We all have our favourite VW ad. The original ‘Drop’ TV advert for the Golf where a Mk1 fell from the sky while the Japanese actor pronounced “Velly tough as old boot,” was maybe one of them. Remember ‘Changes’ in which a wife or mistress finally gives up on her man, throws away the pearls, rings and fur coat but hangs on to her Golf GTi? Or ‘Casino’ where the Monte Carlo gambler loses everything but his Dub? All are one-minute epics, have names and are treated in-house as feature film favourites. VW’s printed ads were equally powerful. But why was the firm’s advertising so good, and which themes have continued from the Beetle right through to the latest range of cars? We thought it’d be fun to take a look and got a scoop interview with VW’s ad agency to get an insight into why VW’s advertising campaigns have been so successful…

The US was and still is the biggest global market for cars and when they became sick of the over fed, Detroit diet dished up to them during the Fifties, they were keen to embrace the smaller cars coming out of Europe. While the Beetle was massively alien at first, its ruggedness and its reliable air-cooled engine soon won them over.

By 1959, however, Detroit had begun to introduce their first compact cars to stem the growing flood of foreign invaders so VW decided to appoint an advertising agency as a counter attack – namely New York outfit Doyle Dane and Bernach (DDB) which had a reputation for coming up with unusual, effective and masterfully creative ads for top US clients.
At that time, air brushed illustrations accompanied by reams of meaningless technical waffle were the norm – but the guys at DDB created a totally different look with actual photographs and a unique ‘voice’ that talked to the reader as though they were an intelligent friend in a tone that was disarmingly honest and self-depreciating rather than self congratulatory.

The result – groundbreaking ads like ‘Lemon’ and ‘Think Small’ that instantly got people talking and catapulted VW into the limelight – not just in the States but the world over. VW adverts were no longer simply a marketing tool, they had become an art form.

 
The Sixties are seen now as the golden age of modern creative advertising, the DDB VW ads revolutionising the way cars have been marketed ever since. Incredibly, looking back, ads from that era still hit home just as hard today as they did back then.

Arguably, what makes them so powerful is their close visual and contextual link with the very latest VW’s ads of today. Recognise the typeface? Yep, it’s the same Layout Number One created by Helmut Krone all those decades ago.

The core tone is the same, too. Chief Creative Officer Amir Kassaei from DDB, who still hold the account, recently stated: “Good advertising takes the customers seriously. You have to be honest and consistent as a brand. You can even admit to your own flaws because people find that endearing. The main thing is to find a relevant truth about your product and convey it in a way that is unusual, intelligent and makes complete sense. And last but not least, humour is allowed.”

Indeed, this is a theme that you can see throughout the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s – right through to the present day; the ads are concise, factual, witty and there’s an important emphasis placed on the company’s legendary reputation for quality with ads often drawing on models from the past. Another common theme is the ethos that ‘change is good’. After all, this was a message VW had to get across when the Golf and other water-cooled cars in the range took over the mantle from the Beetle, Variant and other air-cooled derivatives. Throughout, there’s always that intimate conversation going on between them and you, the potential buyer, almost like an ‘in joke’ at the expense of everyone else, with neither parties taking themselves too seriously.

Obviously what’s helped is the fact that DDB used the VW emblem from an early stage, so even if the cars in the adverts have changed, the bold style, witty headline and the appearance of the VW logo is instantly recognisable and provides a link to the company’s heritage and everything that has gone before.

We got a scoop interview with DDB’s Business Director Jonathan Hill who gave us a unique insight into how DDB originally got the VW contract and the incredible continuity between VW’s revolutionary advertising campaigns from the past and today’s adverts.

Said Jonathan: “The DDB pitch to VW was titled – ‘How to Sell a Nazi Car in a Jewish Town’ and soon after they got the contract they went to the Wolfsburg factory to see cars being made and came back saying, ‘there’s only one way to do this – we need to tell it like it is.’ That set the tone for all future advertising – it had to be truthful and honest.

“Our induction programme includes looking at all the old VW adverts to ensure there’s continuity – and if anything, it’s that continuity which has secured the VW contract ever since. In fact, when I recently looked back at all the TV ad footage on one long reel, it was the change in fashions and hairstyles that stood out most, not the style of the advert – incredibly that had changed very little.

“When DDB took on the VW account, US car advertising was all about fake lifestyles, there was little honesty involved. VW, however, have never had ‘brand temples’ – we’ve created realistic settings and totally believable situations to enable us to be honest to the product and to assure customers that we are telling the truth.

“That why, when looking at scripts, the key question is – ‘have you ever done that, or said that?’ It’s a case of holding up a mirror to people, getting an insight into something you might not have thought of, but do every day without knowing. It’s like the advert where a father is driving his child around at night trying to get them off to sleep. When we first showed that, everyone nodded saying, ‘yep, I’ve done that with my kids.’

“It reinforces the belief that VW knows them better than anyone else, which reinforces the trust aspect. After all, while most car manufacturers are named after their founder or where the factory was first located, VW is named after its drivers. It’s a ‘peoples’ car’ and all our advertising is geared towards this – it’s sincere, honest and in a language they can understand, not some marketing spiel.”

While many VW adverts in the past focused on comparing products with rivals from Japan, this is a theme that’s used less often nowadays. That said, the ‘Like a Golf’ TV ad was a revival of this theme to an extent.
What VW won’t do, confirms Jonathan, is make anything or anybody look bad or denegrade anything else.

Arguably, cars like the Golf have such a brilliant reputation that they don’t actually need any advertising, so here it’s a case of re-establishing its relevance. As Amir Kassaei from DDB said in a recent VW corporate publication: “It is our responsibility to continue refreshing consumers’ understanding of this car’s quality in the context of their own lives. Of all the major automotive companies, Wolfsburg has best understood that product quality, design and marketing are integral components of the company’s success.”

Finally, we had to smile at a revelation by former VW marketing guru John Meszaros, talking about the infamous Scirocco GTX ‘Chimney’ advert (1985) involving steeplejack Fred Dibnah. Apparently the stunt man Dickie Beer, who would drive the Mk2 Rocco away from the falling chimney just in time to avoid it being squashed, was spotted in the canteen prior to the filming drinking just a bottle of Perrier water. Quizzed as to why he wasn’t tucking into a full English like the rest of the crew, he stated that the last time he did something like this he nearly died and because he’d had a full breakfast the medical team was unable to operate. You can see his point.

So what are the best VW ads of all time? Having scooped Cannes Lions Advertiser of the Year in 2009, DDB selected its own top ten best adverts as follows:
1. Beetle ‘Lemon’ (1960)
2. Polo ‘Traffic Jam Poem’ (2000)
3. Golf ‘Changes’ (1987)
4. ‘Nightdrive’ (2007)
5. Polo ‘Dog’ (2008)
6. ‘Snowplough’ (1963)
7. Golf ‘Singing in the Rain’ (2005)
8. Polo ‘Protection’ (1997)
9. ‘Funeral’ (1969)
10. ‘Lamp Post’ (1998)

You can remind yourself of just how good they were at http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/thework/916326

Okay, that’s the experts’ choice – but what’s your favourite VW ad of all time?

Mine has to be the one with Marty Feldman looking suitably odd with the headline “If he can make it, so can Volkswagen” Having said that, I’ve always gone for the unusual.

Ian