Shots fired! According to this new car spot from Arnold Worldwide, Volvos are for real people, but Mercedes-Benzes are for snooty women of the 1% who preen at themselves in rearview mirrors. This is some good, clean class warfare, automobile-style, and luxury brands better watch out.

A few years ago, a Volvo was a boring car for people who needed affordable transportation. Now, the price hasn’t changed much, but the image has shifted slowly. It’s not that crazy to think that someone with enough money would pick a Volvo over a Benz. And the new spot tugs at the right cords of today’s economic realities to make the comparison seem not only feasible, but preferable. There are also a few campaign teasers on Facebook that flesh out the appeal of Volvo as “luxury for real people,” including: If your dog has a wardrobe, the Volvo s60 probably isn’t for you. Now they’re going after snobby women and people who dress up their dogs! More shots fired, Volvo. I’m in. Credits after the jump.

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Will 2011 be remembered as the “Year of the Great Video Game Spot?” When it debuted last month, it really didn’t look like Deutsch LA’s “Michael” ad for PlayStation 3 would have any challengers for the most memorable spot of the year. That is, of course, until XBOX and agency twofifteenmccann released the above jaw-dropping commercial, “The Kinect Effect.”

As the VO says, XBOX thought turning voice and movement into “magic” via Kinect technology “would be fun. And it was.” Hey, if you’ve ever had the opportunity to play one of XBOX’s sports titles for Kinect, there’s little argument you can make against this statement. But, then we see the same technology used for spiking a virtual volleyball in your opponents’ face used for education, surgery, and disposing of hazardous waste. Add to that a great orchestral cover of the Pixies’ “Where is My Mind?” (probably best known to many as the song that plays during the end of Fight Club), and at the end of the spots’ 77-second run time, all a viewer can muster in response is an awestruck is, to quote lauded thespian Joey Lawrence, “Whoa.”

XBOX portrays Kinect as an idea that can affect a target demo who isn’t clamoring for the next Halo installment. It’s quite a bold statement, and one that we don’t see competitors Sony and Nintendo making with their own gaming platforms. Calling it “visionary” is an understatement, as in “The Kinect Effect,” we see video games change the world. Credits after the jump.

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The above web film from McCann NY (which is slightly different than the TV spot that’s been airing) is for Verizon’s FiOS network, advertised as “America’s fastest Internet” with “speeds higher than advertised,” which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but we’ll roll with it.

In “Vision,” McCann employs good comedic timing and simplicity, the latter of which being an element we don’t see much in marketing for the latest, fastest technology products. For comparison, look at it next to TV spots for Verizon competitor, AT&T. AT&T’s been pushing their 4G mobile broadband service in TV spots for about a year now, and each spot depicts someone’s lagging Internet speed preventing them from sharing in their peers’ revelry on a similar time frame. The slice-o-life spots portray scenarios that could potentially happen to someone, but only in an extreme circumstance.

With “Vision,” on the other hand, the viewer doesn’t realize it’s a slice-o-life ad until the punchline, which in this case depicts an event that is an actual regular occurrence for most Internet users. And, it’s here that Verizon’s insight bests AT&T. The most frustrating problem with slow Internet is not the “fear of missing out” due to a slight network delay, it’s being forced to play the waiting game. Credits after the jump.

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It’s been about a decade since Toyota launched their electric hybrid car, the Prius, worldwide. So, give Chevrolet credit for picking up on the idea and realizing that, “Hey, pretty much every other major car company has a hybrid electric vehicle. We should probably build one too.”

Enter the new Chevy Volt and its “Runs Deep” campaign done by the good folks at Goodby. Premiering during the World Series last night (Giants won FYI), the TV spot already has the audience Chevy needs to sell tons of earth-friendly cars stamped with an American seal of approval. The only problem is that ads like “Anthem” shown above might be too subtle for anyone to notice…at all. Unless, of course, you’re just a fan of Freelance Whales (and you should be).

Now, no one’s asking voiceover guy Tim Allen to overwhelm GM and Chevy with his trademark Home Improvement “man-grunt” noises. And, admittedly, the creatives as Goodby are much better at what they do than most, that being clean-cut simplicity. But, if you’re making a commercial about the “American Way” airing during “America’s Favorite Pastime,” why not use a bit more patriotic imagery? If your electric car is the kind that actually plugs into an outlet, why not show that onscreen for more than half a second so people can see what you’re doing? Also, if your car can run solely on an electric charge for 40 miles, more than 75 percent of the country’s daily commute, wouldn’t you include something about that other than some fine print at the bottom of your ad or mentioning “really far”? Maybe I just don’t understand why Chevy’s trying to sell spontaneity to the kind of people who are counted on to watch the World Series every year.

Credits after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.