Das Auto

The car. The people's car.
Volkswagen started an American love affair with its bigger-than-life vehicle icons, arguably placing itself deeper into the hearts of Americans than any other automobile brand in the past half century. Ontop of the Volkswagen name, VW's German tagline sums up the brand's essence:
Aus Liebe zum Automobil: For love of the automobile.

VW, with its advertisement agency Doyle Dane Bernbach, set out to market the Volkswagen as the producer of the family car.

Volkswagen was founded during Germany's Nationalist-Socialist revival as the brain child of Adolf Hitler, with the intention of creating a 'People's Car' of Europe. Hitler sought out Ferdinand Porsche, designer of the 'Car for Everybody' projects for two motorcyle manufacturers, agreed to create the "people's car" in 1934. Hitler demanded that the car be able to carry two adults and three children (the ideal German family) at 100 km/h through a savings scheme at 990 Reichsmark, about the price of a small motorcycle. The state sponsored car was promoted with the marketing tagline:

Fünf Mark die Woche musst Du sparen, willst Du im eigenen Wagen fahren — "Save five Marks a week, if you want to drive your own car"

The central volkswagen value of affordability for the average German or European created the image of Volkswagen as a brandname for the common man.

The VW after the war focused on fuel efficiency, reliability, ease of use, cheap repairs and parts. The focus on the Volkwagen's economic efficiency became their general branding image applied on many different models of cars.
This ad from the early 1960s emphasizes the economic efficiency of repairs, while trying to encourage female/family use of the car. Volkswagen tried to reframe its brand in the 1950s as a brand for all people, reaching out to couples and families. While trying to make the high seats of the VW Bus more short-person and skirt friendly, VW marketing pushed the idea that "a VW can and should be loved by women" - specifically in this ad, mothers.

This brand shaping did not stop in the United States; VWs across the world were marketed as the car for for anyone, for everyone. The very first point introduced in this Brazilian Portugese ad essentially says that 'the six doors of the VW bus are used by people of all walks of life in Brasil'; promoting the idea that the VW is a car of all people - the cornerstone of a very succesful pre-1995 brand-marketing direction.
Drivers Wanted
After brand marketing slowdown in the 1980s, Volkswagen began its driver-oriented brand marketing campaign in the 1995, defined by the slogan: Drivers Wanted. Commercial favorites such as Sunday Afternoon and Milky Way pushed this branding image into widespread public view.

An advertising firm executive director, at the Terry O'Malley 2004 lecture series in marketing and advertising, said that the Volkswagen brand is positioned to be thought of as one-of-a-kind, likable, fun to drive, and affordable in this campaign, appealing to qualities driver's seek in a car, embodied completely in this campaign. It is colloquial enough to be include everyone while still edgy enough to imply a VW driver's simple love of driving.


In this 90s ad, without even showing a car, VW portays its brand as being about the individal behind the wheel. The advertisement 'Sunday Afternoon', or 'Da Da Da' tried to elaborate on a Volkswagen's ability to cater to its driver's needs, while building a personal connection between the fun-loving drivers of the VW and potential VW drivers/consumers.


Many of Volkswagen's most loyal followers cite the popular 1999 'Milky Way' or 'Pink Moon' ad as the hook which captured their heart. The commercial's romantic focus on the people of the Volkswagen, being taken by their car on a dream-like journey through the night, reinforced their appeal as a driver oriented brand.

As a testament to the popularity of the advertisement, Volkswagen experienced record sales in 2000. The ad's featured song 'Pink Moon' (1972) by Nick Drake lept to 5th place on Amazon.com's music sales chart; Nick Drake record sales surpassed his 30 year sales total in the one month following the ad's release.

“German Engineered Car” is an age old brand tag used heavily by Mercedes, BMW, and even Audi in their brand image promotion. Neeraj Garg, director of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, said in an interview:
A German engineered car stands for things like innovative technology, safety, stability and sturdiness. Our biggest differentiation is that we make this technology accessible across all our products thereby ensuring it touches our customers in every segment...The Volkswagen brand is an icon and all our products speak for themselves.

Das Auto
An official VW marketing release said:
Volkswagen makes their innovations available to everyone...
Both the [VW] Beetle and Golf brought mobility to millions of people and thereby defined their respective eras...

VW announced their new Das Auto ("the car") marketing campaign in 2008, reiterating Volkswagen's past, present, and future role of being the car of the American people. Part of this campaign involves building upon Volkswagen's marketing of nostalgia.

Volkswagen today attempts to appeal to the baby-boom generation, ageing consumers who grew up in an era defined by the classic Volkswagen Beetle and Bus.

This volkswagen ad not only features the VW Bus from the 1960s, but the same advertising format and style as the old VW advertisements. More importantly, the advertisement seeks to form an emotional connection between the older adult population and the VW brand today.

Marketing the new Beetle as a car with "less flower, more power", Volkswagen says nothing about the product relative to products in today's car market. However, volkswagen does present the new beetle as a continuation of the classic and beloved 1950s beetle, in the same pictoral style as an old Volkswagen ad - branding itself as the producer who continues the legacy of the consumer's past.


The 1952 Gene Kelly Singing in the Rain, complete with the old city backdrop and 50s fasion, modernized with robot dance moves and a new, sleek VW Golf, supports VW's brand image of the "improved original" that baby-boomers once loved.

The face of the whole Das Auto campaign is the 1962 iconic, talking black beetle called Max. Tim Ellis, director of marketing for VW of America, says that "through him, we will reconnect with American consumers and let them know how Volkswagen understands and responds to what the people want.” The idea, reflected in the below online ad, reaffirmed the old VW brand essence of "of the people"; a long-time brand close to the hearts of Americans.

"Find out what else the people want..." says it all: The Das Auto campaign reinforces VW's time old image as the brand of the driver, of the people.
One Volkswagen owner said "people love VW because they can look down their noses at Toyota and Chevrolet owners, knowing they paid about the same and got a real driver’s car."

From pop. culture icons such as Herbie the Love Bug, to the memories of love and rebellion in the "Hippie Van", Volkswagen's brand has been built decade upon decade. VW to all Americans, is of the people, for the driver, by those who fell in love.


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