Volkswagen May Have First Controversial Ad For Sunday’s Big Game

Well the preview of Super Bowl commercials has begun. A lot of companies are giving the viewers a chance to see them ahead of time on their website.  Some are even giving us a chance to pick the ending.  All the companies are hoping for buzz about their commercial before, during and after the game.

This is the first to raise some controversy and it's from Volkswagen.   They showed their commercial online earlier this week, and some people think it's RACIST. The ad is called "Get Happy", and here's the idea. All the office workers are miserable except "Dave", a white guy from Minnesota who's so cheery that he speaks in a Jamaican accent.  Why is he happy?  It's because he drives a VW Beetle. At the end of the commercial, Dave takes his boss and another coworker for a ride in the Bug, and then THEY have Jamaican accents as well. Volkswagen thinks the ad is okay, because they ran it for 100 Jamaicans, and they thought it was alright.  They also consulted a speech coach to make sure the accent was accurate. Just in case the outrage continues, Volkswagen has other ads ready to run in case this doesn't work out.

This brings the question: Is there really outrage or is VW trying to create it's own buzz by creating the controversy?  They hope that you'll check it out for yourself.  It's working so far, I just looked and wrote about it.  They hope you will too.