VW channels 1960s Microbus in campaign for new electric van

Volkswagen is hyping the debut of its newest electric vehicle by recalling the classic gas-powered car it is based on, the 1960s-era VW Microbus, beloved by hippies everywhere. The new all-electric van, called the ID Buzz, will be unveiled at an event today in Huntington Beach, California, that VW will also livestream on its homepage. The vehicle, already on sale in Europe, is expected to be available in the U.S. in 2024 and is part of VW’s massive investment in EVs. As part of the U.S. reveal, the automaker and lead U.S. agency Johannes Leonardo today began an outdoor campaign that plays off the two-tone paint design of the old Microbus. The brand began teasing it last month with out-of-home ads simply featuring two colors—but no car. Now the ID Buzz is being added, along with copy such as “back with a smile” and “two colors one spirit.” The outdoor ads, including digital billboards with video, will run in Los Angeles and New York, including Times Square. “Our goal was to make the campaign as simple and iconic as the original bus,” said Jonathan Santana, executive creative director of Johannes Leonardo, in a statement. “Centered on its classic two-tone paint job accompanied with smart witty headlines in true VW style, we reacquaint America to this original spirit, now gone electric.” It is not the first time VW has referenced the classic bus in modern marketing. When Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia died in 1995, VW ran a print ad with an image of the Microbus shedding a tear. As for the ID Buzz, VW has been teasing it for a while—including in 2019 when it was included in a campaign that ran as the automaker was trying to recover from its emissions scandal. That effort, also by Johannes Leonardo, revived VW’s anti-establishment past with classic copy lines like "Lemon" and "Think Small." Below, more images from the new campaign.

VW channels 1960s Microbus in campaign for new electric van

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