EOC Week 1: VW Lemon

VW Lemon

Almost a decade after WWII, VW was trying to sell their beetle car to the American market but they had to find a way that could revert the idea that “the beetle, which was once Hitler’s favorite car” would be greatly received by the Americans. During the 1960’s Doyle Dane Bernbach found a way that would help advertise the VW beetle in every aspect, it was the first to fully connect to its consumers with the product’s simplicity. This famous ad campaign is one of the most if not the most famous ad campaign till this day. VW’s Lemon ad “did much more than boost sales and build a lifetime of brand loyalty. It, and the work of the ad agency behind it, changed the very nature of advertising, from the way it’s created to what you see as a consumer today”.  The ad agency that came up with the campaign had to start from scratch in introducing this new model considering that it was tiny and many would say it was ugly it also had the unfortunate mistake to be manufactured at a plant built by the Nazis in Germany. This ad campaign seemed to have connected to the consumers on an emotional level just by being simple and straight to the point. The Lemon ad, which only featured a VW beetle model car in black and white, described the procedure that the model went through manufacturing and how it was described as a lemon by Volkswagen, because the only defect they found on the model was a chrome strip on the glove compartment. The ad campaign used that reference in their favor and agreed that the beetle was a well-built car if the only defect they found during their inspection was a blemish. They used the term "lemon" which refers to a poorly made car to their advantage "We pluck the lemons, you get the plums".