The new VW commercials portray people punching other people after saying things like “black one!” or “red one!” after witnessing nondescript Volkswagens of the decidedly non-beetle kind. This is a travesty of epic proportions. Not only has VW sold their souls to take advantage of the sacred punch buggy ritual, but they have done so to promote NON-BEETLES! WTF?!?! This is like raping an LOLCat to sell Hello Kitties or skull fucking I Spy With My Little Eye to hawk some contact lenses.
While you get style points for depth of feeling, I’d say you’re a little bit late with this one.
VW may have guaranteed that I will never ever buy one of their cars with this commercial. I do not need to see people punching each other and especially not in the groin.
Golf clap.
Y’know, I agree wholeheartedly. It’s punchbuggy, not punchvolkswagen! Idiots. And taking a mildly subversive game to a marketing level…twitch
This bothers me more than I care to admit. My family has begun changing the channel whenever this ad airs because I’m utterly unbearable during it.
Yeah, it’s a rotten trick.
But in the area of “subtle moments that just WORK,” I’ll submit one bit from one of these commercials… it’s the car park garage, whose attendants follow the car on camera, questioning whether it’s actually a VW. At the end, the vanquished attendant says petulantly to his coworker, “You hit like my sister.”
And the other guy, who is probably late-forties / early-fifties, replies with obvious but perfectly understated interest, “Yeah? I’d like to meet her.”
Don’t know why that moment works so well, but it does.
I had never heard of this “punch someone in the arm when you see a VW” (whatever you choose to call it) game before they started running these ads. I could see it as something kids would do, particularly as one of those long road trips let’s-give the-kids-something-to-do things. But grown people punching each other looks stupid, particularly in some of them; the two delivery people, when one punches the other hard enough that he drops the packages he’s carrying, comes to mind.
Man, and I thought calling a cheeseburger a “grilled cheese sandwhich for an adult” was a travesty…
I agree, but god dammit, it’s SLUG BUG, not punch buggy!
Have you ever considered a job on Madison Avenue? These million dollar ideas.
This ad bothered me too, much more than I would have expected. It just makes no sense. If you’re going to co-opt a time-honored little game for your own corporate interests, at least co-opt the actual thing!
There was a punch-buggy plaid in my hometown. That was so cool. And sometimes my dad would say “punch-buggy invisible” and slug me in the arm just for the hell of it. Heh.
Ah…the anti-cultural relativism contingent comes out… 
For the outside audience watching: what the bloody hell are you on about? Punchbuggy??
Sounds similar to “mini punch” which we used to play when we were smaller. Everytime you see a yellow mini, you shout “mini punch!” then punch the guy next to you.
Yes, except that the car to spot is the Volkwagen Beetle. That’s it, just the Beetle! No Golfs, no Jettas…just the Beetle! Darn it.
Does this mean they’ll have to change the name of Slug Bug Corner (aka Mahoney Motors) in Merced? Punchbuggy Corner just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
I never heard of it until I saw this XKCD.
Slug bug is right, punch buggy is stupid. It’s obvious the game came from the fact that “slug” and “bug” rhyme. Punch buggy is just mean. Plus there is no such thing as a VW “buggy”. It’s a VW Bug. Get it right, or go home to the Midwest, where they probably created the “Punch Buggy” travesty.
Should we change the title of the OP to “Volkswagen had surpise secks with punchbuggy in a very uncomfortable place”?
They try to use “slug dub,” which is just as stupid.
I’ll have you know, good sir, that I’m in Detroit where slug bug is the only acceptable usage.