“You always have a choice,” the new commercial for ride-hailing service Lyft ad begins. We see a scene of covered wagons on the Oregon Trail in 1836, long before Uber and Lyft were duking it out. Front and center on one of the wagons sits a familiar face: actor Jeff Bridges, who quickly launches into a soliloquy that wouldn’t seem all that odd coming from the mouth of The Dude.
“You can either choose to ride with the right people doing things for the right reasons, you’ll always end up in the right place,” says Bridges.
“Or, you could choose poorly and end up stranded,” the bearded actor continues. Then he mumbles something about buzzards drinking rain water out of your boot and expresses his for the city of Portland, for some reason. The ad concludes with the tagline, “It matters how you get there.”
This commercial seems like a pretty direct shot at Lyft rival Uber. Lyft is taking advantage of the many scandals happening over at Uber like the lawsuit with Alphabet over self-driving car tech, driver strikes all over the world, an FBI investigation, and the messy legal drama involving ex-CEO Travis Kalanick, just to name a few.
It’s a pretty good ad with a clear message, but the setting is a little confusing. It shows us folks who famously relied on themselves to get where they need to go and Lyft is a company that gives you a ride when you’re unwilling or unable to get to your destination yourself. We kind of have a feeling Jeff Bridges just likes playing a cowboy.
