Audi's Superbowl ad (courtesy YouTube.com)

Ammoland.com‘s Fredy Riehl writes:

We have been flooded with questions from our readers as to what the license plate message “2NRA294″ followed by the words, “compromise scares us too” meant in the recent Audi Superbowl commercial “Doberhuahua”? [Click here to view.] Well after contacting everyone we could find at Audi USA, from Vice President & Chief Communications Officer, Joe Jacuzzi on-down, we finally received a call back from a Mrs James in Audi Customer service to tell us that the prominently featured license plate with 2NRA294 on it “means nothing and was chosen at random”. Hmm? Totally at random? Ok, then why did . . .

ABC’s Nick Watt’s recent video report ”Super Bowl Ad Mania: Behind the Scenes See how Audi’s “Doberhuahua, Ad came to be” go into great detail about how every minute aspect of the ad was carefully scripted and edited. Nick is told by the video production company’s James Allen, that they even had five people working on getting the Doberhuahua’s fur just right and yet you want us to believe that 2 seconds of a insanely expense commercial spot, with a license plate featured front and center, was just left to random numbers and letters?

So with Audi basically giving us the equivalent of “No Comment”on the 2NRA294 plate, could it be that Audi’s real message to the millions of NRA members may be just that, “Don’t Compromise” on principles or values.

Recently Audi’s Loren Angelo, Audi of America’s director of marketing, told Marketing Daily when talking about the A3 “the larger point is that there are no compromises in any of Audi’s cars” and “Audi has a strong social program installed both on Twitter — #stayuncompromised — and Snapchat this year.”

We all know that being pro-gun in today’s world can be a reason for the anti-gun groups and mainstream media to attack a large company such as Audi, so maybe they are keeping a low profile, but their message is clearly intended to catch the eye of viewers.

So I for one am going with the belief that they are telling the millions of NRA members to hold strong on your belief in our right to keep and bear arms and as Audi’s hash tag says #StayUncompromised. What do you think?

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67 COMMENTS

    • They’re a German car company owned by another German car company founded in part by a man who systematically disarmed and then slaughtered millions of people.

      If they say it was random, it probably was.

        • It’s more likely that someone involved in the production saw an opportunity to sneak something in there than to think any multinational company would have any pro-NRA message however discrete.

      • Not to be rude but Germans=/=Nazis.

        Do you still buy Ruger products even though Bill Ruger said that no honest man needs more than ten rounds? Sure you do, since he isn’t in charge anymore (kinda hard to lead a company when you are dead).

        And yes, I do like Audis automobiles.

    • Random? Creating something random takes effort. What random generator do you use? Some kind of app you download? And does it make sense to decide to go through the effort to generate a random alpha-numeric set of characters and simply decide to use whatever the generator came up with?

      What if the random generator produced 2F*CK469? Would they have used that? If not, then that would mean they have a vetting process. So that would probably mean emails, maybe meetings.

    • Look, you all remember the ‘random’ phone number for ACA/Obamacare sign-up, don’t you? That was random, right? It could have been worse, like 2NRA621.

  3. My money is on some mid level manager found some people to sneak this in completely under the noses of the people in charge of this spot.

    Friends in low places and everything.

    • That would be my guess as well. No need to think it’s a conspiracy by the whole company.

      If they wanted to do something pro-gun they wouldn’t need to deny it. Kinda wrecks the point.

    • Like the infamous Disney sex references which Disney insists aren’t there and doesn’t acknowledge. I think I agree with your assessment. Of course, you’d need several “friends” in low places to pull it off, or to at least keep anyone from noticing till it’s in the can and on the air…

  6. Was the firm that created the ad from the U.S.? Hard to believe they’d overlook the inclusion of those three powerful letters.

  8. I drive an Audi, and trying to mentally justify trading it in for a newer one, so I’m going to believe it was an intentional message of support to 2nd Amendment advocates.

    Audi does make great cars. Germans also make great firearms. There are much worse car companies for our cause to be associated with. Like Chrysler…

  9. Perhaps they were admonishing the NRA, since they are notorious compromisers. They supported NFA 34, as well as the nics system. The nra naked HB 1355 in Florida, and HB 88 in Delaware. They are spineless.

  10. Ok, I’ll give it a try…first letters of Two Nine Four = “Thats Not Funny” so the phrase is addressing the NRA…”To the NRA, That’s Not Funny”. I suspect one of those little tweaks that get thru, like the naughty Jessica Rabbit frames in the Disney movie.

  11. I think that perhaps we are assuming too much of Audi USA. While it was probably intentional, it may have been slipped in by someone at a second-party ad agency and made it past Audi’s marketing folks unnoticed. (Or, perhaps, someone noticed but decided to let it go without telling the higher ups.)

  13. Well, if we believe the “2NRA” part was a hidden message of support, then it becomes incumbent upon us to explain “294”. I got nothin’.

  14. The message was clear, if feinswine openes her big mouth again Audi is going to sic that frankenmutt on the grabbers, run shannon run, Randy

  15. I’m inclined to believe there is something going on in this spot. NRA? Come on, you don’t put those 3 letters together in today’s heavily partisan world by accident, and 94, for me is a very significant year. If someone says 1994, the 1st thing I think of is the defunct AWB, the 2nd thing I think of is 3rd grade. That’s how significant it is to me, and I suspect to any other hardcore 2nd Amendment supporter.

  16. Considering the ad was essentially a cuter/funnier zombie apocalypse, why wouldn’t they support gun ownership?

    I’m more inclined to believe the convo went like this:

    “Hey, are we cool with this license plate in the ad?”

    “Why, whats wrong with it?”

    “Well, it says ‘NRA’. What if people think were supporting them?”

    “WHAT?! What kind of crazy asshole would think THAT?!”

    “A lot of gun people would…”

    “…would they then consider buying an Audi?”

    “Probably.”

    “What about anti-gun people? Would they catch it?”

    “Unless we specifically admitted it, probably not.”

    “….were keeping the plate.”

  19. I am sure it is pure coincidence:

    Two NRA http://ccs.infospace.com/ClickHandler.ashx?ld=20140207&app=1&c=v9mobile&s=v9mobile&euip=71.238.140.3&pvaid=bf5397a3619e48fe8b9e619bd8b9de23&en=iMwufHpIKsIZY0lgYu5NDOF5ssPpr5X0WUBmSsMb%2fRo%3d&du=mgaleg.maryland.gov%2f2013RS%2fbills%2fhb%2fhb0294F.pdf&ru=http%3a%2f%2fmgaleg.maryland.gov%2f2013RS%2fbills%2fhb%2fhb0294F.pdf&ap=1&coi=771&cop=main-title&npp=1&p=0&pp=0&ep=1&mid=9&hash=439CF5ECD3DE7731AC16E49E53DA0D48

    Compromise scares us too

  23. For years I’ve quashed the impulse to submit a reply on TTAG, ever. Forty comments alone would certainly not normally rise to any threshold for changing my pattern of not setting something straight.

    However, because of the number of those that might have seen this TV commercial, me thinks it might be worth while to toss this on your digital table. But when Ralph submits, and suggests a thought that which might lead others astray, then it might time to IChing myself. The only reason I have not erected a physical altar to Ralph in my humble abode, is the simple fact that God could not possibly reside in Massachusetts. When my time is short, after reading some particular article, I merely fast scroll to Ralph’s distinct avatar to see what he’s got to add to the topic d’jour.

    I humbly submit:

    2007 ICD-9-CM Diagnosis Code 294.11
    “Dementia in conditions classified elsewhere with behavioral disturbance”

    The license plate: 2NRA294 is merely the simple fact that the addressed body, the NRA, is being called out as, well, clinical, and with a larger brush stroke, y’all too.

    Keeping the advertising theme alive, in the words of Bartles and James, “….. and thank you for your support”. And for those that are already pounding their keyboards, go cite yourself.

    Oh, this is truly one of the great sites on the web.

  24. Many Audis have what can only be described as a “handgun drawer” under both front seats. Not sure that’s a NRA endorsement, and I never leave a weapon in a car (what no guns allowed sign?) but I can’t imagine for what else they are intended.

  25. The most probable explanation is, as someone already mentioned, that it’s an inside joke from the commercial’s creators. I don’t know that it’s meaning is intended as everyone’s taking it. It may not have anything to do with the NRA, or it may, but only in jest. Who knows?

    It could be like Disney animators and voice actors slipping in little barely perceptible jokes into their cartoon movies. There’s the “Take all your clothes off!” line in “Aladdin”, there’s the sneezed on dandelions in “Lion King”, which float in the air and very briefly spell out the word “SEX”, plus other examples I can’t recall at the moment.

    It’s true that these marketing types obsess over every detail. Even if the license plate sequence had been randomly generated, they still would have vetted that sequence for potential misinterpretations. And why shouldn’t they? Marketing lore is replete with examples of careless sloganeering and cultural crossed wires.

    The Chevy Nova was named from the Latin word meaning “new”; but when marketed in South America, GM learned that “nova” is Spanish for “It won’t go.” Ford ruefully learned with their Ford Pinto in Brazil that “pinto” is Portuguese slang for “tiny male genitals.” “Got Milk?” sloppily translated into Spanish came across as “Are You Lactating?” When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they failed to appreciate the market’s low literacy and general education levels. Many consumers mistakenly interpreted the Gerber baby’s picture on the jar as meaning this was food made from babies, not food made for babies. Let’s not forget Scandinavian vacuum cleaner maker Electrolux’s ill-fated alliterative tag line upon entering the U.S. market: “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.”

  26. It must be a simple code: Check the definition of 294 in the Urban Dictionary – The NRA and Audi are going to have a threesome – I’m hoping it won’t be with Feinstein!

  30. Remember that Audi did the commercial in last year’s Super Bowl with the police state enforcement of environmental virtue. Too big a carbon footprint? Gestapo goons are on you like white on rice. Drive an eco-awesome Audi? You get to cut the line at the police checkpoint.

    So, I am not thinking that they are saying anything pro-freedom here. Their intended audience is white, upper-middle class urban elitists who drive expensive cars.

  31. I like guns and I also like Audi’s (had an A4) but when I saw that commercial I didn’t get any “pro-gun” message out of it other than me being funny about the message at the end. I will note that I didn’t notice the license plate number.

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