Think Small: The Story of the World’s Greatest Ad

by Bruce Roberts (Designer), Dominik Imseng

BEFORE VOLKSWAGEN'S FALL FROM GRACE, IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL BRANDS IN THE WORLD. AND IT ALL STARTED WITH ONE AD.

In this first book on a single piece of advertising, copywriter and journalist Dominik Imseng dissects the ad considered the best of all "Think small" for the Volkswagen Beetle.

Based on extensive interviews with creative legends Julian Koenig, Bob Levenson and George Lois, as well as with Carl Hahn, head of Volkswagen of America from 1959 to 1964.

"A fascinating story of how the Creative Revolution really started." --Al Ries, co-author of "Positioning. The Battle for Your Mind"

"An up-close deconstruction of the cultural forces, events and creative talents that came together to produce advertising's version of the Mona Lisa." --Warren Berger, author of "Advertising Today," "Hoopla," "Glimmer" and "A More Beautiful Question"

"As a certified DDB fanatic, I can't believe how much I learned in Imseng's book." --Terry O'Reilly, host/co-author of "The Age of Persuasion" and "Under the Influence"

"Imseng's book turns fresh ground in advertising history, and on a truly historic campaign." --Luke Sullivan, author of "Hey Whipple, Squeeze A Guide to Creating Great Advertising"

"If you're in advertising you want to do good ads. And to do that, you'll need to know where and how it all started." --Dave Trott, author of "Creative Mischief" and "Predatory Thinking"

"Essential reading!" --Lürzer's Archive

"A cracker!" --AdScam

"This little book is BIG time great!" --George Lois

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2011

Reviews

[Derek Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a journey back to my youth. It was the cusp of change from the staid, post war boredom of centred type, filling the half page. There would be one type face with various fonts, mainly differing in size with a line or two in bold. Then we got the Volkswagen Think Small adverts, designed by Koenig in the Doyle Dane Bernbach studio. They were not an evolution, but a full-fledged revolution of display ads. They were startling in their basics. They used masses of white space, the copy corresponded with the image, and the image was a photograph, and not an artist's impression of a car.

They were brilliantly worded, seemingly self-deprecating but, in fact, highlighting the VW strong points. Typical was the advert for the people-carrier, the split screen Type 2 (T1) people carrier. It was not the best looking van in the world. In fact there was little concession to aesthetics, so they ran with the heading of: A Face only a Mother Could Love. The image showed a woman getting a number of kids out of the carrier.

The ad series included pictures of the Beetle inverted, two Beetles side by side, with about 7 years between them and broadly identical, and one that didn't even have a VW in it. There was a line of cars, all covered in snow, but there was a small gap, with a patch of clear road, the equally clear implication being that the air-cooled engine was the one to have in freezing conditions. (They didn't mention the dreadful heater of course.)

A group of friends used to phone one-another when a new advert appeared. There was a rush to be the first to discover one. It was exciting. It felt as if we as ad designers could do anything we wanted to.

The series changed ad design forever. Instead of being utilitarian, ad design became art. It was a magic time.

My only criticism is that it needed more images. A lot more. I was going for 3* but the book transported me back to the 60s. Short skirts and big dreams.

[Martin Bihl · Rating 3 out of 5]

please see our review here: http://theagencyreview.wordpress.com/...