Volkswagen of America will run two ads in the Super Bowl XLV February 6, one for the 2012 New Beetle and one for the 2012 Passat, neither one of which is on sale yet.
The first ad, “Black Beetle,” doesn’t show the actual car, but rather shows a black beetle, as in insect, racing its way passed other insects in the forest.
This beetle has a unique shape, apart from the other beetles, and at the end of the ad, gives way to the silhouette of the 2012 New Beetle. The ad is meant to mimic a movie car chase, though I wouldn’t exactly compare it with with Bullitt or The French Connection.
Though the new New Beetle won’t go on sale until this Fall, Volkswagen started hyping its arrival last December when it promised Oprah Winfrey’s studio audience each a free one as part of the show host’s “Favorite Things” string of shows.
When Volkswagen launched the New Beetle as a 1999 model, after almost 20 years with no VW Beetle in the German automaker’s lineup, it re-ignited the company’s fortunes in the U.S.
In the early 1990s, VW came close to leaving the U.S. market. But the reveal of the Concept 1 car at the 1994 North American International Auto Show in Detroit lit a fire under interest in VW and sent consumers to showrooms to see the latest Jetta and Passat in droves.
VW is hoping for a build in interest in a new New Beetle this year that will help drive showroom traffic even before it arrives.
The second Super Bowl spot is for the 2012 Passat, which is going to be built at the company’s new Tennessee plant. VW’s new Passat design is bigger than the old one, and is priced much lower than the current model in order to compete better for sales volume against family sedans like Toyota Camry, Ford Fusion, Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata and Nissan Atima.
The spot is very family driven, focused on a young boy in a Darth Vader costume trying to conjure actual Darth Vader powers around his house. It is only when he stands in front of the new Passat and commands it to start that it all comes together for him and the car starts up. The camera finds the kid’s father in the kitchen having started up the car on cue with a remote starter in the key-fob.
VW’s ad agency of a little more than a year, Deutsch/LA, is the ad agency.
The spot is very family driven, focused on a young boy in a Darth Vader costume trying to conjure actual Darth Vader powers around his house. It is only when he stands in front of the new Passat and commands it to start that it all comes together for him and the car starts up. The camera finds the kid’s father in the kitchen having started up the car on cue with a remote starter in the key-fob.
VW’s ad agency of a little more than a year, Deutsch/LA, is the ad agency.
