The car company favored by National Socialists has been running an ad where one fellow slugs another and says “Silver One.” This goes on for several iterations while the marketing professionals let on that this is how the game is supposed to work, but let’s be honest; the whole ad gives us the fantods. Everyone knows the game is called “Slug Bug,” yet the sluggers can’t say “slug bug” because that would break the pretense. We can say with certainty that no 12-year-old ever slugged his buddy when a Rabbit, Passat, or Jetta drove by because he would’ve gotten a bruise of his own in return. So let us stop pretending, and do not forget to slug when you see a bug.
I hear you. This ad campaign is misguided, and everyone I’ve spoken to about it knows it. I’m not sure who came up with the original “Slug Bug” concept, but I always assumed it was a grassroots cultural phenomenon. This new campaign feels like someone is trying to take a good thing and leverage it in VW’s favor by taking it places it was never meant to be go, viz., every other line of vehicles from VW.
I feel cheated, but not fooled.