Please come have a look at my new post at the Harvard Business Review Blog.
It looks at the new VW ad, the one that shows a guy slapping hands with everyone he passes.
Look for a cameo appearance (in the post and the ad) from Shirley Ellis.
The post asks whether this ad defines a new approach to cool hunting for the corporation.
Wonderful post, though it feels like agencies have used the rebroadcast model for years.
Of course this isn’t the first homage from an ad agency, nor from VW.
To help Arnold win the VW account back in 1995, we created a brand video, stringing together lots of stock footage, including a little girl blinking (at 2:06) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZmbaI0NLO8
When it came to creating the first real TV spot “Alive”, our production department tracked down that girl and cast her in the new ad (at 0:57) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZgpVNulw50