Never Have Leaky Vw Valve Covers Again
These days, we recall of the Volkswagen Beetle as an emblem of 1967's Summertime of Love. The well-known counterculture social miracle put San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood on the map — and information technology helped the Beetle solidify its place equally a hippie symbol. But at that place's more to the "love problems" than its late '60s success story. In fact, the VW Beetle benefited greatly from i of the nigh successful rebranding efforts in modern history.
The Origins of Volkswagen: World War Two
While the VW Protrude is now synonymous with gratuitous dearest and the 1960s, the vehicle's darker origins began a good three decades prior. In 1933, white supremacist and German dictator Adolf Hitler appear what he called a "people's motorization," and, the following twelvemonth, the Reich Clan of the German Machine Industry officially challenged the country'south automotive manufacture to develop a "volks wagen," or people'south car.
But this alleged "car of the people" effort was something of a propaganda-minded guise. That is, Ferdinand Porsche developed the vehicle under the motto "strength through pleasure," and aimed to make an all-terrain vehicle for Nazi military apply. In fact, the machine's brochure stated that it was "suitable not only for personal use only likewise for transport and item military purposes." By May of 1938, Volkswagen's Wolfsburg-based manufactory opened and began churning out vehicles.
After Nazi forces were defeated in 1945, Frg'due south automotive production factories were put under the command of the British government. More than 10,000 Beetles were manufactured by the stop of 1946, and, by the end of the decade, Volkswagen had sold around one million Beetles. In fact, it was also during this time that the now-iconic Volkswagen model was dubbed the "Beetle."
Undoubtedly, distancing the Beetle from its unsettling, dark roots was a big undertaking, but, inside less than two decades, the vehicle would be reclaimed. And transformed into a counterculture symbol for anti-war, anti-government folks who historic free dearest.
Beetle-Mania: Marketing Was Key to the VW Beetle's Success
In 1972, the Wolfsburg manufactory hit a notable milestone: It had manufactured 15,007,034 Beetles, thus surpassing the amount of Ford Model T cars. And so, how did this rebranded vehicle's popularity surge? The VW Beetle was affordable — and compact.
First off, it's air-cooled engine, for example, was much smaller and lighter than a water-cooled organisation. This notable characteristic also fabricated it much easier to maintain and repair the motorcar. Not only was the Beetle less of an investment upfront, just information technology didn't price owners a ton overtime. Additionally, The Protrude'southward size was a fundamental factor in its popularity in the United states.
Crafted past the New York-based ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach, what's been dubbed "i of the greatest advertising campaigns of all fourth dimension" helped make the Protrude the "biggest selling foreign-fabricated car in America throughout the '60s" (via BBC). This 1959 "Think Modest" campaign was a departure from traditional automotive advertisement, which was full of rant, fantasy and illustrations of the vehicle. Instead, "Think Small-scale" featured uncomplicated, make clean photographs of the Protrude, presenting it every bit a practical, compact alternative to the muscle cars and gas-guzzlers on the market.
"The message was 1 of smart anti-luxury," a car web log points out. "[And it] took gentle aim at an industry obsessed with superficiality and styling, rather than the substance underneath the car bodies." In many means, it'southward a lot like Apple's initial marketing stance and artful: Keep it minimal and emphasize those everyday needs.
That clever marketing angle, combined with a depression price and quirky appearance, helped cement the Beetle as an early symbol of '60s counterculture. (Well, alongside its cousin, the VW van.) "For the Woodstock generation, driving a Beetle or its larger cousin, the Volkswagen van, was a form of protest against materialism and the gas guzzlers churned out by the big American carmakers," The New York Times notes.
The VW Protrude's Popularity Continues Post-1960s
Beetles were produced in Germany until 1978, later on which production shifted to factories in Brazil and United mexican states. In fact, the terminal Volkswagen Beetle was produced in Mexico in July 2003. By that signal, approximately 30,000 Beetles were produced weekly, a effigy that stands in stark contrast to the i,300,000 Beetles produced every seven days in 1971.
In 1997, Volkswagen introduced the "New Beetle," which, amidst other changes, featured the engine in the front end rather than the rear. The New Protrude was produced until 2003, before becoming the A5 Volkswagen Beetle, which was sold until 2019. (A scandal involving Volkswagen'southward attempted violation of the Clean Air Act certainly didn't help, particularly in the age of green-minded, electric vehicles.)
In total, a staggering 23 million Beetle models were sold over an 83-year period. And then, volition this popular culture icon be back whatsoever time before long? In Dec 2020, the CEO of Volkswagen, Scott Keogh, was asked just that. "Yous know, with the Beetle, never say never," Keogh said. "We're certainly gonna keep its, you know, soul live."
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Source: https://www.reference.com/history/how-vw-beetle-became-emblem-60s?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740005%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex
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