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Ad Report Card: Jerks for Jetta

Rob WalkerPosted Monday, Jan. 8, 2001, at 2:01 PM ET

One can assume that an ad campaign that lasts a long time stays on the air because it's working: People are responding to it somehow. If that's true, I'm curious what it is that people like about certain ads for the Volkswagen Jetta, which still seem to be in heavy rotation months after their debut. Particularly puzzling is a spot highlighting a Jetta windows feature (see it here via AdCritic.com) and a similarly themed one in which a guy is eager to tell his buddy about his new car (viewable here).

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The Ads: In the spot that seems to be the most frequently aired, a young man reading his Jetta manual emits a dudelike "Whoa" and dashes inside to find his significant other. She's in her bathrobe, painting her toenails, but he hardly notices and drags her to the driveway. "Watch this," he says, like the little boy he remains at heart. He puts the key into the Jetta's door and turns it, and the windows slide down. He turns, with a big grin and a "Whoo!" to see how impressed his ladyfriend must be. Bored and exasperated, she has already gone inside.

The other spot begins with a maniacally grinning new Jetta owner ringing the buzzer of his pal Cooper, who lives in a dingy-looking apartment building. The time is 7:04 a.m., and we can guess that Cooper doesn't generally get up early. The Jetta owner blows his horn. Cooper struggles to the window, and the car owner spreads his arms triumphantly. Cooper immediately retreats in a show of decisive indifference. But the Jetta guy keeps calling his name, perhaps not understanding that Cooper is not impressed.

What They're Trying To Say: The Jetta and its features are so cool that car owners simply cannot control themselves in expressing their satisfaction and, indeed, their awe.

What They're Actually Saying: But wait. If the Jetta is that great, then how come the reaction of non-Jetta-owners seems to be so icily neutral? How come the people who do appreciate what the Jetta has to offer seem like such jerks, unaware that their enthusiasms are trivial to the wider swath of the population that is capable of some perspective on these matters? Are these Jetta owners suckers to be so ga-ga? And were they always insufferable, or did they become so only upon purchase of a Jetta?

It's tough to come with a fresh angle in a car commercials, and Volkswagen has done some pretty interesting things with ads for its other models in recent year. But with these Jetta spots, I have to side with the unimpressed and give the ads a D.

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Rob Walker writes the Ad Report Card for Slate.

COMMENTS

Reader Comments From The Fray:

[Notes from the Fray Editor: The demographic identifies itself, and speaks out. This Fray, unlike that for any other Ad Report, was full of very polite readers, nearly all men (despite the pointer to a hilarious website about the mysterious Lincoln Park Trixies--Jetta drivers to a woman). They said some version of "no you don't understand, Mr Moneybox, that ad isn't aimed at you, it's aimed at me. And I like it. I'm a VW owner, and that is me. The window thing is cool." The nearest thing to abuse we got was "You don't like Jettas do you?" here. Your Fray Editor, who never understood the ads either, is completely won over. There was a shocked comparison with those not-nearly-so-nice Mitsubishi ads here--we now agree, wouldn't like to think what kind of people drove those, not like you charming Mr Jettas.]

I completely understand the new ads and why they work. They don't deserve a D.

A Jetta is the kind of car that appeals to people who get really excited about cars on the macro and micro level. Cool car with a lot of cool features. Getting a new car like a Jetta makes you giddy.

The giddiness is of a magnitude that you have to share it and a character that no one else cares. Now, here's the important part. The people with whom you are inclined to share your giddiness almost certainly understand you and the giddiness. Not so deep down, both Cooper and the girlfriend look on the protagonists' excessive glee with affection. And, as soon as Cooper gets a job, he's going to annoy the buzzer ringer about how great his new Jetta or Golf is. The girlfriend is going to put a little money away first, then she's going to get a Beetle. She'll bug Mr. Windows about how cute the bud vase is.

Those of us inclined to love the cars that VW (and Audi) are putting out understand both characters in both spots. Those of you who don't get the ads deserve the Camries you almost certainly drive.

Every chance I get, I show off the P-Wagon and the cool passenger-side rear view mirror that turns down to look at the curb when you put the transmission in reverse. Or, the neat light over the vanity mirror that only turns on when you move the little panel that covers the mirror. Or...--and I've had my car for a year.

--Sean Roche

(To reply, click here.)

My girlfriend agrees with me that no two characters in any recent media creation resonate more with our relationship than the two in the Jetta-window ad.

--Scott Schuchart

(To reply click here.)

I think the Jetta ads work because they ring true with many of us. Especially us guys in relationships, quite often the things we get jazzed about bring a yawn from our spouses. When we see the "Jetta guy" in the same spot, we're immediately in his shoes and can see ourselves driving one of those cars.

To me that's much more effective than having some supermodel go gaga over a guy with fancy windows. That crap doesn't happen in real life.

When I watch the guy in the driveway with the girlfriend in slippers bored out of her skull in the doorway, it's like it's me in the commercial. It really has nothing to do with the windows, it's about putting you in the commercial tied to that car. On that point it works wonders.

--Scott Jameson

(To reply, click here.)

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