Aging Smart fortwo finds its funny bone with new ad, special models

New ads and odd variants of Smart’s fortwo keep the 15-year-old microcar in the spotlight.

We’ve just seen one of the best auto advertisements in a long time, and certainly one of the funniest. The Daimler offshoot’s new “Offroad” ad showcases the 2013 fortwo coming up short in encounters with a series of off-road challenges including steep dirt hills, large rocks and what should be a less-than-intimidati​ng river crossing. 

The punch line of the ad is that the fortwo is as capable an off-roader as big SUVs are in the city, punctuated by the image of an SUV failing to fit into a parking space that the Smart easily (and aggressively) takes.

“Offroad” comes on the heels of another Smart ad showcasing the resilience of the fortwo’s tridion high-strength steel safety cage. That ad shows the bare fortwo cage holding up a large SUV in an impressive display meant to dispel the common thinking that a vehicle as small as the Smart fortwo must be unsafe.

The renewed push Smart is putting behind its fortwo comes ahead of the vehicle's next-generation debut, expected to arrive early in 2014. The current Smart dates back to 1998 and has reached the point where just about everyone who was interested has one, and prospective consumers have come to overlook it.

Before a new Smart debuts, the company is taking the current car out with a strange yet oddly compelling bang, most notably with the forjeremy in Europe. The forjeremy, which has bird wings grafted to the rear hatch, was developed in conjunction with fashion designer Jeremy Scott and was first seen at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2012. 

Also ready to roll is the 2013 Smart fortwo Cityflame, a limited run of 2,400 vehicles with a special cosmetic package featuring a bright yellow paint job with black accents both inside and out. The fortwo electric drive, an all-electric version that promises up to 68 miles of range, is also now the cheapest production electric car for sale, at $25,570.

Smart has found success with city drivers, but the subcompact market is one that grows more competitive every day. Smart has never regained its sales pace since it debuted in the United States in 2008, when it found about 25,000 buyers among the highest gas prices in the nation's history. Last year, about 10,000 cars were sold, a rise from 2011 when fewer than 7,000 left the lot.

You can’t say Smart isn’t giving it the best effort it can, though. Drawing new eyes to an older platform is no easy task, and Smart is managing to do it with a combination of humor and valid points too often lacking in today’s auto ads. How effective this push will be in terms of Smart’s sales figures, however, remains to be seen.

autos.msn.com