The art of transforming the defects in quality

How to sell in the United States a small car, without style, little powerful, suffering is obscene and shameful because paternity designed under the nazi regime When Bill Bernbach, the "B" of the Agency DDB (Doyle, Dane, Bernbach), look in 1959, in its offices in New York, the "brief" assigned, it grows a long sigh. Certainly, the Ladybug is its first car budget, a decisive step in the history of an advertising agency. But by agreeing to help sell the "bug(l'insecte,lescarabée,bref,lapunaiseenanglais), this Creative Director inherits a bulky past and a delicate road map, all at a budget of $ 800,000, hardly comparable to that of competitors.

"Orthopedic shoe".

Notwithstanding its sulphurous past-"sell a Nazi car in the largest Jewish city in the world."It strangles in DDB, creative Julian Koenig-, the ambition of the German manufacturer was nothing obvious in the country of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, encomiums limousines to the hood oversized, aggressive grille and powerful motorization. Back to the wall, Bernbach, whose career from this gain will be inextricably linked to the success of Volkswagen, will kill two maps: the franchise and provocation. The association of the two is not itself, especially in a business where the superlative and the consumerism are all hallmarks of success. But the choice As soon as the first ads, the Agency assumes, with humour and mockery, the ugliness of the product, while featuring cleverly strengths, who man the heavy displacements: the Ladybug is handy, small, requires minimal maintenance and is easy to park. The art of transforming the defects in quality.

This as an advertisement in the press two days later of the lunar landing of Apollo 11 mission "lem" (July 20, 1969) sums up a line, with, as an illustration, a close-up of the space shuttle: "this is ugly but it takes you." The following year, two other historical Visual emerge: "Think small" ("think small") and "Lemon" ("misfire"), clear reference to his "orthopedic shoe" design, dixit David Ogilvy. Many opposites to flattering and demagogues of the era campaigns. But that, by the amazement that they cause, get maximum impact. "Bill Bernbach was the first to pass the advertising real advertising," said Alban Callet, Deputy Director General of the Agency V (Omnicom), responsible for the budget.

"Anonymous Traders".

In fact, the France will follow faithfully the philosophy of Bernbach, humour as his ability to rebound on the news. Sold in France since the 1950s, but without being actually managed to break through, the beetle is one of the first budgets of Bernard Brochand when it creates DDB France (Omnicom) in 1970. The beginnings are laborious. And, paradoxically, it is an English film featuring a loser disillusioned leaving the casino at the wheel of his Golf, with a signature, this simple sentence: "It cannot be wrong all the time", who "hold" in 1987 the future tone of the mark. Are to follow more than twenty years of collaboration with DDB, primarily conducted with Creative Director Christian Vince. All via mythical became advertisements, whether from the Golf (fear and loathing "in", "Dialogue of the deaf", "niet") or Polo, mi-break, mi-berline, compared with - after a lot of unsuccessful tests - an Ant, small, agile, malignant... and anthropomorphisée, as having right to her sitting on the couch with Henri Chapier.

In April 2001, Christian Vince creates his own agency, V, in the bosom of Omnicom. Two years after, the budget Volkswagen (of an estimated EUR 130 million gross for 2009) the joined. With a mission: get out of commonality in which the mark is was gradually left cause over the years. "He had to return to the"basics", says Alban Callet, reconnect with the franchise of the tone, as when one shows a father trapped in a ghost for the Touran train, to emphasize that to be father, it is not always idyllic..." "All remain glued to the news. Witnesses, the last two campaigns, targeted one on "anonymous traders" trying valiantly to detoxify their addiction to the bonus group and the latest turning ridiculed the fanaticism of the anti-CO2. A priori, explains to the Agency, the redemption of Porsche should not have an impact on the upcoming communication.