1 Comment

“We Rep the Southside” is the Worst Car Commercial of the Year

This ad for an Edmonton, Alberta, Canada dealership is about the worst thing they could have done...and that says a lot about a place that sells Mitsubishis.

There is something to be said for things that are so bad, they’re good. The freestyle of Eli Porter, the films of Ed Wood, every Nicolas Cage role since 2006, these are all pretty sterling examples. Each is a thing that has almost no redemptive quality in terms of merit, and yet there’s something so oddly charming and arresting that you can’t help but love it for having the audacity to be what it is. Then there are things like this local advertisement/rap video/embarrassment, humbly submitted to us by Southside Mitsubishi of Canada, entitled “We Rep the Southside.”

Ugh. This is what you might call so bad it’s terrible.

“We Rep the Southside” features Nelson Berry, seen mugging above in a manner that would make Jerry Lewis roll over in his cryostasis chamber. Berry is presumably the advertising figurehead of Southside Mitsubishi in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; he is not listed as being an actual member of the dealership’s sales, service, or parts team. He did, however, star in this video, which intends to…I don’t know…appeal to human beings in some way?

From what we can speculate, based upon his self-proclamation of being “the big boss, big spender,” Berry may well be the owner of Southside Mitsubishi. The fact that the man has all of his money tied up in a dealership that provides Canada with some of the world’s most yawn-worthy cars is certainly enough to create the kind of mania that might lead one into thinking creating an ad like “We Rep the Southside” is a good idea.

What we can confirm: he looks quite a bit like former Weekend Update host Colin Quinn.

Berry has all of the finesse of your 73-year-old-grandfather trying his damnedest to understand and emulate what the raps that these kids are listening to these days are all about, and he’s certainly right up there alongside Snow as one of the worst things Canada has contributed to the hip-hop genre.

“We Rep the Southside” is inarguably Southside Mitsubishi’s worst advertisement to date, which says something for a dealership whose other commercials play on such hilarious tropes as losing a loved one in an accident and the pain of child birth. Seriously, just try to watch all three minutes of that thing. You’ll never be the same.

If you can’t, and I certainly don’t blame you if you are incapable of getting through the whole thing, here’s the Cliff’s Notes version.

A brief checklist of reasons why “We Rep the Southside” makes Puff Daddy look like a poet laureate:

Ridiculous outfit that assumes the style of hip-hop never evolved past LL Cool J? Check.

Seemingly incessant hand gestures? Check.

Totally inexplicable “Who Let the Dogs Out?” reference? Relevant.

Totally inexplicable crotch shot? Of course.

Totally inexplicable nipple exposure? Sure.

Trying to start a beef with other dealerships? Check.

Cheeky use of gang signs? Yep.

Slapping the ass of a car? Uh-huh.

Twerking? Twerking.

So many ridiculous faces? All of them.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Mitsubishi dealership commercial without one key ingredient: lots of shots of boring-ass Mitsubishis.

Congratulations, Southside Mitsubishi. “We Rep the Southside” is arguably one of the most ridiculous commercials I’ve seen since the Montgomery, Alabama flea market ad.

It’s mildly offensive, completely out of touch, and unbelievably ridiculous.

Still a better contribution to the internet than PewDiePie.