A couple of weeks ago, we took a look at a recent Secret antiperspirant commercial where they seemed to imply that while Secret gave women confidence, it also made them terribly annoying. I’m pretty sure this isn’t the message that the marketing team was trying to achieve.

Today, we take a look at another series of television commercials that again take on a message that is certainly less than ideal. You may have seen some recent commercials for the Suzuki SX4, a compact car that is available in both hatchback and sedan form. In an effort to better compete against the Yaris and the Fit, Suzuki has put together quite the campaign to promote the SX4. The problem with these ads is that they may be giving Suzuki a very bad company image.

An example of these commercials can be found on YouTube. They say that this is the Suzuki SX4 challenge and how they’re prepared to do “whatever it takes” to get you to test drive the new SX4. In these series of commercials, we see the Suzuki representative sabotage potential customers by flipping over their cars, trapping their cars in parking lots, and placing skunks in the trunk.

The idea, I suppose, is that their current car is rendered inoperable and as such, they are “forced” to take the SX4 for a test drive. Is this really the image that Suzuki wants? Do they really want customers to think that if they don’t test drive the SX4 that Suzuki will come and destroy your current vehicle? Personally, I think these ads, while mildly amusing, hurt the Suzuki brand image more than it helps it.