VOLKSWAGEN GROUP | LUNCH-BREAK | 1996
What Happened During the Lunch Break? / Volkswagen "LUNCH-BREAK"
London, 1996. This was the era when Volkswagen was taking on the UK market around the theme of "affordability." The title is "LUNCH-BREAK." What happens during a lunch break? There's something in that humor and sharp eye for detail that feels distinctly BMP DDB Needham.
The problem
In the mid-1990s, Volkswagen was struggling with an image of being "too expensive" in the UK. BMP DDB took the strategy of tackling that price perception head-on, using humor and everyday detail to get across the idea that the cars were actually more affordable than people thought.
The idea
Judging just from the title "LUNCH-BREAK," I imagine this was probably a film set during that everyday moment everyone shares, the lunch break. BMP DDB was known at the time for its skill at capturing everyday life with a sharp eye.
What happened
The work won GOLD. It's recorded that Volkswagen's 1996 campaign by BMP DDB Needham went on to significantly improve price perception in the UK market over the following years.
Afterthought
The details of the film itself and how it was made are hard to track down now, but there's something magnetic about the title alone, the sense that "something's about to happen." A lunch break in London, 1996. I'd love to see what kind of humor was tucked into it.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 1996
