OPINION: BEALE ON ... FORD FOCUS EDGE.

You used to know where you were with car ads - smell the testosterone in every frame, feel the sticky leather, the breath-sucking power of acceleration, the exhilaration of the open road and ignore the identikit marque flagged at the end.

Now there's a make of car ad that wants to cuddle up, get all cosy and emotional, and sod all that manly stuff about speed and 0-60 and bhp and torque. Take the new Ford Focus Edge ad. Oh, it's a confusing little item, too sweet to be for a car, takes a couple of viewings to be convinced it really is about a hunk of metal to get you from A to B.

It's a chimerical, gentle piece, all slow-mo and lingering, which at least makes it stand out in the cacophony of the average ad break. The spot opens with a group of youths spraying the wall outside a fish and chip shop but, wait, it's not what you think ... they're painting over the graffiti. One of the tikes then gets his ball stuck in a tree and a little old granny shinnies up to yank it out for him. Same little old lady - probably so knackered by her tree-climbing expedition - is helped off the bus by the conductor.

Conductor then inadvertently stands next to a puddle, about to get soaked by passing car when a philanthropic passer-by whips out his brolly to offer protection, getting drenched himself for his trouble But that's OK because the nice man is then rewarded in turn for his good deed by, erm, buying a Focus Edge. The voiceover about air conditioning, ABS and alloy wheels is a bit of a kick in the groin after the whimsy (could have sworn this was going to be an ad for chips). But there's a nice group cuddle with the car dealer at the end and the line: 'The generously equipped Focus Edge. Pass it on.'

For a company in as much do-do as Ford, it's a gentle and rather elegiac marketing assault. Ford is in an interesting place at the moment. It marked its 100th birthday last year with all the aches, pains and ...