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How to advertise a challenger brand, 101.
Above are the two main ads that launched the Volkswagen brand in America.
"Lemon" ad copy starts: "This Volkswagen missed the boat. The chrome strip on the glove compartment is blemished, and must be replaced."
It was shocking, to say the least, for an auto brand to call their car a lemon.
What made the ad even more appealing than the shock value, was that the Bug was in fact (and still is) shaped like a lemon.
To say "Think Small" with regard to autos in 1960 was revolutionary.
Most American car ads from the era looked exactly like this.
Bigger was better, the bigger the better.
But Volkswagen never shied away from this startling, risky strategy.
This worked out pretty damn well for them.
VW's ad agency was Doyle Dane Bernbach, with the great Bill Bernbach leading the creative department.
There are about 200 or so 1960s VW ads available online.
I picked my 50 favorites (with a couple of early 1970s executions).
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10. A 1963 ad that flat-out challenged you to not read the copy.
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13. Great layout.
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15. A great car company takes care of its dealers, too.
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23. Still true today.
24. Fact: The old Bug was nearly airtight.
25. When dropped into a lake, it would float and bob for several minutes, before sinking.
26. The count was exactly 1,612,462 beans.
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31. 1966 ad, one of the smartest car ads I've ever seen.
32. 1966 ad that is now coming true.
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38. Selling your car without showing your car just wasn't done in the 1960s.
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40. True story.
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46. One of the best print ads ever.
47. Ad VW ran capitalizing on the 1969 movie The Love Bug.
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49. Brilliant true story testimonial ad from 1971.
50. An ad that would of course be banned to oblivion today.
