This ad campaign tries to capitalize on the prestige of German auto engineering by pretending that the Lexus RX 330 has been featured in this (fictitious) German automobile fanciers' magazine. They use the German Über , which is ordinarily a preposition meaning 'above', but is sometimes used as a prefix to indicate superiority, e.g. by the philosopher Nietzsche in his term 'Übermensch' ('superior human'), which was distorted by the Nazis and claimed for themselves and their own racial superiority.
Lately, the term 'Über' has been used a great deal by New York media types to refer to people with great power and/or prestige, e.g. "He's the latest 'überchef', meaning a chef of great importance and power.
So Lexus decides to use this to create the illusion that the Lexus RX330 has been able to subdue and dominate the German auto market, by creating a fake magazine called Überauto with fake German text. The line Der Neu Lexus RX 330 is ungrammatical--should be Der Neue Lexus... and the next line, Fasstensietbeltz! is totally fake. 'Fasten seat belts' in German would be Sicherheitsgürtel anschnallen, but hey, who cares? The page does indicate, in very small type near the bottom, that the magazine is 'fictional,' but no apologies for the awful German are given. Why isn't Lexus trying to pretend that it has dominated the French or American automobile markets? Because German cars are the ones that Japanese cars have to beat, not wimpy French or American cars.
No mention either of the fact that Germans don't use this prefix much any more themselves, because of its misuse by the Nazis.
haroldfs@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
