When it comes to the advertising game on television, especially when we speak about it in terms of automobiles, there’s “before VW” and “after VW”. The way that companies talked about themselves talked to their customers, and interacted with the public all changed drastically when DDB Worldwide took over the VW advertising account. The operation decided to go on a run of self-depreciating, smart, and smart ass ad campaigns that appealed to their core customers. These ads poked subtle fun at the way in which the Detroit companies were doing business, how their cars looked, and how they treated people who were spending money on their product.
The best part of these ads is how VW talks about themselves. The fact that the cars styling never changed, the fact that people were shocked to see something like the VW Fastback which actually looked kind of cool, the way that people ignored Beetle in the face of more splash and dash from Detroit, etc. There are other ads that talk about the cars function and functionality as well.
“Ever wonder how the snowplow driver gets to the snowplow?” That one is freaking brilliant.
This is the kind of fun stuff that companies very rarely even begin to scratch the surface of today. The level to which DDB Worldwide went to really kill this is completely unprecedented today. Awesome stuff.
