Lyft's making a grab for your attention with some pretty weird advertisements, the latest of which features Tilda Swinton acting as driver to Jordan Peele's passenger — in space.
The ads, shared by Adweek, are pretty out there (pun intended). They're kind of hard to put into text, because typing an explanation definitely highlights the oddity of it all. Look: Here, you've got Peele talking about the importance of drivers, saying that without drivers, we never would have gone to the moon. He's not wrong, exactly, and neither is Swinton when she says, "If you choose to ride with the right people, you do things for the right reasons, you'll always end up in the right place." There, in the space between the words, she highlights the underlying message of this particular ad campaign: Lyft is doing the right things; Uber is not.
It's far from being all that controversial in the grand scheme of controversial ad campaigns, but it does feel pointed, given the fact that Uber is being dealt lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit while struggling with criticism from all sides for their seemingly endless supply of scandals and controversies. To be fair, Lyft isn't made up of all saints either, but relatively speaking, they've got the moral high ground on Uber.
Peele and Swinton's commercial isn't the first one, either; Jeff Bridges appeared in another spot for Lyft, only his was a little more "down-to-Earth," so to speak. His is western themed, and he's riding along in a wagon across what I'm just going to go ahead and assume is the Oregon trail (because why not). He says the same thing Swinton does about the right people, right reasons, and the right places, too.
There are more super short Twitter/Facebook-friendly bits included in the Adweek story. They're actually kind of funny, and if you're anything like me, they've got you humming to "Spirit in the Sky" already.
Related: Lyft To Offer Free Rides In Self-Driving Cars Later This Year In SF