Badverts of the Month: Volkswagen
Company: Volkswagen
Model: SUV T-Roc Model
Location: ITV Movies
VW gives people “movie-star” confidence to destroy the climate
In this 2019 ad for ITV Movies, Volkswagen collaborated with the creative agency Adam&Eve/DDB to create a series of short films for its new SUV T-Roc model. Here, Volkswagen plays the humorous card with this advert suggesting that everyone can turn into an equally confident movie star by driving one of its new gas-guzzling SUV. VW misleads people into believing that large and highly-polluting cars will make them feel confident. This is despite its model emitting on average 133-142g. of CO2 per kilometre and up to 156g of CO2/km with the optional automatic gearbox added in. The company’s own confidence to completely ignore the future of our climate is all too obvious in this tv ad.
Fighting for the (wrong) cause
The advert depicts a driver- a lawyer-who negotiates her (obviously) guilty clients' release following police arrest with ease and confidence despite the undeniable circumstances. Volkswagen illustrates the idea of being “above” the law and all others, selling the viewer a false power complex in a make believe-world in which they are unstoppable. Although this might seem comical and merely a humorous play on film culture- in fact this attitude runs much deeper. Volkswagen’s “unstoppable” metaphors are actually an accurate reflection of their own internal attitudes to their environmental damages they are inflicting with their purposely harmful advertising. Despite numerous concerns over false green advertising, Volkswagen refuses to limit advertising for their highest carbon products amidst a climate emergency..
The biggest scandal in car history
In 2015, the automaker got embroiled in a pollution scandal after the US Environmental Protection Agency revealed it had deliberately cheated indoor emission tests for its diesel engine vehicles by installing defeat devices on 600’000 cars sold in the U.S and 8 millions in Europe. Volkswagen agreed to pay a settlement of $15.3 billion in the largest class action filed against a car manufacturer in US history. Leaked documents revealed that the company’s CEO Dr. Winterkorn was aware of the emissions cheating devices and took part in helping to hide the scandal from public authorities. According to a MIT study, the extra pollution VW generated by breaching emissions standards contributed to the death of an additional 59 people in the US. Following the so-called ‘Dieselgate’ scandal, Volkswagen ran a new ad campaign featuring its famous Beetle car with the slogan “It’s more than a car, it’s keeping its promises” to try to reinstate its public image.
Company Background: Volkswagen
From Nazi Germany to Post-War reconstruction
Volkswagen was founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front - the trade union in place during the rise of Adolf Hitler. It is one the largest car makers in the world with 590,000 workers producing 41,000 cars per day. Volkswagen - literally the “people’s car” - was Hitler’s idea to expand access to cars to all citizens of the Third Reich. During the war the production changed to making military vehicles by relying upon slave labour mainly from concentration camps. In 1945, after the company was heavily bombed, its control shifted from the American to the British army forces. In 1949, Volkswagen got back under German control and the vehicles’ production played an important role in the post-war regeneration of West Germany. In 1972, with record sales of its “Beetle” model, the company became the largest manufacturer of a single car in the world.
VW sued over deceptive “green” advertising
A complaint was filed by a US consumer watchdog against the carmaker in 2016 for advertising “clean diesel” in its adverts. It is the view from the US Federal Trade Commission that Volkswagen used deceptive advertising over a seven-year period by appealing to consumers’ environmental consciousness. The ads featured on the popular football championship game Super Bowl, on social media and in print advertising. One of the ads for its diesel-powered Jetta TDI model read: “Hybrids? They’re so last year. Now Going green doesn’t have to feel like you’re going green.”
VW strikes high on advertising
In 2015, Volkswagen ranked fourth among the top 100 cars advertising budgets by spending an estimated $6.6 billion. The car manufacturer has a reputation for working with the creative industry to produce artistic and humoristic ads.