ooooIYKYK, ISSUE #oo31
There’s no question that 2025 has marked a reset for the Audi brand. From preparing for its Formula 1 launch and debuting a new design direction with the Concept C, to contending with challenges brought on by lagging sales, diluted product and shifting market conditions, change is clearly underway. Change can be exciting, but it can also feel personal when it lands close to home. In moments like that, it’s worth remembering who you are and the family support structure you have around you. Whether as an individual or a car brand, you’re not defined by a single shortcoming or wrong-footed decision, but by how you respond to adversity.
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Audi seems to be leaning into that idea with this week’s “Audi Gingerbread Village” ad spot, a stop-motion animated winter wonderland made of gingerbread and populated mostly by cars, along with what appears to be Clarice from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Watching the whimsy unfold, like an RS Q e-tron lobbing a snowball at the camera, it’s a reminder that putting authenticity and heritage front and center, then pairing it with something deliberately illogical, hasn’t always been in vogue at Audi.
Remember the water balloon themed commercial “Audi Led Balloon from 2021? Many don’t, but the reason for that wasn’t because it was forgettable. It was actually spectacular, an inspirational piece about living in the moment framed around the ultimate Audi water balloon fight. It is said that some managers at Audi failed to see the humor and had the commercial largely scrubbed from the web. The internet being the internet, and much like that recently pulled 60 Minutes piece surfacing via Canada just this week, the water balloon fight never fully went away.
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This is important, not just because we can still watch it today and feel what enthusiasts inside the company were trying to express in 2021, but because today with the benefit of hindsight, the outcome seems quite obviously inevitable. Many of the enthusiasts who helped produce that piece have since left the brand, and even Doug DeMuro has moved on from his RS2, the car in the piece and that in which the YouTuber once brought his first child home from the hospital.
So I watch this new ad with genuine encouragement. It feels like an acknowledgement of Audi’s history in full, the good, the bad and the ugly, all of it memorable. We see clean electric cars, the diesel R10 TDI that conquered Le Mans and the Auto Union streamliners that, while technically astonishing, were also tools in a nationalistic quest tied to an infamous and villainous era. Look closely and you’ll even spot an ABT RS 6-R in one scene, which I’d like to think is acknowledgement of another part of the community that too often goes underappreciated: tuners and enthusiasts.
Now, it’s entirely possible Audi marketing simply handed the agency a budget and said, “buy every Audi model you can find,” then watched as eBay was emptied to fill the set. But part of me hopes there was intention behind some of those more obscure colorful choices.
Look, in 2025, with everyone at every level seemingly outraged by everything, it’s hard not to feel like someone, somewhere, has stuck you on the Island of Misfit Toys, the fictional exile from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer where things that don’t quite fit are sent away. The message in that iconic Christmas special isn’t just one of inclusion, but also one of grace and appreciation for those who aren’t like you and may never be. That outlook can feel like a lost art today.
I’d argue there have been people inside Audi who would prefer parts of its history or its community simply disappear, elements represented by cars in that drift shot: the aftermarket, tuners, enthusiasts and diesel technology. Likewise, there are more traditionalist members of the Audi community who’d happily see EVs vanish altogether. Sometimes it’s easier to wish away the things we simply don’t care to appreciate. But even in the darkest historical eras, including those that produced some of those pre-war streamliners, good can still emerge from the most deeply flawed moments.
The holidays feel like a fitting moment to communicate a message like this. Sure, there’s the whole peace on earth thing, noble if not pragmatic. But it’s the part about tolerating your family that really resonates. Look around the table when you gather this season and you’ll spot a few frustrations: the kid sneezing into the mashed potatoes, the perpetually angry uncle mid-monologue, or the impeccably dressed cousins behind that impossibly perfect family holiday photo everyone knows isn’t the full story.
They’re all imperfect. They have shortcomings. But they’re your family. And when things get tough, that’s who you lean on. For Audi, it’s the repeat Audi Club buyers who keep coming back and showing up, the racing fans who shift genres when Audi F1 hits the grid and the EV progressives willing to take a chance when Audi builds its first electric sports car. Family is your rock, and when family checks out, you have a much more serious problem.
Maybe this spot really was just an agency intern buying any Audi model they could find that week on eBay. But I’d rather believe it’s Audi quietly acknowledging that progress doesn’t come from erasing the past or excluding the awkward bits. It comes from owning all of it, even the messy parts, and moving forward anyway.
UPDATE: I’m happy to say the Cinematographer of both “Audi Gingerbread Village” and “Led Balloon” reached out this evening having seen this story. Todd Bell (@bellportable on Instagram and Substack) and his partner and Director of both films Nicholas Klewczeski (@djrockadoo on Instagram and Substack) have been working with Audi throughout – an important clarification given I inferred above that some folks were no longer there. Todd also shared that they and their team were very intentional with all details of the film, and that definitely included the cars.
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Road Cars: DKW F1 (1931-1942)
Concept Cars: Audi Forschungsauto Concept (1981)
Racecars: Auto Union Type A Grand Prix
People: Johann Abt
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