That VW ad and what needs to happen now...

siobhanny — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:21:21 +0000

‘Pon the 19 bus this very grey morning, in between thoughts of which pastry I was going to devour from Nero’s in Exmouth Market and boyf’s spitty-rant about Twitter; a cute 80s VW caught my eye on Upper Street.

In a beat I was replaying the Paula Hamilton VW ad in my mind and transported back to 1988…

I was on the cusp of becoming a teenager, was really into cars (yes, I was and I forced my dad to take me to the motorshow) I gorged on a diet of Dallas and Dynasty and thought that Paula Hamilton’s portrayal of a power suited woman with a story to boot, was just brilliant.

(Plus she owned a car, which I thought was rather cool given my love of cars and the fact I was able to name pretty much every car on the road back then – even by just looking at the shapes of the lights!)

I genuinely enjoyed watching the ad and looked forward to it coming on the box. I never tired of seeing her story play out, or imagining why she was dumping her mink on a parking metre, ripping off her posh beads and dropping her R-RRROCK through the drain grate. What would have made her so cross?

Perhaps I was all about ‘Appoint To View’ at age 12 and a natural at looking for how a secondary narrative would further engage consumers with the brand? Ho Ho Ho.

I for one would love to know what happened in the house before she fled.

Who was she running away from? Was he a yuppie too? What did he look like? Did he have an affair? What did he think when he found her mink? Did he slip on her beads the next morning when he stepped out to buy the FT?

Most importantly; was the car always hers or was it his?

Did she take it because:

a) It was a lovely motor/hers all along/more satisfying than material possessions and her fiancé

b) It was his and she wanted to hit him where it hurts (that’s providing she hadn’t murdered him before she left the house?!)

c) It was the only gift from him that was worth keeping?

d) It was raining, she was in heels, it was a long walk to tube…?

I would like to propose a new campaign for VW – perhaps for the 25th anniversary of that ad: “Him Indoors”.

An ad campaign that takes us back to 1988 and finally demystifies what happened in that house from his ‘pov’ and goes on to bring the consumer up to date with their respective fates.

In my head, once we find out what happened on that dusky evening back in 1988; 2009 goes a little bit like this…

- She is still driving the same sturdy classic and for purposes of the drama is alone in the car

- He is driving a VW people carrier type vehicle, filled with a couple of teenage kids when suddenly…

- Recognising her car, he carefully manoeuvres through the traffic in order to get up close. Will it be her driving?

- They see each other; it’s tense. Have they seen each other since the fall out? Did they get back together? We have no idea at this point, other than they clearly recognise each other…

- He mouths something which looks a bit like ‘I’m Sorry’ but we can’t be sure.

- The kids in his car begin to stare at her, again, it’s all very tense…

And this is where it could get really interesting. I think there could be two obvious resolutions to this tale:

(i) She drives off and is seen picking up her new man/kids - and thankfully, is as happy as her ex seems to be. They clearly didn’t get back together but a few cut aways of longing looks and maybe a fond smile or two suggests that they do wonder how things may have turned out.

OR… (mon favouri)

(ii) She breaks into a smile when she realises that he actually mouths ‘I love you’. They clearly got back together at some point and the kids in his car are in fact theirs. It turns out that she is perhaps returning from work and he is a house husband type; either ferrying the kids around town or perhaps teaching one of them (a girl) to drive - in a VW. Nice.

I would love to see a feminist angle played out in a follow-up and mess with the idea of conventional family roles - plus it would tie in nicely to the idea of this campaign being about ’Him Indoors’.

Where’s my pitching hat? I’m off to go and see a man about a car…

Organizing...

benbrusniak — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:31:44 +0000

… oder es gibt noch Gewerkschafter die zuhören. Viele sprechen darüber, doch eigentlich weiß keiner um was es eigentlich geht. Es geht vor allem um eins. Die Gewerkschaften fangen an über ihre Fehler nachzudenken. Gut ist jetzt nicht neu, aber und das ist neu, sie fangen an zu handeln. Organizing ist dabei kein Heilsbringer und vor allem ist es auuch nichts neues. In England und Amerika ist Organizing ein Konzept das schon mehrere Jahrzenhte erfolgreich angwandt wird. Diese Woche besuche ich einen Workshop mit Paula Hamilton und Juri Helker um fest zu stellen ob Organizing auch für uns ein Baustein für den Aufbau sein kann.

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That VW ad and what needs to happen now...

Organizing...