?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
ARTIST UNKNOWN VOLKSWAGEN. Group of 6 posters. Each approximately 131/2x29 inches. Condition varies, generally A. Paper. By 1959, Volkswagen was selling 100,000 cars per year in America. In July of that year the company decided to change the scale of their business and they began to advertise. They chose the New York firm of DDB (Doyle, Dane, Bernbach), based on the originality of their approach. The little German cars had to compete with the large, garish, gas guzzling American models, and DDB decided to promote the vehicles using a very daring form of humor. Their ads read "lemon," "think small," and "OK, it's ugly. But it gets you there." (see Olivier Darmon's 30 ans de Publicite Volkswagen. Hoebeke, Paris, 1993) The cars were different and the ad campaign was different, and the combination worked. These two lots are the reduced format images that advertising agencies provided for their clients before having billboards printed. They are all good examples of DDB's spirit, and indications of a campaign so successful that Volkswagen is still with the agency.
