Take a stunning scene, add in some speed, some flesh and maybe a dab of Matrix Reloaded-type style. Then cue the car, too, and you've got the average car ad. But it's not just about the look, as cars with the coveted five-star safety rating flaunt it unashamedly.
After all, safety also sells. The Euro NCAP safety tests are creating an unofficial league table where the best and worst performers are highly visible. Doing well in the tests is a priority for all companies. And with the pressure on, British consumer group magazine Which cautions car-makers to make the cars as safe as possible for all situations, and not just for those covered in the tests.
But do five stars mean the car is the safest on the road? Euro NCAP's rule of thumb is that in an accident higher-rated cars should perform better than lower-rated cars in their class. But it would be the first to say that its three laboratory tests cannot be a catch-all for all kinds of road accidents.
"The outcome of any accident depends entirely on the hit," says David Lout of the Somerset Police Collision Investigation Unit. "In real-life, head-on collisions are rarely at an offset of 40 per cent [NCAP's protocol] and side impacts rarely occur at a 90 degree-angle to the driver. The laws of physics are stable, so if you are hit by a harder or heavier vehicle at an angle of 75 degrees, the outcome will be different."
In a head-on collision, the heavier vehicle drives the lighter one back and all heavy vehicles, even poorly-designed ones have the advantage. With Euro NCAP, the safety ratings go from one to five, so cars of different sizes can have the exact same star rating. This means no credit is given to larger cars even though they are safer for occupants.
So what might happen if a four-star Supermini hits a four-star, three-star or unrated Saloon head-on? "This type of head-on collision would be an unfair challenge on the smaller car," says Maurice Eaton, programme manager of Euro NCAP.
"The four-star supermini would do well, but the other car's mass would have implications. This is why car buyers should only use the star ratings to compare cars of the same size or in the same class."
Sometimes consumers may misinterpret the Euro NCAP ratings or overestimate the safety features in a car. "With cars getting safer, drivers can increase their own accident risk if they start to believe they are invincible," adds David Lout.
"Safety features are vital, but for the most part are compensating for driver error. Reducing speed, recognising hazards, and observation significantly ahead, will reduce a driver's need to rely on airbags and ABS to kick in. I don't want to be an anorak, but people can have an increasingly false sense of security and push out the boundaries too much."
But despite the emphasis on safety, many cars do not fare well in Euro NCAP's most important test. In Ireland nearly one-third of all road fatalities are caused by two-car head-on collisions. But doing really well in the frontal test is the exception rather than the rule, according to Eaton.
Cars often get less than half marks in this test though they regularly achieve top marks in the side impact test. Only cars getting a minimum of nine points out of 16 in the frontal test, hardly a high score, can get the four-star rating.
To make best use of its resources, Euro NCAP concentrates on accidents causing serious and fatal injuries and confines its tests to the most popular cars on the road. Protection in rear-end shunts or in low-speed accidents is not examined. And while these types of accident are rarely fatal, they are the most common, and can lead to pain and suffering.
The work of Euro NCAP is funded by its member organisations. They include the FIA foundation, the German automobile club, a number of European consumer organisations, the European Commission, the British Department of Transport and some European governments.
It buys some 40 new cars anonymously each year and puts them through the tests at a cost of €140,000 per car. But such is the importance of doing well in the tests that car-makers are now keen to see their cars in the line-up. Toyota fully sponsored the testing of the new Avensis, as did Renault with some of its models.
In the frontal test, the car is crashed at 40 mph into a barrier. The side-impact test involves crashing a trolley at 30 mph into the driver's side of a parked car. There is also an optional pole test which simulates a driver's head hitting something outside the car like a tree or the bonnet of a taller vehicle.
Head-protecting airbags make this type of accident survivable and the car can get another two points. Up to three additional points are available for seat-belt reminders. Despite some of the limitations of simulating reality in a laboratory, Euro NCAP has to be welcomed as the only independent crash testing system for new cars in Europe. A Swedish study carried out in 2000 found a good correlation between the NCAP ratings and how cars performed in serious and fatal accidents.
But it is only when cars have been on the road for a while and real-life accident data is gathered that there is a fuller picture of a car's safety.
Car manufacturers perform a host of safety tests, though they also go to insurance companies to buy back models which have been in real-life accidents in order to examine how they performed. "Shortly after the Audi TT was launched, it was found to be unstable under speed. Modifications were carried out and all new Audi TT's now have a boot spoiler," says David Browne, head of transport design at Coventry University.
The Euro NCAP tests have undoubtedly helped save many lives by encouraging car-makers to build safer cars and increase the number of safety options included as standard. In the past it was not unusual to be literally killed by your own car as drivers had their chests pierced by a collapsed steering wheel, the legs gashed by the pedals or the body spiked by the A pillar.
The chassis of some older cars would sometimes buckle in a collision and the Rover 100 was withdrawn after getting a poor rating in the first Euro NCAP tests.
Euro NCAP recently started pedestrian safety tests and hopes to include a whiplash test protocol next year. It is also in discussions with insurance companies in mainland Europe to examine if good NCAP results can be reflected in premium costs as happens in the US.