VW Ads: 'Pink Moon' vs. 'My Fast'

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What the hell were they thinking?

The 'Pink Moon' ad hit a target audience SO accurately, and (I hate to admit) made you wish you were in the car with those kids, under the eucalyptus trees.

This new campaign is so focused on dudes, RPM's, toys, etc. Is that just who's buying cars now, infantile jackass boyfriends?

― andy --, Friday, 10 March 2006 20:13 (twenty years ago)

yes

― gbx (skowly), Friday, 10 March 2006 20:15 (twenty years ago)

slate had a good thing on this a while back. when you consider vw's place in, um, advertising history this latest campaign is particularly awful.

― j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 10 March 2006 23:09 (twenty years ago)

It's awful! It's like NFL/Budweiser/Maxim sort of bullshit. Women drive cars, too, and they might want to drive Volkswagens. I don't know how directly the ads affected it, but after the Pink Moon ad it seemed like alot of my friends mysteriously had Passats.

― andy --, Friday, 10 March 2006 23:14 (twenty years ago)

vw recently switched agencies, so the minimal/emo/aspirational yuppie aesthetic that used to be a hallmark of their creative is now a distant thing of the past. the "my fast" and the peter stormare-as-sprockets spots comprise the first ads from their new agency, cr1sp1n p0rter b0gusky, who have been industry darlings for a couple of years now thanks to all their stuff for burger king. that said, lotsa people have been skeptical abt their ability to take on the vw account, and this shit bears them out. you can't sell cars like you sell hamburgers!

― mark p (Mark P), Friday, 10 March 2006 23:26 (twenty years ago)

VW is having a lot of trouble in the US right now and they're basically willing to try anything - in this case tapping the firm that gave us the Subservient Chicken and the creepy Burger 'King'. Despite the ads being somewhat misogynistic, they are actually funny and apparently are touching a nerve (actual "fasts" are selling on ebay for $600+). Also, the comparison is a bit apples/oranges as the GTI has always been a 'boy' car whereas the "Pink Moon" ad was specifically selling the cabriolet which is decidedly more 'girl'. Despite the change in tone (and VWs ditching their "Drivers Wanted" creators), I feel like the people in these new ads still populate the same VW world. There are a new set of 'unpimp my ride' ads which are funny, but more cartoony.

What they really need to do is sell cheaper cars that don't look exactly like Corolla's in the back. A moderately optioned Passat is over $30K and faster Jetta's push that number too - which begs the question, "why not just get an A3 or A4?"

― i'm from hollywood, Friday, 10 March 2006 23:27 (twenty years ago)

Whoops, or what Mark said.

― i'm from hollywood, Friday, 10 March 2006 23:28 (twenty years ago)

Here is the Slate story, some of the comments crack me up:

http://www.slate.com/id/2137532/

Notes From The Fray Editor:

Celibacy sells? Fraysters judge the libidinal appeal of VW's new ad campagin. -- G.A.

Remarks From The Fray:

"Ever since I painfully parsed through one of these ads, I've been waiting for Seth to check in.

"Simply put, they suck. You see one once, you do not have a clue what is going on. Then you gradually figure out that that little evil thing is not from the owner's last Hawaii trip, it really is guiding the idiot young man to treat his woman like shit.

"What are you left with? The sense that evil pervades the car, and that a GTI is like a video game, a fake adventure that prevents you from getting laid..."

― andy --, Friday, 10 March 2006 23:28 (twenty years ago)

the stormare stuff = "unpimp my ride", btw

totally lame

― mark p (Mark P), Friday, 10 March 2006 23:30 (twenty years ago)

yeah i'd forgotten those horrible stormare ads too. i luv dudes' bk ads (though nothing will actually convince me to eat bk), these are very sad, like madtv skits.

― j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 10 March 2006 23:34 (twenty years ago)

It would help if the front end of the GTI wasn't butt-ugly (actually applies to all the VW product now, except for the family-mobile Passat, which is Audi-esque). It looks cheap and like any number of cheap Japanese or American cars.

― Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Friday, 10 March 2006 23:38 (twenty years ago)

i can't really get excited about 'creative' but it seemed like vw had a good thing going there for a while. cheapening their image doesn't seem like the way to go.

― mark p (Mark P), Friday, 10 March 2006 23:41 (twenty years ago)

Well, they're going for that neo-muscle look. I agree, it's lame.

Did Mini Cooper even do TV ads? Most of what I saw was print or outdoor.

― andy --, Friday, 10 March 2006 23:41 (twenty years ago)

yup. that was cr1sp1n p0rter too. remember the "counterfeit mini" spots?

― mark p (Mark P), Friday, 10 March 2006 23:42 (twenty years ago)

mmm, I don't know... I've seen billboards but no tv.

― andy --, Friday, 10 March 2006 23:50 (twenty years ago)

It would help if the front end of the GTI wasn't butt-ugly

Taste is obviously a personal thing, but I don't see how the GTI's front end can be considered "butt-ugly." It's basically evolutionary and says "modern Golf." I mean, if Golf's have always been "butt-ugly" to you then fine, but it's not like the new one was designed by Chris Bangle or something!

http://www.vwvortex.com/gallery/generated//Volkswagen/Golf%20-%20GTI%20-%20Rabbit/Golf%20V/Generations/066__scaled_600.jpg

http://www.vwvortex.com/gallery/generated//Volkswagen/Golf%20-%20GTI%20-%20Rabbit/Golf%20V/GTI%20-%20EU/001__scaled_600.jpg

― i'm from hollywood, Friday, 10 March 2006 23:55 (twenty years ago)

In white (like the commercial) it looks much worse - the lower part of the black grill sticks out against the paint.

But my main beef, that doesn't really apply to previous Golfs, but does apply to the current VW line, is that there's no definition to the front end. (I also hate the new Civics) - too much of a straight line from the roof down and then curved in the bumper area like a receding chin. The cars look 'developmentally-challenged' if you know what I'm saying.

― Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:15 (twenty years ago)

I understand your description and see how it's different from:
http://www.vwvortex.com/gallery/generated//Volkswagen/Golf%20-%20GTI%20-%20Rabbit/Golf%20V/GTI%20-%20EU/048__scaled_600.jpg

but I still think the new one is pretty HOTT!
http://www.vwvortex.com/gallery/generated//Volkswagen/Golf%20-%20GTI%20-%20Rabbit/Golf%20V/GTI%20-%20EU/029__scaled_600.jpg

― I'm from hollywood, Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:31 (twenty years ago)

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