Volkswagen is highlighting its heritage in the US with an advert marketing campaign referred to as “An American Love Story” that may premiere throughout the Tremendous Bowl. Days forward of the massive recreation, the model launched the complete two-minute video that begins when the primary Beetle arrived in 1949.
Embedded above, the advert options Neil Diamond’s 1971 music “I Am… I Stated.” It begins in 1949, when Dutch businessman Ben Pon introduced the primary Kind 1 (which later turned often called the Beetle) to the US. Whereas a few of the scenes have been recreated in black and white, a few of the footage was shot in 1949. On the time, the Beetle was simply one other small, obscure European automobile with the engine mounted on the flawed finish. It wasn’t the one one, and few might predict its success: it helped Volkswagen promote 569,696 vehicles on our shores in 1971.
The movie highlights a few of the key moments in Volkswagen of America’s historical past, and the methods by which the model formed common tradition. The emblematic Kind 2 (extra generally often called the Bus) and Herbie the Love Bug each make an look. Volkswagen’s water-cooled vehicles, which represented the beginning of a brand new period for the model, seem as properly; one of many highlights from this era is a second-generation GTI rally automobile. Collectors of classic Volkswagen fashions benefit from the highlight earlier than the advert transitions to extra trendy vehicles, just like the fourth-generation Jetta, and ends by highlighting Volkswagen’s present electrical vehicles, such because the heritage-laced ID. Buzz due out for 2025.
The conclusion? “We form its metallic. You form its soul.”
Volkswagen has some extent: Most of us have not less than one story associated to its vehicles. I’ve obtained sufficient to fill a number of Autoblog pages, from bringing a long-dead 1962 Beetle again to life within the 2000s to taking a 1972 Tremendous Beetle (often called the 1302 right here in Europe; proven above) on a highway journey throughout France a few decade in the past. I nonetheless personal the 1302, and it is typically parked subsequent to my 1990 Golf CL fixer-upper. A lot of my colleagues have tales to share as properly: Autoblog Senior Editor John Snyder notably has a 1974 Beetle, Information Editor Joel Stocksdale owns a 2013 Beetle and Senior Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski owned a 1975 Bus camper.
You may catch Volkswagen’s Tremendous Bowl advert throughout the third quarter of the sport, and inform us your Volkswagen story within the feedback.
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