mark Toia, of Zoom Film & Television, has directed three Pajero ads recently.
Clouds, features a jet flying over Central Otago, New Zealand, with a passenger fantasizing about driving his Pajero through the landscape below. The 3 minute 40 sec quicktime video is 32 MB. The ad was made for Asatsu DK Tokyo.
Click on the image below to play the Clouds video.
Journey, also made for the Japanese agency, features office workers using a globe to spark off a fantasy of driving a Pajero 3.8L through Australian sea and landscapes.
Click on the image below to play the Journey video.
Nature Calling, made for Young & Rubicam Adelaide, also features the Australian landscape, this time with a larrikin approach, “in tune with the outback”. The soundtrack is “Rush”, by Big Audio Dynamite II, with Mick Jones, former lead singer of The Clash.
Click on the image below to play the video.
Zoom Film and TV is based in Brisbane and Sydney and also has ads for General Motors Holden, Mitsubishi Motors, Coca-Cola, Yamaha Motorcycles, Neutrogena, Ford Motor Company, Electrolux, Mazda, Jetset. The Directors are Mark Toia, Brendan Williams, Mike Hilburger, Gerard Lambkin and Ben Nott.
The image collation above comes from Google Images, put together with a nifty online application at Grant Robinson’s Montage-A-Google.
Oh dear! Pajero is a north American tribe of indigenous people. Nothing to do with Spanish words, etc.
My family’s enjoyment of the Olympics was destroyed by incessant advertising on Channel 9 in Melbourne. Instead of remembering great sporting achievements, and proud athletes singing along with national anthems, we remember Mitsubishi’s ‘Daniel’s Birthday’ and the mad doctor who who enjoys fiddling with his new Misubishi car – “door locks”, “door unlocks”.
‘Daniel’s Birthday’ is a classic piece of advertising frippery. A frumpy blonde woman screams something about Daniel’s birthday, and a car chase takes place. I thought there must be something existential here. Maybe it’s really deep – a search for the purpose of life…
But no, the blonde woman’s rant is just a noisy attention grabber. The Ad is completely meaningless. It is embarrassing.
If it was really an Ad about frumpish, noisy, middleaged women – I want one!
If it was a “love that car” Ad for a Mitsubishi pajero – I don’t want one. The Ad told me nothing about the car, or why I might want to spend the time and effort to do more research. That was the job of the Ad agency. They failed!