The buzz began in ’97 with a lazy Sunday afternoon. It grew louder in ’98 with redesigned Beetles spinning, flying, and driving against a stark white background. And it was louder still this year as the Beetle got bolder and the narratives richer, from the jazzy senior citizen escaping to Vegas to the twenty-something couple watching the world outside their car move in synch to the music playing on the car’s CD player.
The numerous ads for Volkswagen out of Arnold Communications, Boston, with the simple tag "Drivers Wanted," have won countless awards, including honors from the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, Cannes Lions, Clios, Addys, ANDYs and Effies.
The lead creatives behind the VW juggernaut are Lance Jensen, executive VP/group creative director, and Alan Pafenbach, executive VP/group creative director at Arnold. Jensen has been with the agency since ’89, and according to his bio is an on-the-side painter, writer and musician who "spends an inordinate amount of his salary on obscure compact discs." Pafenbach joined the agency in ’88 and is a former editorial cartoonist, magazine editor/art director, and a self-proclaimed advertising skeptic. Both are glad to be based in Boston, and claim to ignore the ways and means of other agencies. "All those big agencies in New York," says Pafenbach, "they’re one big blob."
At the initial Volkswagen pitch meeting, back in ’95 when Arnold won the account, the two creatives—who currently work exclusively on VW—did more than just talk about their plans for the carmaker. They made a mini-movie. "It was just an input meeting," explains Jensen, "but we wanted to show we’d been thinking about the brand. So Alan and I wrote and put together what we call a ‘brand essence’ video. … It was a seven-minute montage of what we thought the advertising might feel like, the themes we’d use, the imagery that might be appropriate, the music. And we came up with ‘On the road of life, there are passengers and there are drivers.’ Obviously, that one stuck."
They also pointed out that perhaps it was time for Volkswagen to start behaving like, well, Volkswagen. "For a while [VW] tried to be GM," explains Pafenbach. "They tried to be mainstream. [They needed to] recognize that they could sell a lot of cars and not have to sell to everybody—that they should speak to those people who already loved them."
And who, in their minds, loves Volkswagen? Jensen and Pafenbach, who say they shun most market research and are uncomfortable with the word "demographic," take what Pafenbach calls a "psychographic" approach to their audience’s profile. Their target consumers are young at heart, and are interested in trying new things. "The products are very popular on the West and East Coasts," explains Pafenbach, "and in the sort of centers of the country where there are a lot of educational institutions."
The Work
"We get assignments and every assignment has a desired effect," says Pafenbach of the eclectic mix of ads that comprise the VW oeuvre. "Every commercial has a communication goal behind it."
Sometimes the goal is a general impression of the brand—personality, for instance, fuels the Beetle ads—and sometimes it’s information, such as extolling the roominess of a hatchback via "Sunday Afternoon," directed by Baker Smith of Tate & Partners, Santa Monica. In that ad, which was one of the first to raise VW’s creative profile, two guys cruising on a Sunday afternoon to Trio’s "Da Da Da" easily fit a large—and smelly—armchair into a Golf.
"The Europeans are good at this," Pafenbach says. "[They make] very human, little films. … You can point out people’s peccadilloes, but it’s done with love." Ads for the Passat, Golf, Jetta and Cabrio, they say, focus on timeless topics about the way people behave in cars—"like Jane Goodall observing the way chimpanzees behave," says Pafenbach, with tongue only partly in cheek. The ads are full of real moments, such as in "Great Escape," directed by Nick Lewin of bicoastal X-1 Films, in which a senior citizen escapes from a nursing home with his grandson in a Jetta. Having eluded the staff, Grandpa clearly enjoys the desert breeze as the two ride along the highway to Las Vegas. And in "Crazy Guy," directed by Phil Morrison of bicoastal Epoch Films, a young guy is caught making some rather odd moves while seated in his parked VW Golf. When his buddy opens the door, the Styx song "Mr. Roboto" is heard blasting on the car’s stereo—it turns out the guy was just grooving to the music on the Golf’s eight-speaker stereo system.
"It’s like, ‘what the hell is he doing?’" says Jensen. "You’re in a car and you think nobody can see you, but meanwhile, you’re surrounded by all this glass. It’s kind of like ‘duh.’"
But as intrigued as they are by what they call "car culture," foremost in their minds is product. "We’re not in the movie business," says Pafenbach. "We’re in the communication business. … We try to find some sort of relevant human behavior or emotion that could really happen to drive home the point."
The narratives they create with their team, which includes copywriters Shane Hutton and David Weist, and art directors Tim Vaccarino and Don Shelford, are sometimes based on personal experience. For instance, in "Mattress," directed by Jhoan Camitz of bicoastal/international Satellite, a bunch of guys are racing against a red light to tie a mattress to the Golf’s roof. They do it in time—only to discover they’ve tied the doors shut.
"That happened to me and a friend," Jensen explains cheerfully (minus the red light, which the team added for tension). "Only we did it with an audience. I used to live outside a little café, and everybody was watching."
Beetlemania
As varied as the ads are for Volkswagen’s other models, the campaign for the redesigned Beetle, which was introduced in ’98, consists of variations on a theme. The work spans the gamut from last year’s "Flower," (directed by Lewin who at the time was with bicoastal Manifesto) which features an overhead shot of yellow Beetles in a circle, each one falling away like a petal, followed by a black Beetle roaring in with the copy "Less flower–more power," to this year’s high-tech, neon green "Turbonium" (also directed by Lewin). That ad shows Beetles spinning around like atoms to a driving techno beat.
Because of the groundbreaking VW work of the ’60s from Doyle Dane Bernbach, New York, the new Beetle campaign came with its fair share of critically acclaimed baggage. Initially, the duo says, they just wanted to move peoples’ perceptions from the old car to the new car by acknowledging the old car and then moving forward. "We describe it as old Star Trek and new Star Trek," says Pafenbach. "The new Star Trek is just as legitimate as the old Star Trek, but is more modern, looks better, and has better special effects."
"The vibe comes from the product," says Jensen. "We weren’t worried about respecting Bill Bernbach. The work was great, but who cares. I think it comes down to understanding the personality of the brand and product."
Design and graphics are important to the Beetle work, and casting is important to the other models’ ads, but no matter the work, music is consistently a crucial element. Arnold uses a mix of preexisting and original music, some from first-time spot composers such as Peter DuCharme of Master Cylinder, Somerville, Mass., who composed the trippy tune that accompanies "Synchronicity," directed by Gerard de Thame of bicoastal HSI Productions. Another first-time commercial composer, Ben Neill from Trillium Productions, New York, scored "Chase," directed by Kinka Usher of House of Usher Films, Santa Monica, with an electronic, jazzy tune. Neill additionally composed the techno piece that accompanies "Turbonium." Arnold’s lead creative twosome on VW also used its share of alternative music, courtesy of Jensen’s collection.
"We don’t get all hung up on the lyrics or whether it’s currently popular music," says Pafenbach. "It’s like an independent film [in which] you don’t know the actors; it’s a richer experience because you’re not going, ‘There’s Bruce Willis with a mustache.’ You’re not aware, you’re just reacting."
As for directors, the creative duo prefers collaborative types. "We like to sit down with them and redraw the storyboard, rework scenes. We figure it’s the creative process, and that it continues all the way to the end," says Pafenbach. The most recent directors to work on VW are Dayton/Faris of bicoastal Bob Industries, who helmed "Milky Way" for the 2000 Cabrio. In the ad, teenagers riding in the convertible are so transfixed by a moonlit, starry night that they give up a loud party to enjoy the great outdoors.
The challenge for Arnold is to keep the work fresh. "We both have sizeable mortgages, and that helps to focus your attention," says Pafenbach. "And it’s not like we’re the only ones thinking up spots," adds Jensen. "We’ve spent the last five years hiring people."
Plus, says Pafenbach, "Volkswagen presents us with new problems to solve. This category of advertising is very dynamic, very competitive, always changing. If you use a problem-solving technique for coming up with your creative, then you’re never going to run out of ideas because you’re never going to run out of problems to solve."=
