vw advertising campaigns - Doyle Dane Bernbach

The vw advertising campaigns i really love one because i love the beetle. But two because of how they advertised it, as they are so clever and simple. The beetle has been a timeless classic that was known for its very simple and basic design that hasn't changed from 1939 when it was fist produced to 2003. So in itself the beetle is a major design success which shows in its sales figures as it sold 21,529,464 beetles over its time, which is one of the greatest of all time. Some people might say that cars like the toyota corolla sold over 37.5m which is much more than the beetle. However that was the brand name that sold that many with lots of different designs mechanically and aesthetically over the years. But with the beetle the car design stayed exactly the same the same from 1939 when it was first released through to 2003, with the parts being interchangeable throughout! 

So for this amazing car they needed a amazing advertising campaign. Back in 1959 Doyle Dane Bernbach from new york won the volkswagen advertising deal and brought in a  radical new design approach. Eradicating the old outdated approach of illustrations that were a bit patronising, to make way for this radical new stripped back, basic and honest design approach. The most famous one of all is the Vw beetle with the caption 'LEMON' underneath. This design is very cleaver indeed. It works on a number of levels to engage its audience by first of getting there attention by having a big picture of a beetle with the caption lemon. Which are two things that you would never associate with each other, which consequently gets people confused and stirs their curiosity about what this poster is about. Secondly the whole point of the poster is about vws strict quality control and high build quality, but advertised in a unusual way. As it talks about how Inspector Kurt Kroner has rejected the particular car above due to a blemish on the chrome piece of the glove box. Which latter goes on and ends with the quote we pluck the lemons; you get the plumbs. Which means we pick out all the cars that we don't think fit out high standards, so you only get the cars that are faultless- meaning the plumbs. So peoples connotations from this advert are how tough and well engineered vw beetles must be and that they need little maintaining. The overall look of the poster also gives off this impression with its stripped back basic look with no use of color. This approach was replicated with future posters like these.

This was a very new and unusual way to advertise anything at the time but especially a car because you try to steer away from any negatives, and focus on positives! However Doyale Dane Bernbach identified the market it was selling it to and decided to go for the straight talking honest approach as it fitted in well with the ethos of the company and the car at the time. This new design approach paved the way for future advertisement.