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Businesses Transportation

Volkswagen Isn't Rebranding Itself Voltswagen (wsj.com) 63

Volkswagen is staying Volkswagen. From a report: Volkswagen's U.S. subsidiary said Tuesday the company would rebrand itself as Voltswagen of America to promote its electric car strategy, but a spokesman for the parent company in Germany later said the move was a joke. The name change, which immediately lit up social media and online news sites, was originally intended as an early April Fools' Day stunt to get people talking about VW's ambitious electric car strategy as the company rolls out its first all-electric sport-utility vehicle, the ID. 4, in U.S. dealerships, the spokesman said. The problem for VW is that everyone took it seriously, creating confusion about the company's intentions and moving the shares, putting VW's communications team on the defensive. "We didn't mean to mislead anyone," a Volkswagen spokesman in Wolfsburg told The Wall Street Journal. "The whole thing is just a marketing action to get people talking about the ID.4."

The spoof began late Monday, when VW communications in the U.S. published a draft of the press release on the company's website and then quickly took it down, according to VW officials in Germany. They left the document online long enough to grab the attention of journalists and VW fans, sparking a flood of online news and tweets. VW communications officials in the U.S. declined to comment at the time. VW's U.S. unit published the release in full again on Tuesday on the U.S. website, a move that suggested the name change was in fact real and would take effect as stated in the release in May. The press release quoted Scott Keogh as president and CEO of Voltswagen of America saying: "We might be changing out our K for a T, but what we aren't changing is this brand's commitment to making best-in-class vehicles for drivers and people everywhere." Back in Germany, a VW official told the Journal that the name change shouldn't be taken seriously. "There will be no name change," the official said. But after it became clear the joke's intended recipients were doing exactly that, officials in Germany scrambled to reach their colleagues at VW's U.S. headquarters in Herndon, Va., to pull the plug on the campaign, according to Wolfsburg officials.

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Volkswagen Isn't Rebranding Itself Voltswagen

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  • by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Wednesday March 31, 2021 @09:56AM (#61220598)

    ...April Fools Day, and the gags that go along with it, are essentially pointless and obsolete now.

    • I heard that the new Voltswagon ID.4 will license Apple's Wave charging technology [independent.co.uk] so you can get a quick charge by microwaving your SUV for 90 seconds.
    • Deceptacons - might as well follow thru with it now. Fooled again. Just f n with ya. Plenty of names. Who thought this stunt would be a good idea?
      • Who thought this stunt would be a good idea?

        This is such a waste of time and resources, and in return, you get negative publicity. If they wanted that, why not make a bunch of racial slurs. It would go viral, give you negative publicity, and be much cheaper. This is always a red flag to me. If a company has plenty of time to make stupid April Fool's jokes, they are clearly too top heavy and have people sitting around wasting time, or they lack any focus on actually doing work. I suspect both.

    • by e3m4n ( 947977 )
      Unfortunately. I always liked those april 1 patch release announcements with some very much-wanted improvements and dream features. With all the online trolls I am surprised they dont demand Volkswagen change their name the way they tried to make the Washington Redskins change their name. The name Volkswagen (pronounced FolksVagen) is supposed to translate to the peoples car. Which, if my history is correct, was Hitlers promise to the people for winning the war, everyone would get a car. Now I am in no way
    • Except it worked. For a few days, there was lots of discussion about VW's push into electric vehicles. As a joke, it wasn't really funny, but as a viral marketing strategy, it certainly was effective.
      • Except it worked. For a few days, there was lots of discussion about VW's push into electric vehicles. As a joke, it wasn't really funny, but as a viral marketing strategy, it certainly was effective.

        The amount of Trolls (including those in marketing) is really only a side effect.

        The fact that society as a whole, is stupid and gullible enough to believe it every damn time, is the actual problem to solve.

    • Well it's good to know that there's a consensus and there won't be any April Fools jokes on /. this year.
  • Touch screen gear selectors, securities-fraud-level april fools jokes, Mary Barra doing her best Steve Jobs impersonation announcing a new EV lineup.

    The automotive industry is no longer the domain of hard-nosed and serious-minded people. Not sure if it ever was, maybe they were always clowns behind closed doors, but at least they had the good sense to wear suits and ties and keep their crazy in check in public.

    God help us when the silliness culture gets into aerospace, medicine, and electricity generation.

    • Gear Selectors don't need to physical anymore. Most are so Drive by Wire Anyways that they are just there for the sake they were there in the past.

      Also the suite wearing thing was more of a cultural issue. Back in the 1950's nearly every white collar job people wore a suit. Today a suite sends a different message, where it use to be I take my job serious, now it just states, I am being formal because I need to Impress a person.

      • Physical / not physical doesn't matter, the point is that if every car makes theirs different it is hard to just switch cars and go. Then there is the safety issue of using a touchscreen for anything important.

        Suits were a sign of respect for fellow workers and put people into work mode. Now it's just show up in your PJs and it's all good - then people wonder why it seems like they are working all day and night, there is no 'work mode attire' anymore.
        • Physical / not physical doesn't matter, the point is that if every car makes theirs different it is hard to just switch cars and go.

          Manuals are pretty much the same though.

        • Suits were/are a form of collective stupidity: let's force everyone to wear cumbersome, uncomfortable, expensive clothing by judging them on their looks instead of their performance.
          I'll show my respect of my coworkers by treating them decently regardless of what they're wearing.

      • by msauve ( 701917 )
        >Gear Selectors don't need to physical anymore.

        Try rocking yourself out of a snowbank with a touchscreen.
  • Anyone who thought this was real probably believed the IHOB [usatoday.com] story.

    • yup, I thought the same when I saw this pop up on news wires yesterday, IHOP pulled the stunt a while ago
  • A linking "s" is not used after Volt in a German compound word, so changing "k" for a "t" would not be enough, the "s" after Volt must be deleted as well.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Ford will not be changing to "Farad"

    Oldsmobile will not be changing to "Ohmsmobile" ...

  • they decided to use natural gas and naturally, rebrand themselves into Gaswagen...
  • It didn't seem to make that much sense. As Volkswagen is a well known brand even in the United States. Even changing its name, would create a bit of confusion and perhaps make it seem like their product is a 3rd party ripoff name. Like Sorney and Magnetbox.
    However companies had done stupid stuff like that in the past, sometimes with success and other times with failure.

    But at this point while a lot of traditional automakers are putting big words behind their electric cars, they only have a small number of A

    • They could absolutely have done it over a period of time as they migrate. A couple years of "Voltswagon - Brought to you by Volkswagon", Alter the VW logo to be drawn with lightning bolts or something. Then once over 50% of their cars are electric, make the hard switch.
  • by groobly ( 6155920 ) on Wednesday March 31, 2021 @10:48AM (#61220826)

    Volkswagen already is a joke.

  • Seriously, you couldn't link to any other website than the freakin' WSJ?

  • by ITRambo ( 1467509 ) on Wednesday March 31, 2021 @11:29AM (#61221086)
    Any PR releases that are supposed to be "early" April fools jokes that are released with a serious tone, are not funny. This makes Volkswagen's marketing people look like buffoons. Stop and think about what you release as people take it seriously, as long as it's not released on the actual April 1st. Dumb move.
    • Any PR releases that are supposed to be "early" April fools jokes that are released with a serious tone, are not funny. This makes Volkswagen's marketing people look like buffoons. Stop and think about what you release as people take it seriously, as long as it's not released on the actual April 1st.

      Dumb move.

      Agreed. My guess is the release of the draft PR was a mistake that basically ruined the entire joke and the subsequent early issue of the press release was an effort to salvage the joke.

      Either way, it's perfectly legit to setup a joke before April 1st, but to actually make it early is a dumb move.

  • into registering voltswagenforums.com?

    Fak...

  • They should still take advantage of the hype they generated, and call a particular car model Voltswagen.

  • I didn't buy a Tesla because they are annoying. Bought Bolt EV instead. Have money down on id.4, but I don't want to buy from another embarrassment.

  • That's how we got SJWs:

    No matter if it's crazy, or if it is a joke,
    you take it ALL seriously
    because you're a slowpoke.

    Whatever's growing in a hole,
    it makes you get a sturdy pole,
    to shine a spotlight on that shit;
    ruining the world with it.

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