VW Buzz camper - a launch with cuteness overload

So, very soon, the redesigned Volkswagen Buzz camper will be among us. For its launch the company opted - very understandably due to the product's design - to a cute campaign. Above is a sample. Again, it has been a while since VW issued a product that is designed in a such a way. And considering the legacy of the camper itself and how it is related to the hippie-carefree life, the Buzz ticks all boxes in its design, and therefore presentation.

However, I kept thinking that this is very close to the last time VW issued one such cute product. Namely? The redesigned VW Beetle/Bug which was also accompanied by a campaign that focused on the cute (sample lines "Hug it? Drive it?" or "less flower, more power" or "the engine's in the front, but the heart is in the right place").

Below are several executions, which some of them - it was fashionable back then - issued as postcards.

Zaatar w Zeit goes exploring (where others preceded it).

Zaatar w Zeit has a gorgeous new ad.

Imagine this: A bunch of youth go and become adventurers in Lebanon and discover its beauty (and forget that this is the exact same scenario Byblos Bank used, as well as Almaza and countless other brands probably using the same VW Camper van). 

OK, Zaatar w Zeit does play for its audience, uppity well-to-do Gen Z boys and girls shielded from the current financial crisis by their parents and who somehow think that a Manoushe at this price is the norm (it is not). But to be fair to Zaatar w Zeit, they know their audience, they know what they like and how they behave, heck, they even included a guitar campfire night (hello Crepaway!) and a dog for a good measure (you know the kind that offers "fresh" Dollars if it is ever gone astray).

Just to be clear, the ad targets exactly who it wants to target, it is well shot, beautiful, and emotionally resonates with the people it wants to resonate with. Has it been already done elsewhere? Yes. Is it full of cliches? It is. Will it matter? Well, some youth are already planning that campfire with some uber expensive juice bottles.

See the full ad here.

Ad people: Now is the time to think small - again.

Photo Credit; Jana Traboulsi (a double play on "death to the capital" and "let the capital topple")

Covid-19 has blown the top on everything. Companies, budget, recruitment, shopping, spending, you name it - it is all in flux. People are divided in two camps the "this is the end" and the "this is the end and a chance to a new beginning". This is a blog that revolves around advertising, marketing, branding - mostly in Lebanon (though I do tend to go further afield at times). Lebanon has been facing the perfect storm: Corona, financial meltdown, capital controls, lack of liquidity, crashing budgets, closing companies, socio-political unrest, and and and.... Already prior to the Coronavirus outbreak estimates that there will be less than 100 million Dollar in ad spend this year were released by ad person Naji Boulos (whom I trust in opinion and figures).
Now that we are in a Coronavirus world that number will become a fraction of what it was. I know the livelihood of many people will be affected by it. A marketing manager at a major supermarket chain in Lebanon told me that it was the first time she saw people calculating their bill before getting to the cashier to avoid over-budgeting. People are looking in the trash in broad daylight in Lebanon. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is trying to save their penny.
Paradoxically, am glad idiotic advertising is over. All those corny ads are now gone. Army day? Put everything in camouflage. Valentine? Paint it red and add a heart. New year? Add fireworks. And on all occasions remember to make the logo bigger.
But as Watson (Lucy Liu) told Holmes (John Lee Miller) in that wonderful episode in Elementary: "What if we are looking at it the wrong way?" - I apologize in advance to all those whose lives have been affected by the turmoil. But was it not time for things to come to a screeching halt to assess and reorganize and regroup and downsize and prioritize and maybe cut down and shrink and "think small" (to go back to that eternal VW Beetle mantra)? I am glad the time has come.
With less, creativity flows, with limited resources we can produce more, without the excess we can be more agile.
Of course we could have done so without - as Dr. Nicole Herman said (brilliantly played by Geena Davis in Grey's Anatomy) - "recommending a brain tumor" or a Coronavirus for that matter. Yet as the Lebanese saying goes "if it does not get bigger it does not get smaller". And bigger it did go!
Now is the time to get smaller. Again.

Volkswagen Beetle - the last mile... Sadly.

The Beetle is no longer - after the last unit was produced in July 2019 Volkswagen bids it farwell in a beautifully animated movie. 90 seconds of pure joy as we watch the history of the model through the eye of a personal story. Whereas the creative treatment was expected, it is the visual imagery that stuns, specifically the choice of animation, plus that lovely "Let it be" version. Be still my beating heart... Please watch the film here!