Lyft's first-ever TV commercial turns a traffic jam into a whimsical circus of chaos

Lyft may not be anywhere near as big as mammoth arch-rival Uber, but it can at least claim the distinction of being weirder.

In the ride-hailing service's first-ever nationwide commercial, a hapless driver gets stuck in an increasingly surreal jungle of a traffic jam. 

A car with a booted wheel limps along nonchalantly, a trio of wasted-looking partygoers try unconvincingly to persuade a traffic cop of their sobriety and a sad clown wanders out to inspect the aftermath of a rear-end pileup.

After a zebra inexplicably trots by, the woman decides she's had enough and climbs across the tops of the vehicles in front of her to a mountain of wrecked cars from which she hails a Lyft driver.

The message: Driving is messy and inconvenient, so you're much better off leaving your transportation in the hands of a punctual and friendly Lyft driver. 

Or as Lyft puts it in its new tagline, "Riding is the new driving."

Lyft has always tried to trade a quirky whimsy against Uber's sleek luxury vibes -- hence the mandatory fist bumps, the insistence on riders taking shotgun (both since mostly abandoned) and the fluffy pink front-bumper mustaches (later shrunken down and relegated to the dashboard).

The new campaign builds on this sensibility and pushes it to new heights, drawing inspiration from eclectic European filmmakers of the 1960s like Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Tati, according to Jesse McMillin, Lyft's creative director.

"To us, [their work] felt like an interesting starting point," McMillin told Mashable. "Especially when we wanted to do something that would have a different way to break through and communicate the message without being super literal about things." 

In addition to the television spot, Lyft will be running three times as many billboards, bus displays and other outdoor ads as it has during any campaign before now. The startup enlisted Israeli artist Noma Bar to design the imagery for that push.

With a valuation of about $5.5 billion to Uber's eye-popping $62.5 billion, Lyft has long struggled to escape the shadow of its goliath competitor. 

The startup teamed with auto giant General Motors earlier this year to announce that it was working on a fleet of self-driving cars to replace some of its drivers. GM also invested $500 million in the startup. 

McMillin mentioned the momentum that came with the high-profile partnership as part of the reason Lyft decided to dive into its first national campaign. 

"Obviously as we grow and continue to evolve as a brand, we want to make sure we're constantly pushing ourselves to have a vibe and aesthetic that feels professional and cool. But in doing that, we also want to make sure we stay true to the roots of the company," McMillin said. "That's really what informs us more than what any of our competitors are doing."

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