A Morbid Spec Ad for Volvo Set to a Crooning Alphabetical Song About the Way People Died

ABC of Death is a new humorously morbid spec ad for Volvo Cars that distinctly recalls Edward Gorey‘s amusingly sinister book The Gashlycrumb Tinies with a Sinatra-style rhyming litany of deaths in alphabetical order. The rhyme stops after F is for Freddy, whose heart skipped a beat, but was luckily driving a Volvo with autonomous driving that stopped short of striking G is for Gary who was crossing the street. Directing duo Dorian Lebherz and Daniel Titz from the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, the brilliant minds behind the Johnny Walker “Dear Brother” spec, spoke with AdFreak about how they weren’t expecting to get Volvo’s blessing to move forward.

We contacted Volvo to ask about some of their brand new models..We knew that was a little risky with that script, but we wanted [to show] a car that had not been released at that time. And actually, we were a little bit surprised when they told us it was OK.

via AdWeek