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Two years ago, Volkswagen courted controversy with a commercial featuring a man so despondent about life’s travails that he contemplates jumping from a rooftop. “There’s no affordable housing,” he laments. “You think I wanted high taxes or global warming?” His outlook on life brightens considerably when a passing driver below informs him that VW offers three different models priced under $17,000. That was one of several commercials from Crispin Porter + Bogusky that wryly positioned the German carmaker as a societal soother with its affordable line of “V-dubs,” but like others produced during the four-year agency-client relationship, the ad polarized consumers and soon enough, the “Jumper” spot was pulled.
This month, VW placed creative chores on its $200 million domestic ad business in review and Crispin declined to defend.
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