Author: Elizabeth Blake

Advice is kind of tricky. Lots of people try to give advice, even when it isn’t wanted, and most people get insulted if their advice isn’t taken (looking at you, mom). Most advice is offered with good intentions. “Just trying to help” is a phrase I hear often. And I’ll tell you a secret: I’m terrible at taking advice. I really don’t like being told what to do and most advice kind of sounds like that so I typically find myself resistant even to the most well-meaning words of wisdom. I have a listening problem. I interrupt people. Hypocritically, I probably give advice far too often. I’m not wise or learned by any stretch, so I don’t have much room to talk, really. Anyway, where am I going with this? Well, poor recommendation is pretty common, so I figured it would be funny to play up the proliferation of ‘bad advice’. My idea is this, an ad where drivers talk about all the bad advice they’ve gotten related to cars and driving.

BAD ADVICE
“They never check these meters.”
“Ignore the sign, you can totally park there.”
“It doesn’t count if you’re only inside for five minutes. You have a time handicap.”

“Turn down this street. The one way sign is for the street we’re on.”
“You should get that airbag, it’s cheaper.”
“It’s the best radio on the market, you just haven’t heard of it cause they don’t even need to advertise, that’s how good it is.”

“Don’t fill up yet, we can totally make it,”
“I heard the tow-fee is half off on fridays if you flash the driver.”
“Just put the bottles in the back seat, they’ll be fine.”

“It didn’t really need seatbelts anyway.”

“Try driving with your knees when you need to apply makeup.”
“No, ignore the GPS, I know the way.”
“Go this way, it’s a shortcut.”

GOOD ADVICE:
“Get a VW, it’ll last longer.”
“You should read the manual for installing that car-seat, just in case.”
“It’s a speed limit, not a speed suggestion.”
“Be nice to the officer anyway, he has a gun.”

“Get a hotel instead of a motel. It’s worth the extra fifty bucks.”
“Trust me, don’t drink the tap water.”
“Look it up before you go.”
“Yeah, you should go vote.”

I like that each of these have a story. They could all be together in one ad or each could be a story line where the situation freezes or something and “BAD ADVICE” pops up. It could then say “but this is good advice:” and talk about VW.

So obviously a lot goes into making a VW car, and the “Lemon” ad campaign in the sixties really played that up. Talking about how many different people are involved in creating a car gave an old idea I had lying around a new shine. This could be done in both print and video, but basically it’d be called “what we’re made of” and it would be a silhouette of an iconic Beetle, but the silhouette would be made by people. Factory workers in hard hats, inspectors with clipboards, CEOs and designers and engineers and, most importantly, the people who own and drive VWs; all bent and scrunched and posed to make the shadow or outline of a VW car that they all worked to make happen.

For a video I had more of a play-up in mind, start with a shot of the shadow of what we think is a car but then zoom or pan or whatever and show that it’s really composed of cleverly situated people.

Here’s a cartoony version that could be the print one:

Well, this is what I ended up with. The concept is better than the execution but that fault lies in my drawing skills. It bugs me that you cant see the iconic shape really.

I’ve been having a lot of deja vu lately and I’m not sure how I should feel about it. It’s very strange and usually only lasts a moment or so, but I’m curious. So I did some research because, what causes deja vu anyway?

Deja vu itself is neurologically fascinating and there are a number of theories about what exactly happens that causes the unshakeable sense of recognition. One theory is that your brain is recording events as they occur and they can sometimes become a memory-in-progress so the brain is ‘remembering’ something as it happens. It could also be an overlap between the neurological systems responsible for short-term memory and those responsible for long-term memory. So basically deja vu is an anomaly of memory. What an interesting thought. Somewhere along the neurological pathways in my brain responsible for recall, there is a persistent short circuit and that’s what is causing my deja vu. An interesting and related phenomena is jamais vu, which is the inverse of deja vu where you experience a sudden unfamiliarity with something familiar (like all of the times when I look at a common word and it suddenly seems incredibly strange and foreign). Here I thought I had memories that were lost in my subconscious and would only resurface for a brief instant when really my wires were just a little crossed and my brain was confusing itself.

So how can I relate this to VW? I’ve been playing with the everyday in ‘everyday motoring pleasure’ because everyday things are generally boring, so maybe seeing them in a new light (like for the first time, or again and again with deja vu) can make for an interesting ad. Hmm…

There’s a Switchfoot song that kind of inspires me called “Faust Midas and Myself” about a man who wakes up in someone else’s life and I want to use a similar theme. So say a thirty-something guy wakes up one day, it’s a gloomy overcast day. He eats oatmeal for breakfast, goes about his commute (which includes sitting in traffic), has an uneventful workday, more commute, TV dinner, goes to bed. The same guy wakes up the next day and everything is slightly different. It’s sunny out, his girlfriend/wife is slightly hotter, he has a great hair day, he drives a VW instead of a junker, he doesn’t work in a cubicle, his favorite song comes on the radio during his commute and he jams out comically, whatever. Basically it’s a snapshot of how a VW would make every day a little better because it puts the motoring pleasure into your everyday. That could even be a slogan or something.

This is a sweet little nugget of an idea that I can see being much more fully developed as a series. It could be different people experiencing this phenomena (a stressed mom for example), situations where a VW makes something ‘everyday’ more pleasurable (like how Fun Theory improves quality of life by making ‘good’ things like recycling fun), or something else entirely. I’m leaving some loose ends so I can expend on the concept later.

So obviously I’ve been on something of a childhood kick recently but I don’t really care, I’m finding my inner child again and it’s enlightening. Anyway, all this talk of archetypes has me thinking a lot about fairy tales and bedtime stories. At the beginning of the semester I checked some books of fairy tales out from the library and while I haven’t really had time to read much of anything, I’ve been talking about them an awful lot. I did get the chance to read some of the stories by Hans Christian Anderson and I’m more than a little bit too familiar with the somewhat gruesome tales by the Brothers Grimm, so I know my fair share of the classics. And I can say there are definitely clear patterns. The male hero (usually a prince, knight or soldier) wins the heart of the maiden (usually a queen or princess, or else unusually beautiful) by saving her from some monster/villain/life threatening situation/curse. While there are some variations regarding the quest or trials the hero must endure, the end is most commonly the predictable ‘happily ever after’ we’ve come to expect (thanks, Disney). So what’s my point here? Well, I guess I’m acknowledging that there’s nothing really new here. My ‘guy chases girl and eventually gets her’ post (22) isn’t unique, really, it’s the same basic formula as every other bedtime story with a happy ending. But so what? It can still be successful at conveying a message (VW helps you get the girl 😉 ), it just uses a tried-and-true method to do so. One of the reasons the ‘hero saves the maiden from the monster’ storyline is so popular is because it’s universal. Everyone knows it and understands. It works because it taps into the desire for ‘justice’ and ‘true love’ to triumph over all that deep down, most all of us have. And I’m going to exploit that. I’m going to write a (potentially cheesy) bedtime story, involving a VW, using that strategy. Here goes.

A man and a little girl are in a little girl’s bedroom, with the girl (let’s say she’s five) tucked into bed in her cute little PJs and the dad sitting by her bed next to a bookcase full of children’s books. He asks her what she wants to hear tonight and reaches towards the bookself. “NO.” she demands, “I want to hear one of your stories.” “My stories? Those aren’t bedtime stories.” “Pleeeease?” Who can resist a five-year-old’s puppydog eyes? “Okay, but it’s going to be boring.” She snuggles into her covers and blinks at him with eager anticipation.

“Once upon a time, in a not so far away land, there lived a boy.” “Was he a prince?” “No, he was just a boy.” “Was he five?” “No, he was a teenager.” “That’s not a boy, that’s a big kid.” “Well he was still a boy to everyone besides five year old little girls.” he says as he gently tweaks her nose. She giggles and he goes on, “ANYway,” he gives her a dirty look as if she’s going to interrupt again and she giggles with a finger over her lips and snuggles deeper into the covers “the boy loved a girl very much but she didn’t know he existed.” “Why not?” “Shhhh, I’m getting there.” He honks her nose this time. More giggles. “The girl didn’t notice the boy because he didn’t have a nice shiny new ride like some of the other boys.” “You mean a horsey?” “No, those other boys had cars.” “Oh.” “But anyway, the boy loved the girl very much and wanted nothing more than for her to love him back, but he didn’t have a car, so she didn’t even talk to him.” “Ahww, poor boy.” “But wait, he had a plan. He decided he would get a car. He would get a car so that the girl would notice him. And so he got a job. It was an icky job and he hated it, but he wanted the money so he could buy a car and the girl would notice him.” “Why was it icky?” “Because he had to mop floors and scrub really old dirty dishes and other gross things.” “Ewww.” “Yeah. But he did it, because he loved the girl. Well one day, two years later, he dumped his piggy bank out on his bed and counted up all the money and it was enough! So he went out and he bought a car, and it wasn’t as shiny as those other boys’ cars but he loved it anyway.” “What kind of car was it?” “It was a Volkswagen Bus.” “What’s a bus?” “A van, like the one your daddy used to drive.” “Ohhh.” “So anyway, at school that next week the boy went up to the girl and asked her out and she just looked at him and said, ‘do you even have a car?’ ‘Yes!’ he replied, but she just rolled her eyes and walked away. The boy was heartbroken. He had a ride but the girl still wouldn’t love him, so that summer he took a roadtrip across the country and met tons of cool and interesting other girls, and one was even better than the girl who broke his heart, and they fell in love. And they even got married and had a beautiful little girl named Katie.” “That’s my name!” “Yes it is sweetheart.” “And did they all live happily ever after?” “Yes they did.” “Okay. I like that story.” “Me too sweetie.” He leans over the bed and kisses her on the forehead, “good night, Katie.” “Good night Daddy.” He leaves and as he softly closes her bedroom door and turns to see his wife leaning against the wall grinning. “I like that story too.” “And they all” he kisses her “lived happily” she kisses him “ever after” a long kiss and they break away grinning.

This one is super cute and yes I am too cheesy to handle, whatever. It’s romantic and touching and gets the point across. It’s basically saying VW helps you find true love. It’s lasting value and pleasure all rolled into one.