1969volkswagensquareback

posts about #1969volkswagensquareback more →
When Ugliness Was a Volkswagen Virtue

Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.

Dsmvwl Admin Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×

Novaload
07/18/09

In reply to When Ugliness Was a Volkswagen Virtue
VW's campaigns were brilliant examples of winning by telling the unvarnished truth about your product--which flew in the face of almost every other product and certainly every bit of received wisdom about fluffing and pitching a product. Add a little humor and you have also made your product hip and likable. You'll never beat the big 3 but you will have great success and become both an icon and an advertising legend. Amazing stuff.
Reply

Novaload was starred Novaload was unstarred

kitko
07/18/09

In reply to When Ugliness Was a Volkswagen Virtue
If you look carefully, there's a Mercedes star on that antena.
Anyway, VW design today combines the "greatness" of being vague, naive and sterile. Audi follows the suit.
Reply

UDMan promoted this comment kitko was starred kitko was unstarred

DrLemming
07/18/09

In reply to When Ugliness Was a Volkswagen Virtue
Those were wonderful ads. Yes, DDB was top notch, but the real key was VW. It was committed to being different. Not just a little different around the edges -- VW pretty much did everything the opposite of the Big Three in flagrant fashion for decades.

What's most lacking in today's auto industry is iconoclasm. There aren't enough automakers that are willing to take the kinds of risks that VW did back in the day. The result: You may have a record number of choices in a given vehicle class but very little meaningful differences.

Any of the automakers that are on the verge of disappearing from the US market could revive themselves if they took a page from VW. Alas, it won't happen. Group think is too strong in today's auto industry.
Reply

Novaload Misses Murilee promoted this comment DrLemming was starred DrLemming was unstarred

Van Sarockin, rogue trebuchet
07/18/09

In reply to When Ugliness Was a Volkswagen Virtue
Doyle Dane Bernbach's ads for VW set a new standard for spare, humorous, catchy and visually distinct advertising. People are still mining and trying to outdo those ads. After all, when life gives you lemons...
Reply

Paul Y. don't drive too fast.
07/18/09

@Van Sarockin, rogue trebuchet: When life give you lemons, it means you're probably driving a Volkswagen?
Reply

underwear-ninja
07/18/09

@Van Sarockin, rogue trebuchet:

race them!
Reply

Armand promoted this comment underwear-ninja was starred underwear-ninja was unstarred

Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion

#1969volkswagensquareback

Jalopnik

SUBSCRIBE TO Jalopnik

When Ugliness Was a Volkswagen Virtue

Login

Reset Password

Register

Submit Your Comment