Lyft's Carstache 2.0 Ad Takes a Swipe at Apple

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By T.L. Stanley2014-05-03 00:00:27 UTC

Ride-sharing service Lyft is used to poking its finger in the eye of competitors like Uber, along with transit departments and taxi drivers in cities where it operates. So why not take on a real 800-pound gorilla, Apple, and make fun of the technology giant’s self-serious ads?

In a just-launched parody video, Lyft introduces Ethan, its “senior carstache designer,” who talks with a straight face about how the company’s fuzzy pink car accessories have improved.

There’s no mistaking this for the gut punch it’s meant to be to Apple –- there’s the same white background, docu-style talking head and product highlights featured in bloated iPhone trailers.

See also: Conan, Ice Cube and Kevin Hart Take a Lift with Lyft

Only this time, the star of the ad is touting Lyft’s carstache as the “category leader in vehicular facial hair,” that’s been tweaked to be “more intuitive and elegant.” It’s not just carstache, used since the brand’s founding in 2012, it’s carstache 2.0, with a clip-on attachment representing a breakthrough in “mustache-vehicle interfacing.”

The easily-recognized bright pink faux fur, now dubbed superfur, can withstand dirt, grease, grime and Ranch dressing, retaining the “depth and vitality” of its pinkness through rain, snow and sun, Ethan promises.

Though its origins are a little murky, the pink carstache has become synonymous with the Lyft brand. Company President John Zimmer once said he and his co-founder Logan Green picked the grille ornament “to humanize Lyft and delight people.” But why pink? The peer-to-peer service initially thought about being for women only, Zimmer has said.

And Ethan Eyler is, in fact, the maker of the carstache, who had a small but successful online business on his own before Lyft. He now works in-house as an inventor for the San Francisco-based startup. But that’s not him in the video, making Lyft just one of a number of brands that prefers a British accent in its pseudo-self-important commercials.

Topics: Advertising, Business, Lyft, Marketing, Startups

Image: Ted S. Warren/Associated Press