Week One EOC: Volkswagon Car Ad

The success of the Volkswagen Lemon Ad Campaign is nothing short of brilliance and will go down in advertisement history, as it should. After a particularly, “rough patch” in German history, the car makers were faced with a significant challenge. How do you sell a car that the public correlates one of the most hated men in history with? “Office boys read them aloud by the water cooler. College kids recited them at campus parties. They were the marketing conversation piece of the sixties. To let the Beetle and its advertising pass on without a permanent record seemed a crying shame. For surly, no car was more loved, no advertising more admired.” 1 The brand completely turned around the public’s impression of the entire brand. Even after such hard times. “Volkswagen hired the Doyle Dane Bernbach ad agency to create a campaign that would introduce the Beetle to the U.S. market in 1960. Now consider the marketing situation. Competing automakers were building ever bigger cars for growing families with baby boomer children. The Beetle, on the other hand, was tiny and, well, ugly. Who would buy it? On top of this, the car was manufactured in Wolfsburg, Germany, at a plant built by the Nazis. Given that World War II had ended only 15 years earlier, it's easy to envision a public relations nightmare. It was in this environment that DDB introduced the Beetle with a radical ad campaign that perfectly positioned the product and won the hearts and minds of the masses.” 2 The specific word choice used in the ad is what sparked the most interest among the public. To refer to a car as a “lemon” has a strongly negative connotation. Let alone refer to your own company’s car as such. It sparked quite the stir. “The ad featured a black and white photo of the Volkswagen Beetle with the word “Lemon” in bold san serif font.  Below the image follows a statement that proclaims that this particular car was rejected by Inspector Kurt Kroner because of a blemish on the chrome piece of the glove box. The ad goes on to describe the rigorous inspection process; one out of fifty does not pass for something as simple as a scratch on the windshield. “This preoccupation with detail means the VW lasts longer and requires less maintenance, by and large, than other cars.” Concluding with a memorable tag line “We pluck the lemons; you get the plums,” it gives the reader a first impression that Volkswagen is calling their own car a lemon, while intriguing them to read further to see that it is really about the rigorous inspection process that Volkswagens go through.” 3

3. http://www.writingfordesigners.com/?p=1731
2. http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/1999/11/22/smallb7.html?page=all

1.     1.  http://www.greatvwads.com/