Car Trends Magazine

Hilarious!

Volkswagen breaks a North American campaign for the new Golf GTI that takes a poke at MTV's Pimp My Ride

Featuring a German vixen who seems to have walked straight out of the 70’s, and a German engineer filling Xzibit's Pimp my Ride position, Volkswagen’s Golf GTI new series of commercials take a poke at MTV's successful “Pimp My Ride” show.

The German duo shoot a car out of a catapult in one spot, crush a car with a crate containing the new GTI in another. In the third commercial, they crush a car with a wrecking ball. At the end of these ads, Stormare spouts such gems as "Representing Deutschland", and "German engineering in da haus", and the ads end with the voice-over "Pre-tuned by German engineers".

"There are people that think the culture has gone too far and there’s a bit of a backlash from the Hollywood version. In some way they ruined what was a very organic and very cool thing," said Alex Bogusky, chief creative officer at Miami-based Crispin Porter + Bogusky, a unit of MDC Partners. Targeting males 18 to 49, the campaign includes Internet, outdoor and print iterations, rolling out nationally over the next couple of months.

"Our goal is to make VW famous and relevant again," said Kerri Martin, director of marketing development at VW. "If the Beetle is the heart of the brand, then the GTI is the soul of the brand. It hits on all four things that really have made Volkswagen famous over the years: affordable, German engineering that is fun to drive and a distinctly European style."