VW Jetta
Can’t help but think of the ICBC Counterattack spots that I posted a little while ago. Still though, these spots are very well done, and I love the way they show the car in the end.
Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
Posted in TV/Film 
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April 17th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Art directed violence is usually too over the top but in this case the aftermath doesn’t seem to match the impact. The car would be more jacked up than that. My friend (driving a Jetta wagon, by the way) was T-boned in an intersection by another car going about 25. His car was SO bent afterwards, doors way caved in, etc. He walked away badly shaken, and ended up with gnarly bruises from the seat belts digging into his skin.
April 17th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
I love the copy on the first ad:
Highest government side impact rating.
Very ingenious.
April 17th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
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April 17th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
This is a whole other direction of car ads. You don’t expect it at all which adds to the impact. The camera angle makes it seem like you are a passenger in the car too. I think its really interesting but can offend people who are affected by car crashes.
But in the second one, who talks like that? Who has conversations about the word ‘like,’ I thought the two guys were about to get into a bitch fight.
April 17th, 2006 at 10:22 pm
i think that’s the point Rowdy. these new cars supposedly DONT cave in like that.
April 18th, 2006 at 1:40 am
I was left with the people saying “Holy…” and the ad saying “…safe happens”, and I got it. Are VWs that much better in crashes? Who knows… no doubt they passed/exceeded/won all the necessary tests, though real world crashes always seem worse. But the ad left me with the message of young people standing around a car having survived what looks like a fairly common sort of smash up. Their “Holy’s…” were about the fact that it happened… and the fact that they were OK enough to stand.
Speaks volumes…
April 18th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
These are pretty good.
I really like the 2nd one, “stuff doesn’t ‘like’ happen”, then the crash happens and you read “safe happens”. That’s clever.
I also like the look of the cars at the end, though this doesn’t seem to match with reality pretty much
April 19th, 2006 at 7:38 am
On the relevance of the dialogue in the second spot, I have ’semantics’ arguments with my friends all the time (inbetween typical male beer-swilling and grunting, of course). And did anyone in audio-post realize the implication of tires screeching?
April 19th, 2006 at 9:58 am
“Stuff either happens or it doesn’t. Stuff doesn’t ’sorta-like’ happen.”
(Tires screech, sound of impact)
I’d say they knew what they were doing…
April 19th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Obviously they can’t show the car on the platform as it would REALLY look after an accident - it could be beyond recognition or at the least display the vehicle in a negative form, which would be bad for branding. The concept is a scare tactic to get attention, freak you out, and get a point across. Excellent work, as usual, from Crispin Porter and Bogusky.
April 19th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
Tires screeching…it sure doesn’t imply the anti-lock brakes work very well.
April 20th, 2006 at 11:58 am
I think they’re creepy and shamefully exploitative.
April 20th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
i’m sorry, but it seems that my opinion of these commercials aren’t going to be a popular one.
i think…their weird!
i had absolutely no idea that Crispin did these when i came to that conclusion either.
what i hate is the ending. it just feels weird to me. the first time i saw it, i was into it and appreciated the shock of the crash, but then there’s that stale, quiet ending. i honestly thought it was some sort of mistake in editing. it just doesn’t flow. and, i guess that’s what they wanted. but, to me, it made the commercial feel —- weird.
April 20th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
It is presumed the sound of screeching tires came from the other car’s attempt to stop. The VW simply kept going until impact.
April 20th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
I love the commercial but I feel that it COULD POSSIBLY give people a false sense of security.
But it spawned discussion and conscious awareness about something that I think about everytime I kiss My wife goodbye in the morning.
April 21st, 2006 at 5:08 am
I think these commercials achived the goal of deliveing the message of how save VW cars are, but to me, the expression in these commercials were too straight forward, kind of sick, it’s different from what VW usually do - “humor”, I think it’s a good try to try some other way, but they have to keep the same image of the cooporate, except they want to change somthing or deliver some different cooporate image to their customers.
April 21st, 2006 at 8:03 am
Alejandro—you’re being way too literal. The sound is there because of it’s important mental connection with car accidents. It’s a signal for the viewer who’s distracted or only half-watching.
April 21st, 2006 at 3:58 pm
These ads are very well done. But they aren’t original. Far from it.
They’re scarily close to a Canadian Drinking & Driving PSA done a little while back. Coincidence? Plagiarism? You decide.
Take a peak: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4792689965619384476&q=drunk+driving&pl=true
May 2nd, 2006 at 3:38 pm
I was a passenger in a head on accident, my husband was driving. When I watched the ad on TV, it brought back all the memories of this terrible accident, which took my husbands life. I called VW and told them how I felt. I don’t need a daily reminder of that.
October 31st, 2006 at 10:50 pm
There was a similiar version to this which aired first before this for drinking and driving. I will see if I can hunt it down. It’s a little more graphic.
November 4th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
I liked these, but at the same time, does anyone else think it inspires an idea that driving safely isn’t as important as it truly is?
We have a lot of hard-hitting (and very well done, in my opinion) safe driving adverts in the UK; I’ll see if I can track some down online.