Volkswagen has delivered some truly classic advertisements over the years, whether overt, witty, cheeky, or anything in-between. On occasion, though, the brand has managed to delve into the realm of absurdity.
The best example of this was 2006’s ‘VDub’ campaign to promote the Mk5 Golf GTI. A blatant parody of MTV’s Pimp My Ride, the series sees a number of budding revheads showing off their gaudy, distastefully modified rival cars – ‘Jason’ with his Ford Focus, ‘Mike’ with his Mitsubishi Eclipse, and ‘Trey’ with his Honda Civic.
Each contestant is introduced by the eccentric engineer ‘Wolfgang’, played by Swedish actor Peter Stormare, before his offsider, ‘Ms Helga’, proceeds to mock each of the vehicles.
Then, gleefully, Wolfgang proceeds to declare to each contestant that he will “unpimp your auto”, before their car is destroyed in an increasingly elaborate manner, only to be replaced by a shiny new GTI. The tagline, of course, only stands to make it clear: the GTI comes “pre-tuned by German engineers”.
Although the commercials – directed by Jonas Åkerlund who has directed music videos for the biggest names in the music world – launched on American television in February 2006, they gained notoriety online as some of the earliest viral videos just one year into YouTube’s life.
It may not rely on the same brand of subtlety as earlier Golf commercials, but there’s no denying this trio has endured as one of Volkswagen’s best-known ad campaigns.
