# VW Commercials are Genius **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 29, 2002, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468 "2002-11-29T06:42:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tretiak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Tretiak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tretiak)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/1 "2002-11-29T06:42:37Z")
After seeing the latest VW commercial, a man goes through his life, every day the same as the next, waking, working, sleeping, while ELO’s _Mr. Blue Sky_ I was thinking about how VW probably has the most cosistently high quality commercials. There is the one with the folks drbving at night, the top down to a party that they decide just cannot rate with driving the open road, while Nick Drake’s _Pink Moon_ plays. Then there is the one with the guy trying to get to a wedding to stop it (I presume) while some Enya (I think) song plays. ANd then there was the one with the two guys driving around, pick up some stray recliner off the road only to discard it after finding out it really stimnks. This one had _Da da da_ by Trio as it’s music. I think these commercials all combine very compelling mini-storylines and a perfectly matched song. Genius. ---
**Author:** ![alex\_arg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@alex\_arg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alex_arg)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/2 "2002-11-29T06:51:37Z")
I haven’t seen any U.S. ones but the ones here are excellent. Each car has its one slogan: Passat: the perfect car, even if the rest of the world isn’t. Jetta : Everybody has one, at least in their mind Golf: You never really get out of your Golf Derby (not sold in us): It’s worth it. Pointer(ditto): I like it. The tv ads are funny as hell not to mention well thought. ---
**Author:** ![maybelze05](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@maybelze05](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maybelze05)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/3 "2002-11-29T08:55:53Z")
my favs are the jetta commercials, probably because i love jetta’s! the one where the guy drags his wife outside just to show her that the windows can go down just by turning the key—kewl lol and the one where the guy was late for his wedding, i LOVED the music to that commercial. i had (have?) the commercial on my computer, but if anyone knows what song it is, that would be great to know! oh oh and the kind of recent one, where he’s at a dealership and he wants to buy a jetta but he sees the dealer and a couple on their way to it, so he licks the door handle so they won’t want to open the door… hahaha i could see myself doing that 🙂 only if it was the last one available ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/4 "2002-11-29T09:12:07Z")
Any commercial organisation that publicises [Nick Drake’s](http://www.algonet.se/~iguana/DRAKE/DRAKE.html) music gets my abiding respect. ---
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/5 "2002-11-29T12:51:38Z")
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](http://www.vw.com/commercials/index.html). 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. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/6 "2002-11-29T13:16:48Z")
BTW, I’ve never seen the _Pink Moon_ ad, though I’ve been a major Nick Drake fan for at least 15 years. Does anyone know if there’s somewhere I can download it on the Web? ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/7 "2002-11-29T13:27:07Z")
jjimm, you’ve seen the new beetle ad with the aqualung song? “to me, you’re strange and you’re beautiful, i’ve been watching your world for a while” perfect. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/8 "2002-11-29T13:37:03Z")
**irishgirl** - I haven’t. Is that a group called Aqualung? Could someone who’s seen the Pink Moon ad tell me if it’s on this list: [http://www.vw.com/commercials/](http://www.vw.com/commercials/)? and if so, which one? Ta. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/9 "2002-11-29T13:39:57Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. I just bought one of the last ones. It’s a great little car, especially with the top down. I’d be lying if I said that commercial had nothing to do with it. Dr. J ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/10 "2002-11-29T13:54:54Z")
I wonder if VW has kept the same advertising agency for the past 40 years of so. I still remember some of their ads, both print and television, from them. One of my favorites was a commercial that starts with a ladder being propped against a house in the dark. A couple is obviously eloping and the poor guy has to make trip after trip up and down the ladder as she hands out a multitude of suitcases, stuffed animals, a hair dryer, and on and on. Then the camera looks down, you can see a VW bus sitting there, and a quiet voiceover explains how they can carry more than you can imagine. Finally done, they get in, ease the doors shut, and drive down the street. As they round the corner . . . the light in her bedroom goes out. ---
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/11 "2002-11-29T15:59:33Z")
**jjimm** , the Pink Moon ad is not one of the ones on the current commercials page of [VW.com](http://VW.com), probably because the Cabrio isn’t in their 2003 line. I did some poking around on the VW site, but couldn’t find it anywhere else. Nor was I able to find it anywhere else, which surprised me. I’d be willing to bet AdCritic has it somewhere, but I don’t pay for that service so I can’t say for sure. Sorry… **DesertDog** , I could be mistaken, but I think Arnold Communications (their current ad agency) has been working with them since 1994. They started the “Drivers Wanted” ad campaign, which I believe was the one that “won” VW for them. I don’t know who they were with before that, though. The [Arnold Worldwide story](http://www.arn.com/OurStory/OurStory.html) sort of backs this up, but only vaguely. Funny thing is, I think I remember the ad you’re talking about. I must have seen it somewhere too. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/12 "2002-11-29T16:24:09Z")
One of my current favorites is for (possibly) a Kia – sequences of a prettyish blonde woman driving around with a bunch of losers while the music plays “my only boyfriend”. In the last scene, she’s driving around with just her dog. when she runs out of gas. The look she gives the hunky tow truck driver is just brilliant – with just a tiny lift of an eyebrow, she manages to convey “Well, _look_ at that.”. ---
**Author:** ![dinahmoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8797f3/32.png) [@dinahmoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dinahmoe)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/13 "2002-11-29T21:33:56Z")
I made a tape with “Pink Moon” on it, just so I could listen to it in my Cabrio with the top down. I’m sad that they will no longer be available in the US, since this is my favorite car ever:( ---
**Author:** ![EveryDayHasItsDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecc23a/32.png) [@EveryDayHasItsDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EveryDayHasItsDog)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/14 "2002-11-29T22:04:46Z")
The wedding commercial is set to J Ralph’s ‘One Million Miles Away’, and another Mitsubishi commercial that I don’t think was mentioned was the one featuring the Wiseguys’ ‘Start the Commotion’. ---
**Author:** ![Global\_Citizen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Global\_Citizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Global_Citizen)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/15 "2002-11-29T22:09:28Z")
The **Pink Moon** VW commercial was one of the best ads I’ve ever seen. A great piece of moving entertainment. Global Citizen ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2002, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/16 "2002-11-30T00:10:23Z")
I love the Passat commercial where you see the guy in the car, thinking about Passat’s anti-lock brakes, and how they can stop the car in every road condition (or something like that). It ends with “Those would be good to have”. The camera pans out, and you see the guy sitting in his (non-Passat) car, doing donuts down the slippery road. Cracks me up. ---
**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2002, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/17 "2002-11-30T00:20:43Z")
Didn’t they have one with Speed Racer? Speed Racer is cool. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2002, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/18 "2002-11-30T15:11:25Z")
I just saw the Beetle Convertible commercial for the first time. All I have to say is: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2002, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/19 "2002-11-30T15:55:05Z")
I think the new beetle convertible commercial (the Mr. Blue Sky one) is a horrible commercial. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great (extremely) short film. But as a commercial it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the product or the company it’s supposed to promote. If it weren’t for the text at the end, I’d have no clue what it was for. Though the feel of it is very VW or Apple. I like to watch it, but it might as well be trying to sell me a new brand of frozen peas. ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2002, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468/20 "2002-11-30T16:08:59Z")
**Nerd** , that’s what I’ve been thinking. If it weren’t for the text it would be no different than those drug commercials that go on and on and leave you without a clue what they are suppsoe dto be for (though I’m pretty sure you can just see the edge of a convertable top moving through the bottom of the screen, not that that would’ve helped.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vw-commercials-are-genius/139468.md?page=2)