The Volkswagen “Lemon” ad remains, to this day, one of the most successful and famous advertisements ever created. When the ad was created, Volkswagen saw their objective as “To sell a small, basic, ugly , economical, foreign car to a market used to huge, chrome-finned, gadget-stuffed, home-built gas guzzlers.”
http://www.brandstories.net/2012/11/03/vw-beetle-story-lesson-in-brand-persona-development/
The Lemon ad took an honest approach, and that is what made it stand out.
“The VW Beetle is an honest car. Everything about it had to be honest, transparent and straightforward – the product, the pricing, the dealers and even the advertising.
The body copy had to be like a tip from one friend to another.
The rest is glorious ad history.”
Labeling their own product as a lemon was also a fabulous way for Volkwagon to get attention. A Luon.com article all about the famous VW ads mentions, “Volkswagen paying for advertising to say how bad their cars were? I bet you that everyone who saw the ad, started reading the body copy.”
http://www.luon.com/blog/2011/3/2/mad-men-today-how-a-jew-sold-hitlers-favorite-car-to-america.aspx
Instead of going the typical route and calling themselves innovative, the Volkswagen advertisement said negative things about their product before any consumers could. During a time where flashy, large cars were the trend, Volkswagen gained consumer attention by being honest, and a bit surprising. The “Lemon” ad was created during the beginning of modern advertising, and set the standard for decades of advertisers to come.
“You couldn't help but love a company willing to kid itself in public, and no one responded more to the Beetle or its advertising than America's vaunted "baby boomers." As these children of postwar affluence came of age in the 1960s, they embraced Volkswagens as a way to show rejection of what they saw as the materialism of older generations. Besides, Volkswagens were cheap to buy and run, and they were easily fixed.”
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1960-1969-volkswagen-beetle4.htm
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