Latest VW campaign offers castaway humour

Volkswagen Ireland, one of a decreasing number of car firms that shoot brand commercials solely for the Irish market, airs its fourth production this week.

Although most other brands use global campaign footage - with notable exceptions such as Toyota, which has a long history of making locally devised commercials - VW Ireland sales and marketing manager, Mr Tom O'Connor, sees the advantages of domestic productions.

"We feel that despite the cost, there's a huge benefit in producing an ad here," he says, citing the connection that the consumer makes between a familiar Irish scene and the brand as reflecting powerfully in its favour.

"At the same time we are conscious of not going overboard or appearing to be trying to `buy Irishness'," he says.

The new campaign was devised by Owens DDB and shot last month in Cuba and Clontarf. The script is a tongue-in-cheek homage to the Tom Hanks movie Cast- away, with a man marooned on a desert island.

The only thing that apparently keeps him going is a photo of his girlfriend. The gag is that when he eventually gets home, it is revealed that what he was staring at all the time was the Volkswagen in the background of the photo. For such a large production, the ad had a relatively short lead-in time. The agency presented initial storyboards to Mr O'Connor in April and he was quickly sold on the gag idea.

The 60-second commercial, with a 40-second cut-down, will air until 2004, when Volkswagen will introduce its new model Volkswagen Golf. Some £400,000 (#507,900) will be spent on media from July until December of this year.

"I get a show reel every month of Volkswagen ads from all over the world and if it happens that there is an ad made in Cairo that I think would work in the Irish market, I can buy it for here," says Mr O'Connor, adding that the same applies to campaigns made by Owens DDB. "We sold one of our other Irish-made advertisements into other markets and there is certainly a possibility that when this is seen by Volkswagen distributors elsewhere they will be interested.

"It works because it is identifiably Irish to Irish viewers and for us that makes it all the more credible."

bharrison@irish-times.ie