VDub was a parody tagline, used in a short series of commercials for German car manufacturer Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...

. As part of a 2006 advertising campaign for Volkswagen, advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Crispin Porter + Bogusky , a member of publicly-traded MDC Partners, is an advertising agency that currently employs around 1,000 people. It was founded in 1965 by Sam Crispin.. Crispin then became partners with Chuck Porter and Alex Bogusky...

created a series of three television commercials directed by Jonas Åkerlund

Jonas Åkerlund

Jonas Åkerlund is a Swedish film and music video director, and drummer. He is best known for directing music videos, which are often mock forms of movie trailers and short films...

, starring Swedish actor Peter Stormare

Peter Stormare

is a Swedish film, stage, voice and television actor as well as a theatrical director, playwright and musician.- Early life :...

 as an effete German engineer named Wolfgang, and German model Zonja Wöstendiek as his assistant Miss Helga. The ads were created as a parody of MTV's Pimp My Ride

Pimp My Ride

Pimp My Ride is a TV show produced by MTV. Each episode consists of taking one car in poor condition and restoring it and customizing it.The original United States version was hosted by rapper Xzibit...

.

The commercials began airing in late February 2006. Prior to the full launch of the TV campaign, the three 30-second spots became something of an internet phenomenon when popular automotive news website Leftlane News uploaded the ads to video distribution service YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

. As of early March 2006, the ads had received over two million views on YouTube. Three years later, that number was over 10 million.

Commercials

Throughout the commercials, Wolfgang appears with his blonde assistant, a guest, and the guest's pimped-out vehicle. After insulting the automobile, he then "un-pimps ze auto" by destroying it, and replacing it with a 2006 Volkswagen GTI

Volkswagen Golf Mk5

The fifth generation Volkswagen Golf Mk5 , built on the Volkswagen Group A5 platform was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in October 2003 and went on sale in Europe one month later. To commemorate this, Wolfsburg was renamed "Golfsburg" for a week. It reached North American markets in June...

, to the surprise of his guest. At the end of the advertisements, Wolfgang flashes a hand sign to create the letters V and W in the same orientation as found in the Volkswagen logo. The hand sign is an imitation of the gang signs popularized by hip-hop culture.

"Crate"

• A Ford Focus ZX3 is crushed by a falling container containing the Volkswagen GTI. The Focus is referred to as a "98 Vatchamacallit" though the Focus was not available in the US (for which the commercials were produced) until 2000.

External links

• "Wrecking Ball" featured on Ads of the World (QuickTime format)
• "Crate" featured on Ads of the World (QuickTime format)
• "Catapult" featured on Ads of the World (QuickTime format)
• Leftlane News
• VW GTI homepage

• GTI spec page with video created featuring VDub's assistant
• Miss Helga's MySpace Page (Video and Soundboard)