This was meant to be a story about a bunch of sketches Skoda revealed to promote next week’s launch of the second-generation Kodiaq SUV. And in a way, it still is. There are four images on this post of the next Kodiaq put the through the car designer’s equivalent of one of those selfie filters that makes you look far more attractive than you really are.

The thing is, we’ve already seen the next Kodiaq, and yeah, it was covered in a camo wrap in Skoda’s official ‘spy’ photos and video, but almost every detail about the design was still clearly visible. So we already know that it doesn’t look anywhere near as cool as the sketches, because real cars never do.

Those wheels in the drawings that look like they must be at least 24-inches across? The real thing will have teeny-weeny seventeens in base form; twenties, for big spenders. Door handles? All present and correct on the metal car, nowhere to be seen on the 2D one.

Related: 2024 Skoda Kodiaq And Superb Reveal Their Premium-Looking Interiors

Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?

If you want to read about the new Kodiaq ahead of next week’s reveal on October 4 you’ll find a comprehensive post here. It might not look radically different from today’s Kodiaq, but you know it’s going to make a great family car, so the story is worth a read. But in this post I want to pull back and look at the bigger picture. I want to talk about teasers and how automakers have assumed more control of their coverage over the past few years.

Because without us maybe even realising it, teasers have become an essential component in coverage of new cars. From close-up shots of rear light clusters to silhouettes that have been specially produced to ensure we can’t cheat by boosting the shadows to see more than we’re meant to, teasers are rife. Every automaker is at it, though Skoda is one of the worst, perhaps overcompensating for the fact that the real launch of the cars in question will never elicit as much excitement.

When I started reading car mags back in the 1980s there were two stages to the launch of a new car. The first was when legendary spy snapper Hans Lehmann clambered up a tree and managed to fire off a bunch of shots of a secret new model, fingers crossed that when he got back home and developed the film that he’d have nailed the money shot. And then there was the full static reveal.

Spy Shots Still Rock

Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?

Today, we still rely on spy photographers and leaks to get the jump on automakers, and it’s genuinely exciting to see something before you were meant to see it, like the interior of the new Kodiaq, pictured above in an image we posted two months before Skoda officially revealed the interior.

But around 20 years ago, automakers began taking their own carefully posed, high quality spy shots, reasoning that if their cars were going to be papped, they might as well make them look good and leverage the opportunity. Today, car firms stretch out the message to help control the narrative every step of the way, something that’s become even easier with the advent of social media, where they can have their own channels and no longer need rely on independent media for coverage.

Value Content?

Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?
Where Do You Stand On Automakers’ Obsession With Teasers?

Looking back at previous posts I can see we’ve run six stories about Mk2 Kodiaq teasers, not including this one, and while some delivered meaningful value, and could be described as previews, revealing solid technical information, or maybe a shot of the interior, in others like the one of the Kodiaq and Superb at the Arctic Circle, the one showing the body-in-white and the one showing a silhouetted sketch (all seen in the gallery above), did we really learn anything newsworthy?

But maybe not everything needs to be dripping with detail to merit a conversation. Maybe there’s value simply in maintaining the buzz about a new model before it’s time for that new model to make its debut. What’s your take? Do you love all these teasers, or do you think automakers are just playing us and you? Be sure to leave a comment and let us know.