Week One EOC: Volkswagen Lemon Ad

The Volkswagen “Lemon” advertisement is one of the greatest ads of the modern era. It made fun of the product that was being displayed. This was not normal at the time. Most advertisements were made only to show positives. “The word lemon for substandard cars gained popularity in the 1950s with one of Volkswagen’s ad campaigns. Volkswagen used the term lemon to denote any car that did not pass their thorough inspections. This campaign was considered a huge success and because of this campaign the use of the term lemon for cars became popular…” (Letourneau)

           

            This document brings us into the next point, how was the “Lemon” ad so successful? In fact, it is because it is thought provoking. “Beetle ads, though, connected with consumers on an emotional level, while conveying a product benefit in a way consumers could relate to. Plus, the ads were breathtakingly simple….” (Bizjournals.com) No one wants their car called lemon. But in this case, it says that a “lemon” is a car that gets sent back to the factor because of an imperfection. After reading the whole ad, it almost seems like you’d be convinced to buy one! That’s exactly what the ad did.

            I do truly believe that this advertisement brought us into the modern day era of parody and almost questionable ads. This ad single handily changed the social normality of what was acceptable. “It was shocking, to say the least, for an auto brand to call their car a lemon. What made the ad even more appealing than the shock value, was that the Bug was in fact (and still is) shaped like a lemon” (“All The Great Mad Men…)

Letourneau, Justin. "Lemon." Lemon. N.p., 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 18 Jan. 2017.

Bizjournals.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2017.

"All The Great Mad Men Era Volkswagen Ads." BuzzFeed. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2017.