"I'm not teaching my kid to hit"

I have gotten a couple of comments on posts relating to the Punch Dub game. In one of my previous posts I mused that Punch Dub might be a faux pas. Well, I don't know how strong the backlash is, but the campaign is getting people to notice Volkswagen and Routan.

If you play Punch Dub, you see how large a market share VW has. You also notice that Volkswagen is not just New Beetle or Jetta. They have vehicles in a number of segments, and there are a lot of older VWs still on the road. This was a masterful stroke on Deutch's part to get people to realize that VW is Americanized enough not to be a problem but European enough to let you feel you're in the same league as BMW, Porsche, and Ferrari.

The campaign has increased talk about VW as well. "Punch Dub is just bullying." "How did they get that baby to cry?" "They didn't have a brat punch an old man in the groin, did they?" "I'm not punching for Routans, that's just wrong." "Stevie Wonder knew what color that VW was--how did he do that." "Routan Dad takes his kids around the block twice so they can see their neighbors punch each other." "Tiguan, where?"

Compare that to talk about Toyota. "The new Lexus rolls over." "Man, Toyota can't build anything right." "Computer problem or not, they sure have a lot of trouble." "I'll never buy a Toyota." Toyota's sales numbers were not down last month. Toyota owners still have a lot of loyalty for the company.

But perceptions about the Toyota cars themselves are being formed. In the VW commercials, on the other hand, negative perceptions of the game and the commercials are being formed among some, but the cars themselves are getting noticed by people who wouldn't have given VW a thought otherwise. In a sense, if you hate Punch Dub it's not Volkswagen's fault.

Hitting for the game, social contact if you will, may be a good thing. People will touch and let themselves be touched in Punch Dub when they wouldn't otherwise. Social contact is good, even if not all social contact is pleasant. Those who turn the game pathologically violent didn't become pathologically violent because of the game. Society and their interaction with it warped them more profoundly than Punch Dub. (In a sense, Punch Dub helps us identify some pathologically violent so that we can get them help or avoid them.) Punch Dub can be an avenue to teach kids social boundaries.

I believe the physicality of Punch Dub can be socially acceptable. Can we say the same about toy guns and play shooting other people? So much of entertainment media feature violence. Gratuitous and excessive violence can be decried, and we must teach our children that violence is not socially acceptable. But what about the shows, movies, and games where the good guy accomplishes a good purpose by means of violence--often outside what is socially acceptable?

Bravo, Deutch. You got us talking and you got us seeing Volkswagens.

Oh--tap!--"Red one!"