Sucheta Dalal :Volkswagen Polo: A hilarious test drive
Sucheta Dalal

Click here for FREE MEMBERSHIP to Moneylife Foundation which entitles you to:
• Access to information on investment issues

• Invitations to attend free workshops on financial literacy
• Grievance redressal

 

MoneyLife
You are here: Home » What's New » Volkswagen Polo: A hilarious test drive
                       Previous           Next

Volkswagen Polo: A hilarious test drive  

May 18, 2010

Polo is being promoted with a clutch of television commercials, each highlighting the car’s road-worthiness, with a healthy dose of humour thrown in

At last, a car ad campaign that makes road sense. Usually all we are stuck with is those predictable shots of cars zooming across the city streets (and this needs to be banned!) and/or women fawning over macho car men (can’t be banned!). And sometimes, a list of technical features (most of which don’t get registered in a 30-second TV commercial).

 

German engineering is perfectly suited for India’s pathetic road conditions. This is all that Volkswagen promises for its hatchback, Polo. And it does that admirably well. This is a good marketing tack. So far, no auto giant has promised this to us, despite the fact that the one thing most of us worry about is this: “Oh, all this tech, the chicks and the razzmatazz is all very well, par yeh gaadi hamaare bakwaas roads par chalegi kya?”

 

Polo is being promoted with a clutch of television commercials, each highlighting the car’s road-worthiness. And the good thing is they have tried to inject some humour in each advert to get rid of the boring road stories. One commercial features the chubby owner checking out the car's ground clearance level by placing an ostrich egg below the car, and then driving over it. The egg is left unharmed, but Mama Ostrich isn’t amused. In another ad, the same chap tests the ruggedness of the car, by taking on a rhinoceros. And yes, nothing happens to the car, but the man runs for his life. And it goes on. Basically the idea is that since the Volkswagen engineers have already tested the Polo in Indian conditions, their customers don’t need to carry out their own tests.

 

Good strategy, it makes sense. And a decent creative execution too. Indian consumers will buy into this. Sure, the production values of the commercials could have been superior (the rhino commercial in particular is pretty shoddily made) but this blemish can be overlooked. Hopefully, other auto makers will take the cue and tell us stories we want to hear. And not lay out cold catalogues and hot babes on the tube.

 

On last thing: I think the trickery of employing wide angle shots to film small cars needs to be banned, as it misleads the consumers on the car’s actual width. The car appears a lot spacier than it is in reality. The Polo commercials are guilty of this subterfuge, and so are those of other car makers, especially when it comes to the hatchbacks. Hope the usually laid-back ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India) is reading in. — Anil Thakraney


-- Sucheta Dalal