The "Mystique" of Volkswagen, Not the Mistake of "Punch Dub"

My kudos to Deutsch LA in their work on the Punch Dub campaign.

In preliminary buzz, we heard a lot about "Sluggy" Patterson, the inventor of "Punch Buggy" or "Slug Bug." Some of us cared about knowing more, and others didn't. I don't know who orchestrated the social media presence, but you could learn more about him--reach out and slug him, so to speak--on Twitter and Facebook, if you cared to do so.

Shortly after word got out that Tracy Morgan was going to cameo in the Super Bowl ad, a comment or two went up tying Tracy Morgan and his past problems with the game, and how they both encouraged domestic violence.

I'm assuming--but I didn't bother to look it up--that Deutsch runs the Audi campaign as well. After the fact, I learn that "Green Police" was the Nazi Constabulary.

I saw a thread running here. It reminded me of an "Are You Being Served" episode where the department store decided to have a German week, and Mister Grainger had to deal with a German tourist who wanted to buy a British Tweed jacket. Mister Grainger wanted to sell the German tourist one of those Bavarian caps that have what looks like a shaving brush stuck to the side. After exchanging comments like "Aren't you proud of being British," and "Aren't you proud of being German," the German tourist storms out (like a trooper?) spouting German, and Mr. Grainger saying "Damn, Bosch. We did win the war, you know."

It also reminded me of an episode of an episode of "Fawlty Towers" where John Cleese as Basil Fawlty goes over the top dealing with German tourists and ends up putting a comb under his nose like a moustache and goose-stepping around the dining room.

I could see the "Punch Dub" campaign spiralling down like a Messerschmidt in flames. You'd have Tracy Morgan reminding people of how Jesse Owens rubbed salt into the Nazi's wounds at the Berlin Olympics, but also kindling the idea that violence is a form of recreation. Max the Beetle would show up in black with red zigzags on its side and a stubby mustache on its front. A German helmetted driver would pass by in a Thing (which is in reality a WWII German Jeep-equivalent) Max would start spewing Hitleresque diatribe about das Volks Wagen (the People's Car) and World domination of the auto market.

But Deutsch pulled it all off by not only not staving off anti-Semitic/anti-Germanic hate/fear/dread/loathing, but making people feel good about recognizing automobiles that are well designed, engineered for the World Market, and that meet the needs and sensibilities of Americans--with humor.

Some concentrated on Tracy Morgan, but Deutsch made Tracy a prop to Stevie Wonder-the Ambassador to World Peace. What a great stroke of genius. Not only did Stevie Wonder "see" the VW and punch Tracy first, he even declared the color. Tracy said, "How did he do that?" Well, here is a YouTube explaining how he did it.



The music Deutsch chose was fitting, as well. It's indie-folk rock. I gather this genre exists and thrives due to the iPod and MP3 players, so it is fitting for the iPod crowd. It is trendy, cutting edge, and has a"literati" feel to it. It is not jarring for those of us who are aging hippies. (And after seeing "The Who," we realized that "our music" just might be killing us--look what it did to band!)

The song is "Two Weeks" by "Grizzly Bear". I found a new bad to follow. I hear a little Billy Joel/Jackson Brown feel to it--not in a derivative way. Here is the song as it was played on David Letterman.



And finally, here is the full 60-second spot.