Why Was It Difficult to Sell Volkswagon in Art and Copy
The advert above is regarded equally one of the most famous and revolutionary in history. The development of this campaign took identify in the early 1950s in the The states when the European carmaker VW was trying to suspension into the American marketplace. At this time, cars were large with a mass of chrome and fins. The advertising campaigns for US car makers in Detroit – Chrysler, Chevrolet, Ford "used condition to continually drive sales and demand. To have the latest was to exist mod, be up to date. Ad depicted a world total of stylish individuals enjoying perpetual happiness." Furthermore, the ad agencies representing the brands had millions at their disposal: "In 1956, Chevrolet lone was spending [US]$30.4 million on advertising, with Ford following at $25 million." (Hamilton, 2015).
Beneath are examples of typical mid-20th century American adverts for cars – hither, big cars are represented as aspirational status-symbols for the prosperous, postal service-war consumer. The copy is also overly positive.
Compare the ads to a higher place with the VW "Think Small" advert.
This ad is (or at to the lowest degree was) highly unusual in its layout, imagery and copy.
- The prototype of the actual production is tiny, drawing the eye to it in an expanse of negative space. Often, negative space is considered wasteful but here it is used in an constructive and unexpected way.
- The scale of the photo links to the headline "Call back small". This copy directly opposes the usual phrase "Call back Big". Normally, the idea of "small" thinking has negative, limited, airtight-minded connotations. However here it is used to express the idea that, in this example, "small" is better than "big" – a destructive argument in mail service-war America when houses were bigger, cars were bigger, wages were bigger and ambitions were bigger.
- The body of text underneath the headline subversively underplays a number of the VW'south benefits, implying that its users accept started to take them for granted. The subtly of the copy, versus the over-the-top language of other car ads of the time, creates a sophisticated and persuasive example for VW vehicles. The supposed humility and down-played nature of the copy is twisted at the end when the ad reveals examples of when customers will actively capeesh their modest car rather than taking it for granted ("when you clasp into a pocket-sized parking spot. Or renew your small insurance.").
- The ad'south copy (and overall concept) contrasts with the simplistically positive and self-aggrandising tone from other automobile ads of the time. It is more sophisticated, subversive and modern – plumbing fixtures for the start of a new decade.
- The ad's blackness and white color palette further sets its autonomously from the brightly-coloured auto ads of the time which could entreatment to children as much equally they do adults. The VW ad, by comparison, seems more than similar a slice of mod or conceptual art.
Marking Hamilton has written a compelling and detailed account on this VW ad, its historical and social context and subsequent impact. This can exist read in full here.
Co-ordinate to Hamilton's analysis, "The Volkswagen was start to sell extensively throughout Europe during the 1950s equally laws regulating exports from Germany were relaxed. The car was condign pop. Withal, it was an enormous undertaking to "sell a small, ugly, cheap, strange car that Hitler had a hand in creating to the American public" and on a very limited budget: VW had only United states$600,000 for their initial entrada upkeep.
Nib Bernbach created his advertising agency, Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) in the tardily 1940s, afterward becoming disillusioned with Gray, the agency he had previously worked for. Bernbach is credited with managing the cosmos of the VW "Think Minor" advert.
Bernbach wanted an honest arroyo to advertising the Volkswagen (which he considered "an "honest car"") only information technology proved difficult to convince his re-create author. "It was when the client, advertising managing director Helmut Schmitz read Koenig's [the copywriter] copy that he noticed a small line. The copy went "maybe we got and so large because we thought small". Schmitz pointed at "think small" and said that was to be the headline."
The art director "settled on using a photo of the vehicle, not a fancy illustration similar everyone else was doing. It is placed in the upper left corner, on a slight angle and in an ocean of white infinite. The unabridged ad was printed in blackness and white, mainly because Volkswagen didn't have enough coin to impress it in colour. This created a very striking effect when it was viewed next to all the other colourful pages in Life Mag, where it get-go appeared for consumers."
When the ad was released, it "was viewed with suspicion" by other American advert agencies. Yet, it had a much better impact amongst the public. "People talked about it effectually the water cooler. Teenagers ripped it out of magazines and pinned it to their walls. It became, temporarily, more than just another ad. The sales figures backed up the arroyo when DDB learned about the sales impacts the ads were having."
"Over the years, the layout of the ads became an integral role of the Volkswagen campaign and a recognisable office of the make…In fact, Volkswagen ad today still uses a similar layout to those first created by Helmut Krone. DDB still manages the Volkswagen business relationship."
"Equally function of a cultural shift, the Think Small ad and the ones that followed marked a true shift in the ad landscape…Honesty as a selling indicate had never really been tried before, at least on a major campaign such as for a large auto manufacturer. The ad tapped into a sense of disconnect that the public was feeling every bit a result of being pressured to buy and consume for so many years. This was particularly felt by younger people. Those born later on the 2nd Earth War saw their parents encouraged to buy and consume their style to happiness and they rejected this (to a big degree). The Recall Modest campaign was created just as this vocalism was starting to make its presence heard — it would be heard loudly throughout the sixties. The Volkswagen Beetle became an integral part of the counter civilisation in America".
Source: Hamilton, M. (2015) The ad that inverse advertising. At: https://medium.com/theagency/the-advertizement-that-changed-advertising-18291a67488c (Accessed 06.04.2020)
Source: https://adsbyizzi.wordpress.com/2020/04/07/a-small-revolution/
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