#4 Creativity's Most Viewed--VW, Safety Dance: D

Compared to other VW ads, this just plain sucks. I don't really like the song, it doesn't make me think the car is that safe, and blah. Blah blah blah. You can see it on germancarblog.com, the only people who liked it enough to put it up. At this point, I'm really losing faith in the people at Creativity. This is your #4? Seriously? Awful.

And I know somewhere (I actually know exactly where) there's a creative director saying, "I had the idea to use that song in a spot years ago." But I won't give away his idea. Let's just say it wasn't much better or much worse than this.

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.