I’m a Volkswagen loyalist, having driven Golfs for years.
'Star Wars' is such a favourite, my phone rings to the sound of R2D2, while the text alert is the 'Imperial March'. And cute kids will always get an "Aaaah" from this dad.
Put all that in the blender and you have a commercial that I’ll not only watch and remember, but share with all my friends. Now it’s your turn:
Now, there are some interesting TV ads out there at the moment that fall in to the trap of being a great idea with a logo on the end, but the branding is so weak, you struggle to recall the name of the product even after repeated viewings.
How does the Volkswagen Passat ad avoid this same pitfall? Simply because in the automotive sector, VW has a long history of turning wry observation into warm and witty communications.
Of course, it all started in the US after the Second World War, with the famous DDB press ads to launch the Beetle in the land of finned monsters.
But VW’s tradition of commissioning advertising with self-deprecating humour has thankfully continued into our own times.
Remember the Golf commercial where the couple take it in turns to drive the car? He leaves the handbrake on so fiercely, she takes two hands to release it.
This was one of a series of mini-vignettes in the ad, each one based on a truth. Maybe they were truths that stereotyped the sexes, but they still retained realism and credibility – and therefore acceptance on both sides of the gender divide.
Compare this intelligent, insight-driven approach to all the other car ads out there. Quite. Volkswagen has claimed a territory that the other tin-pushers seem incapable even of understanding, let alone capturing.
Simon S Kershaw is a creative consultant and a former creative director at Craik Jones.