Excerpts from the VW video
The carmaker initially described the clip as “creative use” of the Instagram stories format.
(Photo: screenshot)
Frankfurt, Düsseldorf The automaker Volkswagen is a marketing machine. Year after year the company with its many brands (VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat, Porsche) always new models in the market. There can hardly have been a lack of experience when the communications department of the Wolfsburg-based group created a new set of advertising clips for the Golf 8 on Instagram posed. With a video from the series VW however, proceed thoroughly – and get a shit storm online.
It can be seen in the just ten seconds of film a huge light-skinned hand that first maneuvers a dark-skinned man across the street and then flicks it into a hotel. This also bears the name “Petit Colon”, which reminds many users of the dark colonial times.
If you still believe in a coincidence, you should be startled at the latest when the advertising slogan “The New Golf” appears. The letters appear piece by piece; the first five are N, E, G, E and R. You can hardly put racism in a video more clearly.
But that’s not all. The car manufacturer did not even understand the criticism of many viewers of the racist advertising clip. Volkswagen comments as a comment on outraged reactions that the contribution can be misunderstood in such a way that it is “surprised and shocked” Instagram. After all, it is a “creative way of dealing with the Instagram Storys format.
This Wednesday, the company is striking a different note. The video that Volkswagen also uses on Instagram Facebook had played, was stopped everywhere after the first clues on Tuesday, explains a VW spokesman on request.
The news of the film, which was only ten seconds long, had already caused a lot of waves. Nobody wanted to believe the reasoning with the “creative handling” of the company, which as the foundation of the National Socialists always claims a special responsibility for racism. In a statement, VW tries to save what can hardly be saved.
“We can understand the outrage and anger in response to the video,” it says. And further: “Without question: The video is wrong and tasteless. We distance ourselves from it and apologize for it. We will explain how this could happen – and draw the consequences. ”The press department is taking the topic out of the hands of the marketing people. The marketing department is actually responsible for the production and distribution of such advertising videos.
It is not Volkswagen’s first odyssey. A few months ago, CEO Herbert Diess had the management team stopped with the slogan “Ebit makes free”to pay more attention to profitability. The sentence is borrowed from the banner “Work makes you free”, which the National Socialists had attached to concentration camps.
Without a doubt, other corporate mishaps have also occurred in the past when dealing with social networks. But VW’s golf clip is more than a nuisance. It could also become a brake on business: Because of the corona crisis, car sales are a problem, which is particularly true for the Golf 8 made in Wolfsburg. Racism is unlikely to push sales.