The story goes that while sitting at a restaurant table in Munich during the summer of 1932, Adolf Hitler designed the prototype for what would become the almost universally successful Beetle design for Volkswagen (or “car of the people”). At that time only the very wealthy owned cars so it was a pretty shrewd move by the future chancellor to not only push the notion that all people should be able to own a car but to start the process of actually making such a thing a reality.

Der Fuhrer mandated that smart design could allow for reliability, personal enjoyment, and vacation travel. Hitler then passed his design idea on to his car constructing professionals, reminding them that it must carry two adults and three children, go up to 60 miles per hour, get at least 33 miles per gallon, and finally cost only 1,000 reichsmarks(or approx $230 US dollars at the time). Truly, a car for the people.

Anyway, as is fairly well-known other “pursuits” eventually took precedence for Herr Hitler and the factory that was supposed to be building the bugs was instead dedicated to producing military vehicles. The people's car more or less fell by the wayside during World War II.

Cut to 2008 and VW is determined to re-invigorate its somewhat sagging brand, hoping to triple US sales by 2018. Ambitious? Very much so as sales were down 6% in the first two months of this year vs. the same period a year ago, and 2007 sales were down 5% from 2006. VW, Europe's largest automaker is ranked way down at #18 in terms of US sales. Yikes!

So to accomplish this Herculean feat they’ve created a whole new campaign starring "Max," a perfectly restored 1964 black Bug. In the TV ads, Max speaks with a glorious German accent and plays a Merv Griffin-like talk-show host. He conducts interviews with an ingenious collection of celebrities. First up is supermodel Heidi Klum, then Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame, Napster founder Shawn Fanning and don’t forget the apple of der Faderland’s eye, David Hasselhoff. They even have an ad running the weekend of the NCAA Men’s basketball Final Four featuring ex-college basketball coach Bobby Knight, which will most certainly display his amazing ability to calmly restrain his famously volcanic temper when confronted by, well, anything at all.

The Heidi Klum ad that has run is great. It shows a stark white studio populated by a small band, a slightly raised stage and a chair facing “Max” the black beetle. Heidi comes in and the fawning begins. The back and forth is so insipidly perfect that it’s as if they’re channeling every late 70’s chat show perfectly. Heidi goes on and on about all the great things VW cars have and Max responds with a smugly self-evident “It’s vat de people vant.” As Heidi continues to flirt with Max the mutual admiration society love fest nears its zenith when she comments on how “German engineering is so sexy.” Max, the black bug then begins to turn red. Heidi asks if he is blushing to which he responds “No I’m not.”

The ad is funny and quirky and cool, meaning folks will definitely watch it and probably even enjoy it. To keep the party going they went and built five “Max” clones complete with internal voice-boxes and plan to ship them all around the USA (and Canada too, I hope) to make him famous.

The really interesting thing is how VW are really choosing to play up the “heritage” nature of their brand. I can’t find overall fault with that specifically - they do have a great pedigree and all - but they are more or less obligated to ensure the history lesson doesn’t extend too far back. I can’t imagine images of a screaming Hitler are something VW wants anyone thinking about.

Luckily when you have an ad campaign that has actually gone out of its way to craft a place in it for “The Hoff” you’re not likely to have a lot of history buffs analyzing, or even watching, your commercials.

It is a good lesson in marketing though. Hitler wanted to build the car to give the people what he felt they wanted. This campaign openly states that their brand is all about giving the people what they want. So if there are any individuals out there nursing any secret global takeover plans or ambitions focused on world domination I would suggest that “giving the people what they want” might be a fairly successful strategy to start things off with. What you do after that is entirely up to you.