Actually, that’s not entirely accurate. Really, it would never fucking happen. Lessons from Automobile Branding: Offer the Right Things to the Right People I dunno. Saying Volkswagen lost its way because they changed ad agencies is a little trite. The fact of the matter is, in 1968 there was no.f'ing.WAY VW was going to market to the mainstream American car buyer... and it's disingenuous to say that their advertising was really all that unique. Fans of '60s advertising will note that everything was advertised this way: Picture of product against white background with half a page full of serif copy. Volkswagen was advertising that they had good fuel economy and were cheap in the exact same way everyone else was advertising that they had a gajillion horsepower and made panties moist.Just take a moment there and read over all those quotes (especially the last one there) and try, just try to imagine modern Volkswagen — or, really, any modern-day car company — admitting anything like that about their product in an advertisement. It absolutely, positively would never happen.
