EOC Week 1: VW Lemon

"The ad featured a black and white photo of the Volkswagen Beetle with the word “Lemon” in bold san serif font…. that proclaims that this particular car was rejected… because of a blemish on the chrome piece of the glove box. The ad goes on to describe the rigorous inspection process…”

(http://www.writingfordesigners.com/?p=1731)

There are 3,389 men of our Wolfsburg factory with only one job…. to inspect Volkswagens at each stage of production. (3,00 Volkswagens are produced daily; there are more inspectors than cars.)

Every shock absorber is tested (spot checking won't do), every windshield is scanned. VWs have been rejected for surface scratches barely visible to the eye….VW inspectors run each car off the line onto the Funktionsprüfstand (car test stand), tote up 189 check points, gun ahead to the automatic brake stand and say "no" to one VW out of fifty.

(http://www.powerwriting.com/vw-lemon-ad.html)

Ads before it were either information-based or lacking in persuasion, more fantasy than reality, or reliant on the medium's ability to deliver repeated exposure. Beetle ads, though, connected with consumers on an emotional level, while conveying a product benefit in a way consumers could relate to… The other presented just the car with "Lemon" in bold type…the chrome strip on the glove compartment was blemished and had to be replaced. The take-away was obvious. the Beetle must be a well-built car. The Beetle ad campaign also stands out for its use of television, which was in 90 percent of homes by the mid-1960s. It may have been grainy black-and-white, but the emotional connection between car and consumer was picture perfect in Beetle commercials like "Funeral."

(http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/1999/11/22/smallb7.html)

My personal opinion I don’t think that the ad is trying to trick us but I believe it’s trying to say that when

Something happens to the car, the company will always be there to quickly repair…but another side of this ad is trying to say that this car is flawless and nothing is going to happen to it. Having the name lemon branded on the car is a play of a humorous joke saying that this car will never be sour, and that small cars are always better than bigger cars.