| It is impossible to overestimate the
importance of the VW advertising campaign, devised by Doyle Dane Berbach,
on the continued growth of the VW in America from 1958 to 1963. They
were quirky, standing out from a time period where most auto ads had illustrations,
not photographs. Smiling women and children, instead of old men.
Bright slogans and exclamations, not sentences. During an era when
most auto makers where selling an image or lifestyle, VW sold a car, based
only on the merits and drawbacks of that car itself.
While european ads from the time period, shown in the Ads that others have scanned, it can be seen that VW itself gave into the more normal version of advertising for automobiles of the time, VWoA and DDB created advertising that changed the way that cars would be sold, evidence by the car ads we see today, which, while often still having glamour, now feel more need to state that facts. The same generic system is displayed throughout the ads, that of a photograph occupying the top 80% of the ad, and writing the bottom 20. Yet, despite this offset in size the text is imperative, educating a public drawn in by the photo and the often powerful headline, by no means a slogan. It was this reality of image, and reality of statement, that refreshed the marketplace, and appealed to a generation frustrated by the overwhelming falseness of the advertising of the time. VW's sales nearly double in this time period, no doubt due to the widespread popularity of the ads, informing the reader not of how the VW will provide a new and better lifestyle, but how the conveniences of owning a VW can improve the lifestyle they already have. Thus, while the VW itself was the major instigator of succes, it is likely to assume, as Carl Hahn did, that 150,000 is about the limit for word of mouth advertising, and the campaign, seen here under Ads that I have scanned, was instrumental in connecting the VW to American society and awareness. |
Ads that I have scanned
Warning:
These are whole ads, not thumbnails, so those with slower connections beware.