Reminiscent of the infamous VW Polo ‘Bomber’ ad a few years ago, now it’s Audi’s turn to get some bootleg treatment in this darkly humoured viral.
This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.
This is the core idea underlying ‘The Fun Theory‘ -- a green awareness/behaviour changing/feel good/virally driven move from VW. Of course its intentions are good and I wish them all the success -- but a branding move it is nonetheless. But fair enough. Car manufacturers have all fallen to the way side to some degree - it’s hard to truly pull your brand away from the focus of topics such as climate change when your brand lies in a category that is essentially a large part of ‘the problem’.
Despite my slight cynicism and distrust towards brands that preach but don’t practice -- I genuinely like this move from VW.
Firstly -- I love the overall transparency of it. The core idea is defined, robust and very appealing -- not to mention horribly in vogue -- and despite the VW branding saying its ‘their intiative‘ (surely people have probably been doing this for a while?) it still feels personable and relatively ‘brand free’.
Secondly, the several viral videos (courtesy of DDB Stockholm) that are driving the campaign really are quite neat. The Fly-on-the-Wall approach makes things much more human and everyday, which sits perfectly with the idea of the whole campaign. And these vids seem to have been tremendously contagious. The Piano staircase has been doing the rounds all over blogland and has notched up a staggering amount of views considering how long the vid has been around for -- apx. 5 million in less than a month.
Definitely more Passat than Polo.
A more recent video that has been uploaded by the team @ The Fun Theory -- whilst not quite as good an execution imo, is still a lot of FUN either way and has a great sense of continuity with the other videos :
So hats off to VW and DDB -- think you’ve pulled this one off.
..you had to after having releasing this though. *shakes head*