Mercedes’ EQG concept is already a bit bonkers, an all-electric version of their famous, brick-like off-roader-turned- with the rear-mounted spare tire replaced with a box for charging cables and a grille made of dancing LED lights. Whatever, it’s a fun EV concept. And, I have to give Mercedes-Benz credit for not just making the usual, forgettable, fancy people doing fancy shit kind of promo video and instead giving people what they really want: subtitled squid aliens in close up.

Just look at that screenshot right there; that’s from a major automaker’s promotional video. From Mercedes-Fucking-Benz’ promotional video, and I hope whoever had this idea is getting a big fat raise and one of those cookie bouquets where the cookies are impaled on wooden dowels.

The videos are done in a deliberate late ‘70s sci-fi style, to tie into the original G-Wagen’s 1979 introduction, and Benz’ people were even careful enough to do most of it in the old 4:3 aspect ratio.

It involves time travel and aliens and lots of silver lame and latex and body paint and all kinds of top-notch bonkersism.

Here, just watch:

Man, there’s even a scene that seems to have the same that was on the Millenium Falcon:

There’s a second video, featuring a surprisingly game Mercedes-Benz Chief Design Officer Gorden Wagener as EQGorden, and even more aliens and shit:

Yes, yes, finally, a PR team that gets it.

Yeah, it’s all deeply goofy and silly, both wonderful qualities I’d not have expected from Mercedes-Benz. Automotive PR tends to take itself way, way too seriously, using words like “dynamism” and making claims of world-changing and making use of the word “DNA” so much you’d think they were engineering embryos or something, but this, this is a refreshing change.

The closest sort of thing I can think of would be Nissan’s back in the early 1990s. This has the same sort of playful nongivashittery of that, and, again, I can’t stress enough how much this industry needs to take itself less seriously.

So, good job, whatever goofballs at Mercedes-Benz or their ad agency made this happen! It’s appreciated.

I’ll be sure to buy a dozen of the electric G-Wagens just as soon as my Elio stock takes off.