Mindful Advertising

With over 32 million views in 3 weeks and still counting, Volkswagen’s adorable “The Force” commercial is dominating YouTube. It has officially gone Viral, and has even surpassed the famous Old Spice Man commercial that has been out for over a year.

With this year’s Super Bowl 30 second TV spot running over 3 million dollars, Volkswagen decided to run their 30 second commercial instead of the 60 second spot to promote the new 2012 Passat.

Regardless of the commercial length, the cuteness of the Darth Vader boy has captured the hearts of viewers and hit just right with the company’s target market. Big props to Volkswagen’s marketing team in identifying the essence of their audience, identifying their ultimate desires and capturing their attention with just the right amount of cuteness and funniness.

Over the years, so many companies struggle making that perfect recipe of a commercial that is funny, cute and memorable, while simultaneously not taking away from the actual advertised product or service, and this year Volkswagen was able to do just that.

When deciding what to do in order to promote the new Passat, the company took a chance and picked a very iconic movie (Star Wars) to promote the family sedan.

First, in their ingenious move the company selected a movie that is a perfect fit with their target market, who are middle/upper class younger families who grew up watching the original Star Wars movies.

Second, the company picked a younger boy to run his imagination wild with the power of “the force”—a concept that every family with a younger child can relate too. A child that is cute, funny and imaginative, with just the right amount of mischief and trouble to surprise you. It certainty hit the right spot with our family. (This of course doesn’t mean that I’ll be running out to buy a Passat anytime soon.)

And last, in what everyone would consider the “minor details” that the majority of viewers will not notice or analyze but more than anything add on to the ingenuity and perfection of this commercial is the subliminal messages of the household setting. The ad was set in a “perfect/typical” American upscale home environment with mom staying at home (making dinner in the kitchen, taking care of a young child), dad coming home from work, well dressed in professional business clothing carrying an upscale leather briefcase, driving an “upscale” new car. Perfect American family that “everyone” desires!

Volkswagen did a great job in capturing the essence of their target market, their desires and their needs, with just the right amount of subliminal messaging to further enforce the “upscale” positioning of their product and its perfect fit into your lifestyle.