Remembering VW’s Ingenious Beetle Ads
The very last of Volkswagen’s New Beetles rolled off the factory line in Puebla, Mexico on July 10th. The Beetle has had quite a wild ride, hasn’t it? There were a lot of contributing factors to the Beetle’s success, but one of the biggest was its initial run of print ads. In honor of the Beetle, let’s take a look back at some of those ads to remind ourselves of what made us fall in love with the ol’ punch buggy in the first place.
Pushed to glory.
The model that would eventually become the Beetle was originally commissioned by Adolf Hitler from German engineer Ferdinand Porsche. The Type 1, as it was called, was intended to be an affordable car for the German masses, with pricing planned to run around the same as a large motorcycle. Hitler wanted the Type 1 to be a real “people’s car,” or “Volks Wagen,” if you were wondering were the company name came from.
...