Oh, those crazy men and women in Gothenburg, Sweden are at it again. The folks at Volvo Trucks have a new promotional video to rival the ones they have made in the past … and that takes some doing.
The stars of Volvo’s “The Tower”Keep in mind, this is the same company that gave the world action star Jean-Claude Van Damme doing the splits with one foot each on two moving trucks.
They also had one of its trucks towing a paraglider, let a 4-year-old girl drive one of their trucks by remote control through a gravel pit filled with obstacles (that she obliterated), and showed truckers get radical adjustments from a chiropractor. They also had a high-wire walker on a cable between two trucks speeding down the highway, and showed off one of its trucks racing a Koenigsegg One:1 supercar.
The newest Volvo video shows off four new models, including the FMX. The video, appropriately called The Tower, features four Volvo trucks stacked on top of one another, with company President Roger Alm standing on the top one. It’s all very dramatic what with thunder, lightning, rain, prowling wolves, powerful music, and Alm, arms outstretched and trench coat flapping in the wind, looking like a figurehead on the prow of a ship plowing through heavy seas.
The goal: show how the FMX — and maybe Alm — is up to any task.
The company explains the video this way:
“It took about a month to design and build the tower and make sure it was safe to drive. Essentially, this was made possible thanks to the sturdy construction truck, the Volvo FMX, and its new 38-tonne bogie being able to carry the weight of the others. But it also required a steady speed and course, accomplished by the Volvo Dynamic Steering technology and a skilled truck driver,” said Markus Wikström, engineer at Volvo Trucks and part of the engineering team behind the tower.
Is The Tower a bit over the top? Well, of course it is. That’s the whole point, and Volvo delivers once again.
Here’s The Tower and the company’s video about what it took to make the film.
