Polo Explosion
By UsaydThe latest Internet hoax has Volkswagen officials threatening legal action against a pair of British ad men.
Volkswagen denies it sanctioned a video circulating on the Internet that depicts a suicide bomber in one of their cars.
The video shows a man dressed in camouflage and a black and white checkered kaffiyeh, like the one worn by Yassar Arafat, leaving a building and getting into a VW Polo. The polo is a much-smaller version of the VW Golf sold in the United States.
The man parks the car in front of an outdoor cafe packed with people. The ad then shows the man pushing what appears to be a detonator. The bomb goes off, but the car contains the explosion. The hoax commercial ends with the tagline: “Polo. Small but tough.”
The spoof is apparently the work of Lee and Dan, a pair of British ad men. Although the duo has done legitimate work for companies such as Ford and Casio, they are known for their outrageous ads.
Their website, LeeandDan.com, “Is currently offline for essential maintenance.�
The New York Post reported last week that Dan, who declined to provide a last name, claimed the video was “accidentally” released on the Internet. Dan stressed that Volkswagen had “nothing to do with it,” the Post wrote.
The ad, however, was filmed on 35mm film and would have cost tens of thousands of dollars to make. That has led users to speculate in Internet blogs and chat rooms that the video was part of a “viral� campaign intended to generate buzz.
Companies have been known to obscure the connection between themselves and potentially controversial ads by claiming the work was unauthorized or accidentally released.
That doesn’t appear to be the case this time.
Volkswagen officials said no one from Volkswagen or any of its ad agencies was involved in any way with the video’s production. They said the ad was in incredibly bad taste and added that they are planning to take legal action.
