MANILA, PHILIPPINES – As we greet a new decade, we bid goodbye to one of the most iconic cars in history – the Volkswagen Beetle.
Volkswagen announced the its plans to halt production of the Beetle recently, with an beautifully crafted 90-second video animated by ad agency Johannes Leonardo. Staying true to the car’s known aesthetics, the colors used in the frames are derived from the past colors used for the car, bringing with it a nostalgic feeling.
The video depicts the story of a man growing old with his Beetle – from his first kiss, to his daughter’s graduation – played with a rendition of the Beetles “Let it Be” sung by Chicago-based children’s choir Pro Musica Youth Chorus, a tribute to the car’s appearance on the “Abbey Road” album cover.
Throughout the film, a lot of references were made from past advertising efforts that helped make the vehicle such a success in the United States – like “Think Small” and “Lemon”, to the people whose lives and careers have been influenced by the Beetle. This includes icons such as Andy Warhol who is seen taking a picture, a nod to his print series of the beetle during the 1960s; Kevin Bacon also appeared as an animated Ren, who drives a yellow beetle in “Footloose”; Andy Cohen also made an appearance on the receiving end of a “punch buggy”, an old road trip game that calls for a punch on the arm upon spotting a Beetle.
At the end of the road, the iconic car transformed into a firefly, lighting up a new Volkswagen car, with a quote, “Where one road ends, a new one begins”.
