Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama exploited to sell VWs in South Africa.
(click ads, via) Well, at least Ogilvy Cape Town respected the white space, if not the black men. Ogilvy is a Volkswagen ad agency in the country, so these appear to be real (probably trade) ads promoting the VW TSI engine. The King execution is particularly pathetic. In the last two years, Obama's been illicitly utilized to sell scores of products and services worldwide.
Is this the most inappropriate BamBranding yet? Compare here and here.
Related: the creepiest VW ads ever.
posted by copyranter @ 8:35 AM
5 Comments:
Ouch, these are truly awful, cheesy, creepy and inappropriate. I have worked at Ogilvy Cape Town, and today I am horribly embarrassed to admit that.
Why would Obama be used to endorse a non-American-made car? Plus, don't the responsible creatives realize Black men prefer to drive Cadillacs versus VWs? Although given the ad is coming from Ogilvy—in Cape Town to boot—perhaps it's not so surprising.
The concept is also completely contrived. The only thing that makes "I have a dream" small is the fact they they used small type.
And coming from a company started by Adolf Hitler makes it especially offensive. No Volkswagen, we haven't forgotten.
I think there is some ignorance of context in your judgement here. These adds ran a automotive magazines, where politics are not a factor of influence in perception.
These adds, in my opinion are very effective and certainly not aimed at a certain race. And, 3 words and 5 words are small, considering the effect they brought about. These two statements changed thought patterns of millions around the world. That is what ogilvy wanted to paralell with the FSI engine of VW.
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