Bill K. at Rooftop Report has been tracking down the story behind the truly tasteless ad (shown below) for VW since yesterday, This morning The New York Post picked up the story, wondering whether it was an actual VW ad or a viral hoax. The Post didn’t really provide an answer to the question of whether VW was behind the tasteless ad.
This afternoon I found the answer….
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LONDON (Revolution) – Volkswagen and DDB London are distancing themselves from a hoax viral commercial for the VW Polo, which features a suicide bomber.The ad plays on the established tagline for Volkswagen’s Polo model, “small but tough”. It shows a man in fatigues setting off in his Polo. He arrives outside a restaurant and pulls out a trigger. However, when he detonates the bomb, a flash is seen inside the car but the car itself does not explode. The strapline appears at the end. The campaign is the work of a duo known for their spoof advertising, called Lee and Dan. The pair run a website, LeeandDan.com, but the ad does not appear on the site at the time of writing. They have worked on a string of legitimate ads including Ford SportKa, BP and Casio G-Shock, among others. Dan, from Lee and Dan, said: “The ad got out accidentally and has spread like wildfire. It wasn’t meant for public consumption. “We think the spot reflects what people see in the news everyday, and in this instance the car is the hero that protects innocent people from someone with very bad intentions. We’re sorry if the ad has caused any offence.” Volkswagen stressed that the spot, which has been doing the viral email rounds this week, was made without any involvement from the company whatsoever.
[Read the rest]Good news for VW.
I talked to VW, do you know how I can contact the POst?
I can’t decide if it is tasteless, funny, clever, stupid, incindiary, hateful, or some combination of the above. It makes my jaw drop, but I don’t know why!
Perhaps they could have new Ryder Truck commercials with McVeigh next. WTF? That is just plain crazy.
I’ve never laughed so hard at something so inappropriate in my life. This certainly isn’t a commercial that a reputable company needs to be making (if indeed they made it), but from a purely satrical point it’s hilarious. Just imagine the whole thing with South Park style animation and I think you’ll understand my point.
And of course I meant “satirical,” not “satrical.”
Tasteless, but clever, and definitely not something a reputable company would consider doing.
WEll….to a degree, what Jared wrote. The idea/spoof concept is laughable but the taste level is bottomless. I need a shower.
Tasteless but oddly satisfying…like reading about jihadis blowing themselves up in their bomb factories. (I feel bad for their nieghbors, tho.)
OT: Dirty Bomb threat in Boston. Drudge has the headline…
I thought it was great, I feel pretty stupid bacause I don’t see how it insults anyone but the terrorist.
I guess one could argue it’s not nice to make fun of terrorism no matter what, but I wouldn’t. How can you say The Producers is okay and this isn’t?
Well that was funny. If thats considered innapropriate I wish there were more inapropriate commercials.
I thought it was funny and I don’t see anything really wrong with it. You are allowed to think of yourself as superior to Me. You are not allowed to force Me to value your opinion.
Now, the SportKa jobber (with the cat beheading) was tasteless and not funny. That would instantly turn Me away from any company using that advertisor.
Sorry but people need to take the sticks out of their butts if they can’t admit that was funny without having to reassure everyone how ‘tasteless’ they found it.
The terrorist battlefield is the mind of the public. They can never truely effect change through direct action.
Showing terrorist as buffoons is the first step to demistifying them and taking away their psycological power over us. Once that happens, they will lose all their influence.
I was going to say the same thing as the other people here: More of this, please.
First we laugh at them.
Then we kill them.
Then we win.
Of course, we can’t really make commercials like that because it would be inapropriate for children. But as part of a humor show, it works.
Reminds me of the National Lampoon’s fine spoof VW ad from the 70’s: “If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he’d be President today.” with photo of floating VW.
It’s not good, either way… creative or otherwise. I predict a negative effect.
I’m sorry….I’m pretty quick to take offense, especially things are tasteless in reference to Israel…
…but I’m not gonna lie: that ad brought a big goofy grin to my face. I look at it the way mikeymike did – the only person embarrassed here is the terrorist. I like the idea of making fun the ‘splodeydopes, too.
So sure, it’s tasteless in an undeniable way, but I still give it a thumbs-up.
So I told my wife, “I want to show you something, but I want to warn you it’s pretty tasteless.”
And I played it.
And she said, “What’s the tasteless part? That he probably ruined the appetites of the people eating lunch because they saw his guts splatter?”
Ahh. I married well.
Dude, funniest add ever! Perfect! The triumph of western technology over mid-eastern barbarism! Snap!
Maybe we’re both way too tired, but the wife and I had a very long belly laugh when we saw the ad. I only wish that VW had the guts to have done it for real.
Truth is, in our culture we deal with maniacs and lunatics by turning them into buffoons. Hence, Dr. Strangelove’s Coke-bottle glasses and arm that keeps stiffening up into a Nazi salute, or Jake and Elwood Blues chasing neo-Nazi Henry Gibson off a bridge in a Ford Pinto.
All in all, I’d give it a solid 8 / 10.
Truth is, in our culture we deal with maniacs and lunatics by turning them into buffoons.
Mike, I couldn’t agree more. That muffled explosion that made the small car rock – ever so slightly – while the passersby looked on and a ‘terrorist’ was obliterated was so satisfying. I’ll admit it, I bellylaughed too.
Sorry – the blockquote thing didn’t work in my post above. The first sentence was Mike’s.
Maybe, the people who do find it tasteless and are offended by it, should explain why.
I liked it. I would never air it if I were Volkswagen because some topics cannot be touched, but no one of consequence dies in the spot and it is a funny way to demonstrate the qualities of your product. (Ok – albeit exagerated.)
– Comes with extended bullet hole repair and 1 detonation warrenty…..
– make that 100,000 miles or ten detonations, which ever comes first… your millage may vary….
no one of consequence dies
Yep. In fact just the opposite happens: A couple of men (who appear to be of the mideastern persuasion), several young women, a mother, and an innocent baby — their lives were saved.
When did we have to start apologizing for wanting the bad guys to die? I know, I know. For a long time now. Bleh.
Oh, yeah. “It got out accidentally.” Mmm-hmm. Tell me another one. Lee and Dan just got oodles of free publicity.
Unfortunately, they are just as likely to get death threats.
I loved it.
It’s funny, at the expense of, well, terrorists.
Go Lee & Dan!!
i loved the commercial…somehow i find the way this video was distributed and by who it mas made The best way this commercial could have gotten out.
Let’s try that again… Funniest thing I’ve seen in a while. (I’ll be the first to admit, though, that I’ll laugh at the strangest things) As far as I’m concerned, if it offends the fatwa-f****hers then I’m all for it!
I’m with the ones who think it’s funny. PTG and I must be of an age, I also immediately thought of the National Lampoon ad (they got in a lot of trouble for that one but it was funny too).
Nothing wrong with this ad, were it a real ad. The only people getting pissed off would be the terrorists, and only the loony left PC liberals give a shit about them.
Tasteless my butt. I’m still laughing.
Hilarious. Nothing tasteless about it. As times change, so do the things which happen to us as a routine. Thanks to Middle Eastern terrorists, we have a whole new thing to routinely worry about. Why not laugh it up when terrorists get screwed up and the rest of us roll along peacefully. Their statement is made, and Western civilization’s statement is also made. We don’t agree you blowing yourself up is a good thing, but if you must, do it without inconveniencing the rest of us. (And buy our cars).
Its a pity self respecting companies have to try not to offend people who’s sensibilities run to killing themselves and taking as many innocent people with them as possible. They deserve no consideration. I have to ask myself frequently: why should I have any sympathy for their cause when it requires the death of innocents to get its point across?
Nothing but laughter here.
Subsunk
It’s hilarious. If you find it tasteless, go out and get yourself a sense of “humor”.
I love laughing at spoofs on zealot fools, who offer the laying down of their life for so that their fellow tyrants can rake in power and money.
I found it completely and utterly tasteless. Which is my type of humor anyway, so I enjoyed it immensely.
Funny. Very funny. Not a floor-roller, just a knee slapper, but funny.
If it wasn’t a trick shot I’d suggest this advertisement for security moms everywhere.
VW would make a killing.
Er, bundle.
If Arabs are insulted, they should aim their anger at their brethern who use this manner of attack to kill, maim and mutilate so many innocent people in the name of Allah…
Otherwise, the spoof is histerically funny…
I was hilarious. Nothing tasteless about it.
Idiots…
Why wouldn’t a reputable company put out this ad?
“…One hundred percent of the successful terrorist attacks on commercial airlines for 20 years have been committed by Arabs. When there is a 100 percent chance of being hijacked by an Arab Muslim Extremist, it ceases to be a profile. It’s called a ‘description of the suspect….”
Take the Quiz:
http://www.ropma.net/muzzie_quiz.htm
I found it funny, but I can see where it would twange the nerves… jihadists still ernestly murdering others and all.
BTW…am I the only one to notice the PCishness (Brits have got to get over this urge to dhimmitude) of the line “It shows a man in fatigues setting off in his Polo.” Fatigues? Is that the non-offensive-to-Islamists word to use to substitute for “kaffiyeh” now?
Yeah, I grew up with MAD Magazine so it got a chortle out of me. There’s nothing offensive about it at all. And is it me, or did the actor look just ever so slightly like Jean Reno?
I bet it doesn’t take long for this video to show up at skoopy.com.
J
My initial reaction was that the thing is tasteless yet broke into laughter at the ending in spite of myself.
Maybe if we just look at it as another dumbass murderer defeated by his own ineptitude…
Bad taste? To who? I found this hilarious and poetic. There is damn little humor when a terrorist normally blows himself up. The only thing that could have made this any funnier, and perhaps less abhorant to some, would have been the guy getting out blinking white eyes against the background of a blackened face, stumbling into the arms of a policeman…
Soooooo Funny!!!!!
Might just go out and buy one, Volkswagen need to hire the guy that did this one.
Guys, I’ve been there and done that. After a full year in Baghdad, I will attest that some of those suicide bombers are exactly that stupid or incompetant, or worse.
A few aren’t, but by god, most are. Thanks for letting that one out of the bag, guys! Laughed my ass off, as did my wife!