“Think small.” : How this VW ad copy reversed the game

Suppose in the middle of this pandemic, you were contacted to host a pool party for over 2,000 people. How difficult, insensible, and unfeasible would that be?

Bill Bernbach faced something similar in the late 1950s.

No, the situation was not as severe, but very similar. His advertisement agency was contacted to sell something that was exactly the opposite of the current market demand.

Let's rewind the clip a bit and go to the end of the 1950s.

It was fifteen years after world war II. America had become a world and consumer superpower. And that was also the era of "America's obsession with muscle cars". Automobiles were not just a means of transport now, they also served as a fashion statement and status symbol. Bigger cars were in demand for the requirements of growing families.

And that is when Bill Bernbach's agency Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) was contacted to promote a car that was exactly the opposite of all these demands.

Volkswagen's "Beetle", a small, compact, and "ugly-looking" car.

Just like you should expect, Bernbach did not turn it down!

What madness. Right?

But what was DDB's master plan for this campaign?

"Think small"

Yes, you heard it right. That's what they did. They told the audience to think small. And the campaign did not just raise the sales, but was also termed as "The greatest ad campaign of the 20th century".

This copy produced by Helmut Krone and Julian Koenig started a kind of creative revolution in the advertisement industry.

Let's dissect this piece and find out how it played with consumer psychology.

• The poster

Unlike the general standard of that time, this advertisement wasn't printed in colour, but in black and white. It made it stand out and immediately catch the audience's eyes.

• The headline

"Think small." Why wouldn't this raise curiosity in the mind of readers who are used to read promising and fancy ad headlines? It worked as a hook and instantly grabbed attention.

• The design

The poster had a small print of the model Beetle and a lot of white space. The minimalism and size accurately reflecting the product. And thus making a genuine and truthful impression in consumers' minds.

The car pointed towards the text, directing readers subconsciously to read the text.

• The text

The text font was again very small resonating with the product idea. Once all the hooks had worked and got the audience reading the text description, the ad got into the business without letting them know so. Every line of the body then kept undermining the value of the product but at the same time making the audience reconsider their choice of other brands. What a beauty!

Undoubtedly, the copy did wonders and made a German company the most popular and successful brand in the US.