Tuesday, December 25, 2007

VW, Sign Then Drive: A-

The idea for this spot is simple: Promotions for "sign AND drive" events are inherently dangerous. You shouldn't be signing anything while driving a car (though I'd wager we've all done far worse). Instead, you should sign THEN drive.

Volkswagen has a history of doing great commercials based on simple truths. And even though they've changed agencies, the feel of many of their spots remains true to the brand. This one is no different. The fact that I've worked on "sign and drive" ads and never thought of this makes it even more impressive to me. That's one great thing about advertising; we can all look at the same problem over and over again and keep finding different solutions that work.

Click here to watch it.

And then watch what happens when a dealership tries to do its own advertising:



Is there any way on God's green earth that this would make people want to buy a VW more than the original spot? Instead, I want to drive one into a wall at full speed; the feeling of bashing my skull apart on shatter-proof glass seems increasingly appealing. Why would you ever put that on youtube?

Merry Christmas.

2 comments:

The Hawk said...

While this is funny, it sort of makes me feel like they are trying to trick me, like our old friend the Badger. Why do you want me to sign so bad BEFORE I drive? Because your car sucks?

C+.

Anonymous said...

What truly sucks is the new commercial where the idiot car salesmen remotely honk the horn on the car down on the showroom floor.

If there's one thing I hate worse than commercials that feature an insistently ringing phone, it's commercials that feature an insistently honking horn.

I get enough of that crap out in the apartment parking lot -- ironically, perpetrated by idiots who would rather honk for their moronic buddies than call them on their cell phone. (That, they only do while actually driving down the road.)

Whoever wrote that 'mersh ought to be put in a small cell and forced to listen to Meatloaf until the dashboard light showed a cold, dead glaze in their eyes.