Maserati Has A New, Weird Ad Campaign For An Electric Boat

Apparently to mark the launch of its new Folgore all-electric lineup, Maserati released a new ad campaign featuring an electric boat, some model guy, and the weirdest photo series ever. It’s just so bizarre that we think most American consumers, who are at least part of the intended audience, won’t know what to make of it.

The drama surrounding supermodel Gisele Bundchen’s traffic stop has increased.

First off, the model guy, who’s wearing pearl earrings and keeps his white dress shirt unbuttoned to show off his chest tattoos, is apparently some famous musician in Italy. Most people wouldn’t know that, so the star power doesn’t go far.

The photos of him in the campaign don’t even feature the -all-electric boats, but it does vaguely show a Maserati car. They’re more like those images used for snooty cologne ads, especially the one of him being dressed by people in the middle of a public road and him “hiding” in a mobile clothing rack on a street corner.

What does this have to do with electrification, boats, or Maserati? Not really anything, but someone in a high position at the Italian automaker thought it was a great idea, greenlighting what we assume to be a sick amount of money for this rather useless and weird ad campaign to be created.

And this is at least in part why Maserati is ailing these days. When Ferrari was spun off from Fiat, Maserati was supposedly going to get a bunch of resources and become a flagship brand. Instead, it’s floundered, a ship without a rudder in an increasingly stormy sea.

What exactly is Maserati all about these days? Nobody seems to know, including Maserati. This ad campaign is so typical of the company. It’s so weird, random, and seems to have no true purpose. And yet it seems to have been produced with earnest effort.

That is truly sad.

Images via Maserati