Wilco makes me want to steal cars.

[j4lackey]

So these ads DO work....glad you are deciding not to steal one. This particular ad does seem to have more music than the others I have seen. You may want to consult Consumer Reports prior to buying a new car rather than trusting your favorite rock group.

 

LouieB

Buzzkill!

[yermom]

Best looking car thief ever...

 

LouieB

Not too shabby looking lot.

[Reni]

You may want to consult Consumer Reports prior to buying a new car rather than trusting your favorite rock group.

 

LouieB

 

Indeed......or just buy a Honda. Best cars out there.

[Guest tandylacker]

Apparently (and this might be fake) they were going to run this one on the air in Europe Banned VW Commercial. So I guess it could be a lot worse.

 

Oh I wish everyone was comfortable enough with comedy that we could have more ads like that. I might actually quit DVRing everything... well... I probably wouldn't go that far.

 

 

That was so funny.

[LouieB]

Indeed......or just buy a Honda. Best cars out there.

Actually that would be Toyota...which was what all four of my stolen cars were....

 

LouieB

[jdmel]

Actually that would be Toyota...which was what all four of my stolen cars were....

 

LouieB

apparently they just need to work the kinks out of the anti-theft device.

[LouieB]

apparently they just need to work the kinks out of the anti-theft device.

Several were fairly old.....I did work out the kinks..I now use The Club all the time...

 

LouieB

[TheMaker]

it annoys me that such a good song is being used on a not so great commercial

 

Why do you hate Wilco?

 

Seriously, I haven't seen any of these (thank fucking god), but "Thanks I Get," as I predicted, is dead to me. I actually had to delete the MP3 from my PC, since all it means to me now is "VOLKSWAGON DEBATE." I hate it, but there it is.

 

Here's at least one fan (if I'm still allowed to refer to myself thusly) hoping they don't go down this road again. I really don't need to associate each and every Wilco song with a dumb product about which I could not possibly give a flying shit.

[Beltmann]

Seriously, I haven't seen any of these (thank fucking god), but "Thanks I Get," as I predicted, is dead to me. I actually had to delete the MP3 from my PC, since all it means to me now is "VOLKSWAGON DEBATE." I hate it, but there it is.

I know how much you like(d) that song, so I'm (genuinely) sorry that the ad has tarnished it for you.

[LouieB]

Why do you hate Wilco?

 

Seriously, I haven't seen any of these (thank fucking god), but "Thanks I Get," as I predicted, is dead to me. I actually had to delete the MP3 from my PC, since all it means to me now is "VOLKSWAGON DEBATE." I hate it, but there it is.

 

Here's at least one fan (if I'm still allowed to refer to myself thusly) hoping they don't go down this road again. I really don't need to associate each and every Wilco song with a dumb product about which I could not possibly give a flying shit.

Wow...okay....sorry....(maybe the theme songs for these threads should be "Hate It Here".)

 

There are now countless songs, good ones too (Lust for Life is a great song....) that have been used and re-used to death. It is sort of unfortunate that this has occured, but honestly it isn't the end of the world, but it is the end of Wilco's innocence I suppose. The afformentioned song is a great tune that was written for Solomon Burke and will ever remain so, rather than the VW song. But I understand your feelings to an extent, just not as deeply as you feel it. Sure I started this thread (well TG started it after we saw the Either Way ad about 4 or 5 times on Sunday), but at this point there are very few musicians whose music is not being used in commercial fashion (that includes TV theme songs for me, but not movie soundtracks.)

 

If you want an antidote to all this check out the movie Once, which was made for a tiny amount of money in 17 days and deals with musicians in a very pure creative mode. Even that I suspect someday will be co-opted by some commercial venture, but for now it is pure and sweet and innocent and one of the best movies you will see all year.

 

LouieB

[foolnrain97]

At least he's not driving a pickup truck out of a volcano with lava and flying rocks and explosions and american flags and stuff listening to wilco.

Wait a minute - THAT WOULD BE AWESOME

 

yes, yes it would be.

I like the Either Way commercial. Definitely the best of the lot.

 

I agree.

 

Does anyone know if John Cusack is the narrator of the wedding one?

[bjorn_skurj]

It isn't the end of the world, sure. But now "Lust for Life," a song I once really loved, is now forever associated with stupid white people on cruises who think their mom's spinning classes are worthy of being inscribed on Mayan ruins. Bleh.

[Dreamin']

And a perfectly good song about stalking has been ruined by that hideous Swiffer ad.

 

... Although it was pretty funny when Wendy's used a song about masturbation to sell burgers.

[Edie]

I wanted to post this last week, but didn't want to start a new thread. Thanks TG

 

From last week's BusinessWeek and widely quoted in the automotive press. Seems that Wilco may have a bigger battle on it's hands that just making sure that the fans don't hate them for "selling out".

 

Rx for VW USA

VW is failing badly in the U.S. But does the company understand what its North American customers want?

 

by David Kiley

 

Volkswagen of America CEO Stefan Jacoby will start his new job on Sept. 1. But he flew into Volkswagen's Auburn Hills (Mich.) headquarters the week of July 9 to meet with the senior management team he is inheriting.

 

It's no wonder he's in a hurry to start work. Volkswagen lost almost $900 million last year in the U.S., and around the same the year before. This year, sales of Volkswagens are flat, the U.S. dollar is a little weaker than it was last year against the euro, and VW has had a heck of a time finding more fixed costs to cut in its American operation. That is going to make it awfully difficult to reach new Volkswagen Chairman Martin Winterkorn's target of breakeven in the U.S. by 2009.

 

Jacoby, 49, in the late 1980s briefly worked for Volkswagen in the U.S., but he is no expert on the hardscrabble U.S. automotive market. Most of his experience has been in Europe, for both Volkswagen and Mitsubishi, as well as Asia where he has had senior posts for VW.

 

Volkswagen sales are up 2.7% this year, but that's misleading. Sales are off by more than 100,000 units a year from 2003. Sales of the Jetta are off 6.3%, and Passat sales are off 30%. Touareg sales are down 28%. The New Beetle is down 20%. Incentive spending on those four models by Volkswagen exceeds the average spending for each of those segments, according to Edmunds.com. That's anathema to Volkswagen, which has historically discouraged incentive spending to maintain brand integrity and resale values.

 

What's propping up sales even 2%? The addition of the Eos, which VW didn't sell last year, as well as an 80% boost in Rabbit sales (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/28/06, "The Dawn of the VW Eos"). Ironically, ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky's idea of renaming the old Golf the "Rabbit," the name it carried in the 1970s and the early 1980s, was controversial inside and outside of VW (see BusinessWeek.com, 10/23/06, "VW's Rabbit Redux"). But it seems to have paid off. VW brought a new Golf/Rabbit to the U.S. last year, but it had already been on sale in Europe for two years and so there was no buzz on the car in America until it was renamed.

 

Volkswagen's problems in the U.S. are difficult, and could take years to solve

[W(TF)]

Even Wilco can't fix all *that*.