I saw a couple of posts by other people in the class and had an Ah-ha! moment when I connected the two. One was for a phone personality who you could call when you had questions about VW and the other was for a superhero-celebrity-sponsor idea. Those ideas got me thinking about a VW superhero who could represent the brand and serve as the ‘face of Volkswagen’. The idea is a little bit sillier than what I’ve come to think Volkswagen is, but nonetheless it can still embody the aspects of the brand (and since the directive is “be absurd”, I’m just going to roll with it). “VW Man” (best I could come up with, sorry) could further everyday motoring pleasure by I don’t know, juggling cars during a traffic jam (make your commute a carnival ride!) or whatever. He could drive a “ManMobile” (obviously a tricked out VW) and a regular VW car as his alter ego. He could be a genetically engineered super-human (innovative design?) made in a top-secret VW lab (great opportunity for an origin story commercial or series of background info) and he could be classically good-looking (enduring whatever). I’m thinking tall, dark, and handsome. He sounds fun to draw so I’m going to spend the rest of my 45 minutes on a character design.
This was really fun actually. As I was doing this I was thinking about an origin story, something along the lines of …
Deep in the heart of Germany, under a factory that creates flawless VW cars, an elite group of scientists were creating a flawless human. Born on a cold November day in 1986, he grew up travelling and training. He travelled around the world visiting VW locations and training with some of the greatest masters (show the Dalai Lama etc), preparing for the day when he would become the hero the world needed. Some called him a super-human, some called him a freak, but he prefers another name: he goes by…VW Man. (flash to a relaxed handsome guy in a spandex body suit. He waves somewhat awkwardly and grins a lopsided easy grin “Hi there.”)
I was thinking it could be edited similar to a trailer for an ‘epic superhero movie’ to play up the incongruity of a really easy-going and approachable super hero. He’s just a normal guy, a good guy, not comically over-muscular or intimidating, not brooding or alien. He’s everyone’s super hero, just like VW can be everyone’s car.
Not my favorite idea, but I definitely got out of my comfort zone with this one. It’s sillier, almost goofy, like the “Wings” commercial VW did for the super bowl however long ago. It’s definitely absurd though, so Ta-Da!
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