http://www.truthinengineering.com/exclusive-preview/

Alex Rocco in the role of the studio exec. Kind of wish they had used the Godfather theme and Rocco delivering Moe Greene's classic line again. "I'm Moe Greene! I buy you out, you don't buy me out!"

According to IMDb, the original horse head actor, John Marley, would have been 101 years old if he were still alive to do this commercial. But it's nice that Alex Rocco got the gig. Thanks for posting the link (I don't watch the Superbowl).

Yeah i looked at IMDB too. I was surprised Alex Rocco was as young as he was playing Moe Greene when Godfather came out!

They show have done something with Moe Green.
It's like having Stallone do a ad as Mick instead as Rocky.

My guess is this wasn't an officially sanctioned Godfather ad, they just wanted someone Godfather fans would recognize to hammer home the Godfather parody.

Moe Green's most famous scene is him getting shot in the eye while getting a massage, I'm not sure that would work well for a commercial.

I can't believe all the negative reaction on my Audi boards to this ad. Nobody gets it. I was under the impression The Godfather was firmly a part of American culture at this point.

Excellent commercial, I thought. And the car...

I loved it. Though, I was the only one laughing in the room of people I was watching it in. Everyone turned and looked at me... "Godfather... ever heard of it?"

Arrested Development beat them to the punch with this gag when GOB put Michaels handle bars in his bed...

-NiCK

I actually watched that episode of AD last night after the Superbowl and the oil thing made me wonder if the ad was inspired by more than just the Godfather.

And of course the Simpsons beat AD to the punch when Homer put a living horse head in Lisa's Bed.

Oh, and that episode had one of my favorite lines ever:
"Yes, but what man can tame her?"

...and from a cogent Ralph Wiggum no less.

Because the R8 is a straight up sports car i.e. direct competition to the Porsche 997; not a luxury car which is what the commercial is saying. It would have been better if it had been a part of a Corvette or any other sports car instead of something from a sedan.

Great Ad! Thought it was one of the best of the night!

Doesn't matter. It's an ad for the entire Audi brand. Nobody is going to go buy an R8 from seeing the ad. If you have the money and you can even get on a list for one you have done your research. Now the ad will perhaps get some people to look at Audi and they may end up with A4/6 or maybe even an A8.

Anyway, any car that's over a 100,000 is a "luxury" for most of us.

I've seen so many parodies of that scene I felt the commercial was just lame.

Audi doesn't sell itself as a luxury brand but a company that sells cars because of it's racing program. The cars may shout luxury but their history says otherwise.

I thought it was a great ad as well. I showed it to my wife and she said "I don't get it". I'm still trying to get her to watch the Godfather Trilogy. She is a bit resistant because she doesn't like mob movies.

I bet that there are alot of people who either haven't seen any of the Godfather films or it's been so long since they viewed it that they didn't get the connection.

I think we are getting into overanalyzing the whole thing now.

Anyway, maybe the ad was a failure and only appeals to major fans of both Audi and Godfather - maybe .001% of the population. And popcorntreect is right that the scene has been parodied too many times - but a) this one has a cool car and b) it has Alex Rocco. Makes it worthwhile for me!

Like with all the luxury products, people who buy them don't do so because they watch commercials. At first glance such ads may seem useless, but it's just image advertisement. Luxury goods don't need advertising, but companies producing them need to maintain their own image.
Brilliant ad by the way

The Godfather is my favorite movie of all time and I figured out what they were doing instantly, but I didn't think it was all that funny.

Same here. From the opening shot I knew what was up, "uh-oh...where's this goin?! It better pay off BIG!"

Meh.