When I was in advertising, I read a wonderful book about Doyle Dane Bernbach's (DDB) iconic print advertising for Volkswagen. It was a blank sheet of paper, with a relatively small picture of the original Beetle and a little (often witty) copy at the bottom. Often copied, never duplicated, it put VW on the U.S. map, legitimized "Beetle", debunked or perpetuated urban myths (Can Beetles really float?). If you showed anyone over the age of 40 this ad, they'd recognize it as VW even before they put on their reading glasses.
More recently, VW had some mixed results with their ex-agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky. It seems the Brooke Shields series of ads for the Routan made people feel uncomfortable. I thought they were funny, and I bought a Routan without having another child (remember, I saw the DDB ads when they were originally published).
The finding bee site also had this commercial. While not for the Routan, it's pretty good.
Do you have a favorite Volkswagen or Routan commercial? Leave a comment. If you can post a link, all the better. I'd love to have a link to the Routan "Future Family" commercial. I didn't fully understand it when I first saw it, then I bought the Routan. I split a gut laughing the next time I saw it.
