This ad campaign is all over TV and radio. Basically, Shields claims that women are getting pregnant so they can buy a new minivan from VW. I think there must be a joke that I’m missing, or this is a parody of something that is off my radar, because I cannot imagine that a major automobile manufacturer would spend big bucks on a campaing this lame and unfunny.
What am I missing?
It seems to me to be a trend in advertising to make commercials just bizarre so that we’ll double take and say “what did she just say?”. (Put Skittles in the search box on YouTube for additional examples)
I think that if Brooke Shields were just droning on about crash tests and JD Powers and Associates and highway MPG we’d tune her out if we didn’t already zoom past her (I love my new DVR!). I think there is a sameness about auto ads and this is trying to catch our attention primarily for being different.
In any case it’s better than those VW ads in which people lick cars. Bleah!
Basically, she is saying that the new VW is so safe and such a good car that the couple had a child just so they had a reason to buy it. Personally, I liked the absurdity of it, made me laugh.
Soccer mom van that’s fun to drive but can’t be purchased by women without children.
It’s lame.
And the car’s nothing but a Dodge Caravan with a Volkswagen logo!
I’m not disputing this but…cite?
I know Chrysler is part of Daimler(sp?) Chrysler but I didn’t think VW was in that mix.
So, does a new car help with depression? Does it matter if it has cruise control?
oooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
It probably has nothing to do with it, and I don’t know if they even have this deal anymore, but at least back in the '80s, if you could prove that your child was born in a Volkswagon, they’d send you either $100 or $300 (I forget which). My dad got a check from them a few years after my oldest sister was born in his VW station wagon in 1981.
I think it’s a pretty good parody of vacuous celebrities earnestly taking up the cause dujour.
Okay, this right here is way funnier than the commercials.
Actually, Daimler doesn’t hold that much of a percentage in Chrysler anymore. In 2007, Daimler sold 80.1% of their interest to Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., an American private equity firm. Daimler only owns 19.9% of Chrysler now. The new name of the company is Chrysler LLC, and it is firmly in American hands once again, with Robert Nardelli as Chairman and CEO.
Yeah, I knew I should’ve included a cite in the original 
Car and Driver
Jalopnik
The Truth About Cars
and, of course, the obligatory Wikipedia.
I’m tellin’ elucidator on you…
Please, Lamar Mundane, neutron star, and anyone else spelling it with an “o”…the correct spelling is “Volkswagen”.
Ford and VW collaborated before too on the Galaxy/Sharan minivan.
The ad seems a bit tedious, Volvo had one that was more to the point, a couple simply screwing in their house, the open window letting us hear the springs of their bed squeeking.
yep. It’s a little baffling to me that people would have trouble getting that. SNL and the Simpsons made careers out of this type of joke, yet put it in an ad and suddenly it’s a huge mystery.
Gold.
Anyways, I tend to dislike Brooke Shields but I found this ad very funny. And although a joke explained is never funny, yes, the point is that although minivans are the least desirable cars out there, this one is so cool that people is going to have babies just to have an excuse to drive one.
It brought to mind another (very contrary) commercial where a kid asked his dad:
-Would you kill a dragon for me?
-Yes
-Would you climb the tallest mountains for me?
-Yes
-Would you drive a minivan?
And the dad just stayed quiet and looked at him on the rearview mirror.
“10,000 babies are born every day specifically for German engineering…”
Oh, so they’re bringing back Nazi eugenics?
My wife, of all people, pointed out that Brooke is looking *mighty hot *lately.
Could this be the opening to the “three-way” dialog I’ve been so reticent to establish?
Thank you, Volkswagen.