Thursday, April 4, 2013

EOC week 1: VW Lemon

“We pluck the lemons; you get the plums”. Volkswagen was not insisting they sold lemons with this 1960 ad. (The word “lemon” meaning “dud” or “no good” and “plum” representing “the good one”.) Rita Selden proposed the word “lemon”. The slogans “Think Small” and “Lemon” were not the intentions in the way to go. The intended way to go for the Volkswagen ad was “Willkommen”. Carl Hahn, the client, he thought the idea was too German. Carl Hahn wanted the ad to be American as “Apple Strudel”.

Another twist to this 1960 ad was that the advertising company was Jewish. A Jewish company helping Germans sell their car. A car Hitler invented. Initially, DDB were unenthusiastic about the opportunity. George Lois of DDB was quoted as saying : “We have to sell a Nazi car in a Jewish town”

This 1960 Volkswagen ad has to be the most famous ad in advertisement history. When this ad came out people hated it. To be honest the car and ad was honest. It was a cheap, economical, and foreign car. Weather people hated or loved it, they were still taking the time to talk about it. This ad brought sales up 25%. To this day in 2013, people still talk about this famous ad. 

 http://www.brandstories.net/2012/11/03/vw-beetle-story-lesson-in-brand-persona-development/
 http://www.writingfordesigners.com/?p=1731

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