‘Remember Those Great Volkswagen Ads?’

The ad industry is a breeding ground for snark, as people are always ready to pass comment on their competitors work and business decision, but there’s one thing that brings it together in unanimous positivity it’s the early VW Beetle work from DDB in the 1960s. When Bill Bernbach first brought the VW Beetle onboard in 1959, it was a dumpy-looking car with deep roots in Nazi Germany. In the years that followed, the agency transformed perceptions with simple yet humourous advertising.

Lemon. Think Small. It’s easy to push. The sharp writing and Helmut Krone’s devastating art design are scorched into every amateur ad historian’s synapses. They also laid the foundation for decades of successful advertising around the world.

Director Joe Marcantonia has brought together advertising luminaries and has delved into the archives to put together a documentary examining the seminal work. For industry veterans, it’s a chance to revisit these favourites through a 21st century lens. For newcomers and students, it’s an opportunity to meet them afresh.

The film ‘Remember Those Great Volkswagen Ads?’ takes its name from the book by Alfredo Marcantonio, the advertising manager of Volkswagen GB in the 1970s, AMV BBDO co-founder and former DDB copywriter David Abbott and art director John O’Driscoll, who joined DDB in 1967 and worked on many classic British VW campaigns. Alfredo and John also appear in the documentary.