15 THE AD THAT DIDN’T LIE

In 1961, the idea of an ad all about a faulty product must have seemed an unusual if not absurd idea. Yet an ad created that year featuring a faulty Volkswagen was to win a poll for the “World’s Greatest Ad” nearly 40 years later.

Created by art director Helmut Krone and copywriter Julian Koenig of Doyle Dane Bernbach, the ad for the Volkswagen Beetle featured a black and white shot of the car and underneath it ran the forlorn, one-word headline: “Lemon”.

The copy went on to detail how this particular Volkswagen failed the stringent quality checks. The chrome “fitting” around the glove compartment door was blemished and so the car was rejected by Kurt Kroner, one of 3,389 assembly plant workers at the Wolfsburg factory in Germany.

In a market awash with hyperbole and spin, it was an ad that was more honest; more truthful than those of its competitors. It was willing to admit the Beetle wasn’t the most beautiful, the fastest or the most spacious car available. No, it was a small and, to many, an “ugly bug” of a car.

What the Beetle did have was its virtues of economy and reliability. Combining these with humorous self-deprecation and a dash of honesty, it set about selling itself – and sell it did.

And the moral is that a great ad is often a truth well told. What truth should you be telling about your brand?