The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Achtung! Achtung! VW Becomes [Sort-Of] Unreliable!

Volkswagen used to make great ads.

Actually, Volkswagen made some of the greatest ads in adlands history.

I’m sure that if I say LEMON or SNOW PLOUGH you’ll probably know exactly what I’m talking about – even if you weren’t born when they were out.

OK … so there’s still some good stuff being produced for the German car giant [take a bow Colin and Pete] however in some markets, the mighty haven’t just fallen, they’ve gone into cardiac arrest!!

Have a look at this monstrosity from [I think] DDB Australia …

I hate ads like this.

Abso-fucking-lutey HATE THEM!

And the thing is, despite DDB now resembling some washed-up, alcoholic pop star from the 1960’s … they still know VW better than most, so the only explanation for this abortionis that some some sniveling, little, wanna-be-man-around-town, marketing fuckwit pushed them into it because he/she thought it made the brand look more aspirational.

Aspirational … now that’s another thing I fucking hate.

It’s a word advertising has mugged … like revolution, empowered and fun … but that’s a rant for another day.

To be honest, I can just about handle the ‘looks can be deceptive’ idea.

Sure it’s been done to death [best expressed by Sekonda with their “Beware of Expensive Imitations” line] but given there’s a general perception that well spec’d, German built cars cost a bloody fortune, it sort-of makes sense.

However what DOESN’T compute is that rather than position the Jetta as ‘The Smart Persons Car’ [like Arnold Worldwide did with their ‘People Will Get The Wrong Impression Of You’ campaign from a few years back] DDB Sydney have gone with an execution that is so contrived it seems to suggest Jetta is either the car for the ‘image obsessed, cheap wanker’ or the ‘social climber with no class*]

Now excuse me if I’m wrong, but I was always under the impression advertising was supposed to ATTRACT interest … and while Sydney is fast becoming like LA, even the most coked-out, Bondi-living, Oxford-street-frequenting dunderhead wouldn’t want to be labeled either of those things.

You used to be able to always rely on VW ad’s … they had a certain style, class and wry humour about them … however just like my old Golf GTI which needed THREE new engines, gearboxes and turbo’s in just THREE YEARS [and the car was bought from new], it seems reliability and VW are no longer on speaking terms.

Well, as long as it communication is handled by DDB Sydney.

Thank God there’s still some of Bernbach’s agencies that keep his VW reputation intact …

Taking all this into account, I think if I was incharge of the global VW brand, I’d be looking to perform a major service on my Australian team immediately!

[* Any similarity to Andy is purely coincidental!]

 PS: If DDB Sydney did NOT do this campaign, then I wholeheartedly apologise and hope, for both your sakes, you become best friends again!!

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