Curves are back with New Beetle Campaign

But I've not been the best of friends with an element called luck and as luck would have it against me, yet again, here I am, taking you for a drive through History. But this one is not about historical war dates and the longest names you'd have heard all through your life.

This one is about a phenomenon ' a phenomenon that changed the way people functioned and the way the world existed. This phenomenon was, the Volkswagen Beetle.

Now, I must confess that I am not much of a fan of the Beetle, even though it carries such heritage on its shoulders. I've never really been a sucker for its design and its puny engines. The initial Volkswagen Beetles were air-cooled, rear engined, rear wheel drive machines and, according to me, only one of those factors was right ' rear wheel drive. Still, the Beetle went on to become one of the highest selling models of all time.

It all started in the year 1938 and the VW Beetle is still going strong enough in today's time. Volkswagen has been one of the most radical corporate bodies when it came to marketing and promotion. I still recollect the classic ads of the 1960s. Not a long time ago, I was reading about Volkswagen and how they came through and there was a proper section (that would've made for a separate book altogether) about VW Beetle. In there, I learned about the catchy concepts of Volkswagen marketing.

There was an advert in 1960 that promoted the dealer competency of Volkswagen vis-à-vis any other manufacturer. It carried a tag line of "Repair "em? I've got enough parts to build "em!" The trend continued with VW Beetle and in 1961, a campaign on the concept of "Last one to conk out is a Volkswagen" was highlighted in a typical flooded scene. Of particular interest to me was the one from 1968 that essentially was published to advertise the automatic transmission in Beetle. The catch line read "The Volkswagen for people who refuse to drive Volkswagens"

So, you see, there is a huge mountain of heritage behind Volkswagen Beetle. And the trend has it that some strong aspect of the car always gets highlighted in a VW advert. Therefore when I heard that VW has launched a new campaign for Volkswagen Beetle, I got particularly interested in it.

The advertising, very unlike most automobile campaigns focuses on what the icon stands for: Curves. The campaign emphasizes the New Beetle setting trends of curves being in vogue which is communicated through Dailies, OOH and Television campaign.

The Television advertising captures a woman gorging on lot of food much more that she can eat to simply become curvaceous, while the print and outdoor campaign advises how people can follow the trendsetter i.e. The New Beetle.

Commenting on this new advertising campaign, Mr. Lutz Kothe, Chief General Manager, Marketing & PR, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Group Sales India Pvt. Ltd. said "This is not any other car it is the New Beetle, whose core value stands for being original including its famous curves. Therefore our communication could not reflect anything better than focusing on its design and package which has wooed millions of buyers and aspirants around the world."

So do the new creative efforts in shape of different adverts live up to the history? We're eager to hear from you.