VW’s Creative Firepower

May 14, 2006 – 12:06 pm by Matt Radel
Filed under Cool Stuff

VW enlists the services of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the guys responsible for your favorite new VW ads as well as the resurrection of the Rabbit.

Facing declining sales, quality and a diminishing male consumer base, VW realized that they needed to re-ignite the spark for their brand in the American market. Creating exciting new products of greater quality was only one part of the equation: they needed to get people talking again. They had great success with the 1960’s ads, poking fun at themselves with the “Think Small” and “Lemon” campaigns. More recently they reached with the “Da da da” and “Mr. Roboto” commercials, but with limited success. They where losing ground in the market as they where seen only for the New Beetle (widely regarded as a chick car) and the Jetta, while severely missing the mark with the Phaeton.

So what’s a German car company with a great history to do? Even with somewhat generic campaigns like “Drivers wanted” they couldn’t edge out the likes of Toyota (who has THE lamest commercials of them all. “Moving you forward”? Come on). Enter Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the same guys who do the creepy Burger King ads.

The article in BusinessWeek tells it all. Frankly, I’m extremely happy to see the humor in the ad campaigns surrounding these products. The “Unpimp your auto” ads have generated interest and put VW on an extremely aggressive timeline to realign the model line which will add 5 new rides in the next 20 months.

Can Crispin go too far? Maybe. But I think the Volkswagen following will grow and thrive despite any missteps the firm could make. They’ve done well to put BK back in our minds, and they may have much better success with VW.