At work last week, one of my coworkers asked me why I drive a Volkswagen Beetle.
Frankly, it makes me happy.
While I have one of the older Beetles — the flat dashboard, the in-dash flower vase — this year’s VW Super Bowl commercial captures exactly the feeling I get from driving a Beetle:
And how can you not love Jimmy Cliff?
Ah, what a fun, happy song. You should download it while you can. 🙂
It’s so much more than the feeling of driving it, though.
When I lived in Raleigh, before I bought the Beetle, I’d see a Beetle on the road, I’d see the smile its hood and trunk made, and I’d feel happy. A Beetle is a happy car, and it spreads happiness. That’s why I like parking my Beetle on the sixth floor of the parking garage where it can look out over the highway and spread its happiness and cheer to the passing motorists who are stuck in traffic. My Beetle is up there, smiling down at them.
That’s my feeling, anyway.
Volkswagen has great commercials. Who can forget this commercial, which introduced me to Nick Drake?
To be fair, the commercial itself, if divorced from the soundtrack, isn’t anything great. It’s the music that I really responded to, and I bought Drake’s Pink Moon album shortly after that — and I had the other two, plus an outtakes album, within a year.
And, of course, there’s this legendary commercial from two years ago.
Oh, wait. That’s not it. Awesome, but that’s not it. Try this one.
There you have it. Volkswagen. It’s fun.