Volkswagen: ‘Das Auto’ becomes a victim of Dieselgate

The Volkswagen Das Auto slogan – which accompanies much of VW’s advertising – is to be dropped in the wake of the #dieselgate crisis.

It’s not been a good few months for Volkswagen, with the #dieselgate crisis engulfing the company as the world discovers the extent of the deceit VW perpetrated with their Defeat Device and mis-stated CO2 emissions.

That said, VW seems to have escaped remarkably lightly so far – certainly in Europe – with their fix for the NOx emissions consisting of a quick software flash and a bit of mesh, and the CO2 issue being dismissed as insignificant.

But there are casualties at VW, with a merry-go-round of role swapping to make it appear to be doing something, dropping sales and a huge PR operation needed to restore confidence in VW (and Germany).

Part of that PR campaign will see VW dropping the ‘Das Auto’ brand slogan, according to Reuters, a slogan that is perhaps as well known as BMW’s ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’ and Audi’s ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ (the Germans clearly love a tag line).

So instead of declaring Volkswagens to be makers of ‘The Car’, it seems VW will instead just use the VW logo with ‘Volkswagen’ underneath.

But perhaps VW are missing a trick, and should instead be coming up with a new brand slogan?

A quick poll in the office found ‘Volkswagen: Mea Culpa’ to be the favourite, although there was support for ‘Volkswagen: NOx Lucky Dip’ and ‘Volkswagen: The British Saved Us – so it’s their fault’.

Your thoughts in the comments!