This ad tells the well-known story of Cinderella in a very different way: backwards. Cinderella starts as a wealthy woman who’s happily married to a prince. By the end…well, let’s just say she’s back to where she started. It’s all to demonstrate that when things are reversed (like when you reverse a car), they don’t always end happily. Which is why the Vauxhall Astra has a reverse camera as standard…

The campaign was aired in the UK to coincide with ‘Panto Season’ – a part of the year when traditional fairy tales are performed in theatres in ‘pantomimes’. They’re typically overblown, colourful, flamboyant versions of well-known stories that often play with storylines and structure – which is why we’ve taken the same approach in our ads.

MVO This is the story of a very happy - and very wealthy woman. One day, her handsome husband, a prince, unmarried her.

SFX (A posh man says, ‘Sorry, darling. It’s over’.)

MVO Then he took a glass slipper off her foot, there was a big party…

SFX (Party SFX)

MVO …a carriage turned into a pumpkin and some horses turned into mice. A fairy godmother disappeared…

SFX (Reverse magical ‘ping’ sound effect.)

MVO …and Cinderella was made to work in a kitchen where her step-mother and step-sisters spent all day being horrible to her.

MVO Things can end badly backwards. That’s why the Vauxhall Astra Ultimate comes with reverse camera as standard.

Vauxhall. British brand since 1903.