Can I have my lunch back please?

Posted by Simon Pride, Deputy MD, RLA Group

We’ve all grown up with VW. Trouble is – they’ve grown up as well. What was once young and funky is now older and more mainstream.

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I guess that’s exactly what the new Matrix–style Golf ad sets out to do – to turn the clocks back to a more rebellious VW, one that can take the mickey out of the serious German perfectionist.

However, there is a part of VW that is forever young. The iconic original Beetle and the Camper van live on, not just at the Bug Jam or on the A303 down to Cornwall, but in our collective ideas and memories.

A merchandise programme was a great way to tap into this well of eternal youth and bring some fun back into the showroom environment.

However, despite any amount of German control freakery, a very modern predicament had crept up on VW. As Coca–Cola’s VP of Marketing, Carol Kruse, said recently – "our customers control our brands".

(Perhaps VW shouldn’t be surprised. After all, they did call it the "people’s car".)

Evidence that VW’s lunch is being eaten is on every high street in the form of unlicensed VW products – t–shirts, posters, piggy banks, you name it.

Setting about the merchandise project was a challenge. Budgets were tight, but the project demanded imagination and authenticity. We helped develop the product range, created a story book brochure, and an extended agency of friends and family all became part of the shoot in the fields outside of our barn office.

I think we did this one for love if I’m honest, but at least we had a nice BBQ lunch whilst doing it.