Volkswagen’s Promise

A new ad will start appearing for Volkswagen. The tagline and theme is keeping your promises and is remarkable for several reasons.

After admitting that they cheated about emission for their diesel cars, why should anyone believe their ad message?
No one has been fired or gone to jail from management.
What is the reason to believe this claim of keeping their promise, when they just demonstrated that as a corporation, they don’t live up to this standard?

I’m shocked that they would try and act as if no one is paying attention. But, perhaps the car buying public isn’t focused on lying, cheating or misleading claims by companies anymore. Perhaps this mistrust is factored into purchase decisions or, the general public just doesn’t care.

Advertising, in general, is filled with problems.

It is like an uninvited interruption that tries to talk to you without permission. Imagine sitting in a hotel lobby and having an insurance salesman come up to you and start asking you about your life insurance needs. What right would an insurance salesman have to interfere? In today’s DVR world, even clever advertising is interruptive, annoying and highly ineffective. There are better ways to invest in rebuilding a reputation.

Imagining a corporation admitting they screwed up and spending millions on buying goodwill through community service or corporate philanthropy versus slick messages. That tells a different story about trying to earn back trust. Look at what Chipotle is doing to regain trust by closing stores for training their staff on sanitation.

[Tweet “Action BEFORE advertising always makes more sense”]

A Personal Story about Volkswagen

On January 1, 1980, a Volkswagen saved my life

Thirty-six years ago, my wife and I were driving friends to show them our bakery in Malvern, Pennsylvania from our home is Strafford. My yellow VW Rabbit got caught on the side of the road and flipped over. We landed on our windshield but miraculously didn’t have a scratch. We slide upside down for at least a few hundred yards.

The seat belts system saved our lives and held us in place, albeit upside down.

So I have a reason to trust VW that goes beyond any message they might put in an ad. However, I won’t buy another car from them because they haven’t given me any reason to trust that they aren’t cheating me and perhaps skimping somewhere where they said they wouldn’t.

Brands represent promises kept. When they are broken, it’s almost impossible to win back trust. Even if they once saved your life. Advertising isn’t the way to fix this brand’s problem. Although a lovely ad, I have a difficult time buying their story.

What do you think of using advertising to solve their brand’s reputation problem?