Friday, January 21, 2005

VW Ad - Incredibly Tasteless Or A Hoax?

Wizbang has the latest hoak ad from VW:


Bill K. at Rooftop Report has been tracking down the story behind the truly tasteless ad (shown below) for VW since yesterday, This morning The New York Post picked up the story, wondering whether it was an actual VW ad or a viral hoax. The Post didn't really provide an answer to the question of whether VW was behind the tasteless ad.

This afternoon I found the answer....

LONDON (Revolution) - Volkswagen and DDB London are distancing themselves from a hoax viral commercial for the VW Polo, which features a suicide bomber. The ad plays on the established tagline for Volkswagen's Polo model, "small but tough". It shows a man in fatigues setting off in his Polo. He arrives outside a restaurant and pulls out a trigger. However, when he detonates the bomb, a flash is seen inside the car but the car itself does not explode. The strapline appears at the end. The campaign is the work of a duo known for their spoof advertising, called Lee and Dan. The pair run a website, LeeandDan.com, but the ad does not appear on the site at the time of writing. They have worked on a string of legitimate ads including Ford SportKa, BP and Casio G-Shock, among others. Dan, from Lee and Dan, said: "The ad got out accidentally and has spread like wildfire. It wasn't meant for public consumption. "We think the spot reflects what people see in the news everyday, and in this instance the car is the hero that protects innocent people from someone with very bad intentions. We're sorry if the ad has caused any offence." Volkswagen stressed that the spot, which has been doing the viral email rounds this week, was made without any involvement from the company whatsoever.

[Read the rest]

Good news for VW.

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