The little girl is the first person the viewers see in the commercial. She has blonde curly hair and big beautiful eyes; she is pretty, well dressed, and most importantly innocent and vulnerable. She is the ideal “Hollywood” image of childhood that every parent can relate to. This is what the whole commercial is based around. Volkswagen take advantage of the girl’s vulnerability and innocence and place her in a dangerous situation, knowing that the viewers will feel the need to protect her. They confront her with many dangers such as the man ranting on about judgement day, the broken-down car, and the police arresting criminals. They know she is scared and in need of protection since when the camera is looking from the girl’s point of view, the footage is very chaotic, this is at great contrast to the very calm and smooth footage shown form the viewers’ point of view, and also to the footage from the godlike view of the whole scene. When the girl gets into the car with her mother, the viewers know she is safe. They instantly know her to be the girl’s mother and they associate the Passat with the mother’s maternal instincts to protect the child. This indicates that the viewers’ children will also be as safe in the car as they are with their mothers, fulfilling the safe part of the brief.
The viewers never completely see the girl’s mother or father. They see that the mother is elegant, stunning, young, attractive, and has beautiful hair, and that is it. Volkswagen does not want to create a stereotypical owner of the Passat, so they only show us what we need to see. In addition, they only show the mother through various parts of the car, for instance through the wing and rear view mirrors. By doing this, Volkswagen manage to connect the mother to the car, promoting the car as elegant, stunning, attractive, and beautiful.
The fact that the mother is driving the car and not the father fails to limit the range of potential buyers. Actually, it increases it by indicating that the Passat is not just a man’s car. This combined with the little girl comfortably in the back of the car, successfully portrays the Passat as a family car, fulfilling the family car section of the brief.
To fulfil the last section of the brief, to portray the Passat as reliable, Volkswagen compare it with the other car that has broken down. The fact that Passat has not broken down suggests that it is reliable. This is reinforced with the slogan at the end, which reads: “If only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen”. This statement presumes that everybody knows that a Volkswagen is reliable. Those who don’t are forced to conform to everybody else and to “know” that a Volkswagen is reliable. It leaves no place for the viewers to make their minds up, just tells what they know.
Volkswagen’s self-confessed brilliant reputation is backed up by the police officer, who stops all the traffic just to let the Volkswagen Passat pass. This indicates that the Passat lives up to the Volkswagen reputation, since a figure of authority is abandoning the rules of his work, to let the Volkswagen Passat through. This also indicates how safe the family is in the car: they have a police officer helping them on their way.
This idea that the Passat is very safe is emphasised by the contrast that is created between the danger of the streets, and the safety of the car. The broken down car along with the man ranting on about judgement day and the criminals show the viewers just how much danger the little girl is in when out of the car. The montage technique is used to reinforce and emphasise this contrast between danger and safety, as well as innocence and experience, noise and silence, chaos and calm, and slow and fast. The first in each pair represents the threats to the girl, and the second represents the safety of the car.
Obviously sound was also used contrast noise with silence. The sound track was courtesy of Billie Holiday, the lyrics are as follows:
“Them that’s got, shall have.
Them that’s not, shall use.
So the Bible says, and it’s still is news.
Momma may have, Papa may have,
But God bless the child that’s got his own.”
Billie Holiday was a popular back jazz singer in the 1950s. Her calm, laid back and easygoing voice, singing these bitter lyrics reinforces the contrast between calm and chaos. Billie Holiday was used to suggest that anyone could “achieve” the car just as Billie Holiday achieved success in a racist society, that not just the privileged could have the privilege of the car, just as the unprivileged Billie Holiday had the privilege of singing in Carnegie Hall. By using Billie Holiday, the cultural diversity of the advert was also increased, once again maintaining the largest possible range of potential buyers. The song has a very slow tempo, creating a calm feeling, this is of great contrast to the chaos in the streets, and helps emphasise the tranquillity and safety of the car.
To further emphasise this contrast of the noise in the streets and the silence in the car, multiple sources of sound tracks have been added, such as the man ranting on about judgement day, and the police officer blowing his whistle. These were actual live sounds recorded on the streets of New York. These sounds combined with the montage effect, causes the viewers to feel agitated while the girl is outside of the car, and then calm when she is inside, making them associate the Passat with this calm feeling.
This calm feeling is reinforced with the fact that the advert has been filmed in black and white. This gives adds style and class to the commercial as well as giving it a vintage effect. It also encourages the viewer to relate it to documentaries, making the commercial seem more truthful.
The advert is effective, in that it does promote the Volkswagen Passat as a safe and reliable family car, and I do believe that some families, after watching the advert, went out and purchased a Passat. The media has an incredible amount of control over our lives; they have the power to form peoples’ opinions on not just a product, but a whole subject. They have the power to tell us what is cool and what is not, what we should watch, what we should say, and what we should wear. Why would “what we should buy” and “what we should drive” be any different? The 1989 Volkswagen Passat advertising campaign did successfully convinced people that the Passat was a safe and reliable car, and made a marked increase on sales. This proves that the advert was effective, and caused families after watching the advert to go out and purchase a Passat.
