Week 1 EOC: VW Lemon

Lemon

Doyle Dane Bernbach’s (DDB) 1960's “Think small.” ad campaign for Volkswagen (VW) is the number one campaign of the century; claims Advertising Age (http://adage.com/article/special-report-the-advertising-century/ad-age-advertising-century-top-100-campaigns/140918/). Although the campaign is one of the best and most memorable in advertising history, it was not the easiest. DDB had their worked cut out for them when they landed the VW account, they assigned Julian Koenig as copywriter and Helmut Krone as creative director. The agency needed a remarkable solution to sell the “Beetle” to the American market. The Beetle was a small fish in the large American automotive market, the market only consisted of larger fish - in the1960's Americans were attracted to big bulky cars. But how to get Americans to reel in that small fish and not release it? Especially one with a trail of bad reputation at the time. Mike Ogden from The Business Journal, writes, “The Beetle […] was tiny and, well, ugly. Who would buy it? On top of this, the car was manufactured in Wolfsburg, Germany, at a plant built by the Nazis. Given that World War II had ended only 15 years earlier, it's easy to envision a public relations nightmare”. (http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/1999/11/22/smallb7.html?page=all) Its history and affiliations made creating an ad campaign for the Beetle tougher than solving the Rubik’s Cube (for non-rubik-cube fanatics of course).  DDB eventually found a solution and created the genius "Think small." campaign. Not only was the campaign a success, it changed the direction of modern advertising. Rebecca Coleman author of "Lemon", writes, “DDB introduced the Beetle with this dynamic ad that seemed effortless, yet possessed a revolutionary approach to marketing. It connected with consumers, successfully integrating European small design into a culture with a big lifestyle. This ad, along with others from the campaign, was the first to represent a perfect balance of image, copy and simplicity, setting a benchmark that has inspired advertisers to do better ever since”. (http://www.writingfordesigners.com/?p=1731)  The campaign immediately became a hit, thanks to the ads' simplicity, honesty, compassion, and subtle humor towards its audience. The campaign still possess popularity today, though not from consumers but from advertisers and advertising fanatics.




Thanks for reading,
Jose