The legendary VW ad campaign of the 1960′s by New York’s Doyle Dane Bernbach – How many brilliant ways can you sell a car?
1960 Volkswagen Beetle Spare Parts original vintage advertisement. There are 5,008 parts in a Volkswagen Beetle. Each authorized dealer has them all in stock or on call.
1961 Volkswagen Beetle original vintage advertisement. Photographed in black & white negotiating a huge puddle. "Last one to conk out is a Volkswagen."
1962 Volkswagen Beetle original vintage advertisement. Explains why you will never see an over-chromed two-tone Beetle. Photographed in black & white.
1963 Volkswagen Beetle original vintage advertisement. Illustrated in black & white and features each model year from 1949 to 1963. "The Volkswagen Theory of Evolution."
1963 Volkswagen Beetle original vintage advertisement. Recounts the story of Albert Gillis who owned a 1929 Model A Ford for 33 years and chose a 1963 VW Bug as his next new car.
1964 Volkswagen Beetle original vintage advertisement. "It makes your house look bigger."
1964 VW Volkswagen Station Wagon Bus original vintage advertisement. Photographed in black & white. "Got a lot to carry? Get a box."
1965 Volkswagen Beetle outline original vintage advertisement. "How much longer can we hand you this line?"
1966 Volkswagen Beetle original vintage advertisement. Photographed in black & white. Explains the mathematics of how buying a new Beetle is cheaper in the long run than buying a used vehicle at half the price. Innovative marketing strategy given the time.
1966 Volkswagen Beetle original vintage advertisement. Photographed in black & white. "You're missing a lot when you own a Volkswagen." Such as a driveshaft, radiator, water pump or hoses.
1966 Volkswagen Beetle Police Car original vintage advertisement. Photographed in black & white. Purchased by the town of Scottsboro, Alabama for Officer H.L. Willkerson to run parking meter patrol. Rare VW ad!
1967 Volkswagen Beetle original vintage advertisement. "We made the car go faster. And the engine go slower." Photographed in black & white.
1967 Volkswagen Beetle original vintage advertisement. Photographed in rich color. This Beetle floated for 42 minutes. Best copy: "...keep in mind... even if it could definitely float, it couldn't float indefinitely. So drive around the big puddles. Especially if they're big enough to have a name."
1967 Volkswagen Beetle original vintage advertisement. Photographed in black & white. Copy: "Pick the right day to test drive a VW and you'll have the road to yourself".
1967 Volkswagen Bus original vintage advertisement. Photographed in vivid color at the local car wash.
1967 Volkswagen Fastback Sedan original vintage advertisement. Photographed in vivid color. Replacement rear fender: about $37 not including labor. Extremely innovative ad to show a damaged vehicle.
1967 Volkswagen original vintage advertisement. Pictured are the VW Beetle, VW Squareback and the 21-window Bus. It comes in three economy sizes.
1967 Volkswagen Formula Vee car original vintage advertisement. Photographed in black & white.
1967 Volkswagen Squareback Sedan original vintage advertisement. Photographed in black & white.
1968 Volkswagen VW Beetle original vintage advertisement. Photographed in black & white. "Live below your means.
1968 Volkswagen Beetle original vintage advertisement. Photographed in black & white. Now available with stick shift automatic transmission.
1968 Volkswagen Bus original vintage advertisement. Photographed in vivid color. And the beans? There are exactly 1,612,462 beans in this bus!
1968 Volkswagen Fastback & Squareback original vintage advertisement. Photographed in black & white.
1969 Volkswagen Beetle original vintage advertisement. "Is somebody learning how to fix Volkswagens on your Volkswagen?"
July 24th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Wow, awesome post. You can definitely see the similarities between VW advertisements and Porsche advertisements. Genius!
August 13th, 2010 at 7:01 am
[...] links below has a great archive of beetle ads, check them out! Source: thinkingoutabox, [...]
August 15th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
[...] rebuild the wheel… check out THINKINGOUTTABOX for a great selection of VW [...]
September 1st, 2010 at 4:18 am
[...] rebuild the wheel… check out THINKINGOUTTABOX for a great selection of VW [...]
February 16th, 2011 at 2:20 am
[...] that I found with the advertisements were http://www.adclassix.com/vwvolkswagenbusbeetleads.htm and http://thinkingouttabox.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/vintage-vw-beetle-ads/. Here, you can see exactly what Frank was talking about with the simple white backgrounds, 3 simple [...]
April 5th, 2011 at 8:38 pm
I worked at DDB in the mid to late 1960s but not on the VW account. One of the greatest ads happended the day after the Bx Riv Pkwy was flooded, with cars on the side of the road with wet wires. Only one car be seen driving, with a boat type wake behind it. Clearly a VW Beetle. The next day, with permission from the post was a VW ad, with the headline: “One picture is worth a thousand words”. I don’t think there was even a VW logo at the bottom. Can you find this ad? Thanks.
Steve
April 6th, 2011 at 2:24 am
Thanks for sharing, Steve. Though I couldn’t find the particular advertisement you mentioned, I did manage to source the last image. Headlined “Last one to conk out is a Volkswagon” vividly illustrates what you mentioned. Note the boat-like wake behind the car!
Ran
March 8th, 2012 at 11:16 am
[...] 33 Years later, he got the bug [...]
March 11th, 2012 at 10:42 am
I wanted to thank you for this good read!! I absolutely enjoyed every little bit of it. I’ve got you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post…
March 13th, 2012 at 8:14 am
Many thanks for the kind words. Glad you enjoyed it!
April 7th, 2012 at 9:51 pm
[...] Even the advertisements for the Beetle were award-winning and so fitting in their combination of cheekiness and humility. [...]
April 8th, 2012 at 12:44 am
Yes indeed, the concept catered to a particular target audience who found it appealing in almost everyway… the witty copy, the counterplay of elements in the photographs, even the beetle-shaped form born in a Nazi quest to create a people’s car.
April 25th, 2012 at 4:43 am
[...] campaigns‘. when i googled for it i got see a compilation of classic ads by VW in a blogpost(http://thinkingouttabox.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/vintage-vw-beetle-ads/). Here in this post i have compiled ads on the beetle alone. i have also added ads for the new [...]
June 18th, 2012 at 1:52 pm
[...] a hippie-friendly “bug” conducive to good times and smooth vibes. An impressive feat of propaganda … but, then again, they had a good [...]
July 5th, 2012 at 2:08 pm
[...] While true to the product and carefully crafted to draw attention to particular product benefits a near perfect balance of art and copy is achieved. The ironic headline “Lemon” had a shock value which captured the reader’s attention, and drew them to read the copy at the bottom, in this particular ad the story of Inspector Kurt Kroner. “The chrome strip on the glove compartment is blemished and must be replaced. Chances are you wouldn’t have noticed it; Inspector Kurt Kroner did.” (See some other ads from the campaign.) [...]
July 22nd, 2012 at 5:22 am
Just in case you wanted to enjoy a few more of these Vintage VW ads…here is a link to our collection http://www.aircooled.net/vw-clubs-vw-events/vw-ads/
July 22nd, 2012 at 6:43 am
Thanks, that’s very helpful.
Look under VW Clubs and Culture in the menu bar for the vintage ads. Here’s the link to ads done in the ’60s:
http://www.aircooled.net/vw-clubs-vw-events/vw-ads/vw-ads-1966/
January 11th, 2013 at 10:48 pm
“Vintage VW Beetle Ads thinkingouttabox” was a fantastic blog.
However, if it included a lot more pictures it would certainly be perhaps even even better.
Take care -Billie