I work with VW regularly in my job, and let me tell you that Arnold (their ad agency) is very proud of their ads. They never skip a chance to show them. It gets a little annoying, to the point of Arnold reps being almost arrogant about their commercials.
Still, in most cases, they have a right to be proud… the VW Turbonium campaign was great (I have a periodic table posted at my desk, with Turbonium listed on it), and the “Pink Moon” ad is simply one of the best ever made… although I find the 30-second version somewhat lacking. The 60-second version is much better. Too bad the Cabrio (the car advertised in that ad) is coming off of their product line, at least in the U.S, so no more Pink Moon ad.
Not all of their ads are that good, though. About a year or so ago they put out an animated series that was only OK, and many of their recent ones have been less clever (though the “Mr. Blue Sky” is pretty darn good). It seems like the quality has fallen off in the last year or two… which is not to say that they’re not still good. VW ads are still better than most car commercials out there, just not as good as they used to be on the whole.
Also, other car companies are catching on, and doing some great work of their own in the same vein. Mitsubishi has a few ads running now which are very good, all of which use the same motif of choosing a song and doing great things with it. Some good ones are several different people trying to sing along (and failing, sometimes) to Barenaked Ladies’ “One Week,” and a girl doing some sort of break-dancing thing in a car to the tune of Dirty Vegas’ “Days Go By.” My wife and I have a personal favorite right now, a man driving a Mitsubishi around, set to Telepopmusik’s “Breathe,” and each edit is a different cut of the man’s life as it progresses. Absolutely a marvel. The shot of his wife in her bridal gown next to him, rose petals floating up off of her, is amazing in itself.
Still, I do like many of the VW ads, especially the ones that tell a short story. A couple of my personal favorites is one in which a couple is returning home after dropping tapes off at the video store, and the woman asks the man about a tape they made together. It’s never said explicitly, but it’s obvious that they’ve taped themselves having sex. The man realizes they just turned it in at the video store, and whips the car around. Cut to the video store, several people looking up at a TV monitor, and we hear the wife giggling saying “We’re going to erase this when we’re done… right?” And the ad in which a man driving a Passat (I think… could be a Jetta too) pulls up next to a woman driving a Passat (or Jetta), and they start making eyes at one another. Then he gets hit in the face with a stuffed toy, thrown from the back seat by (we now see) his young son, who laughs. The woman laughs and pulls away, and smiles into the backseat at her young daughter sitting back there. A nice tone in that one, very lighthearted. Oh, and the VW 4motion ad, with the guy in his in, spinning on the ice, thinking about how great it would be if his car had 4motion. And the ad called “Tree,” in which two guys throwing rocks into a tree finally dislodge a VW GTI, which falls neatly to the ground, is wonderful and strange.
And “Pink Moon”… that one’s pure genius.
maybelze05, the wedding ad is “One Million Miles” by J. Ralph. Not one of my favorites, but a pretty good one.
FYI, you can see many VW ads online, if you go here. They used to host all of them there, now it looks like they just show the current ones. “Pink Moon” isn’t there anymore, dammit.
only if it was the last one available