Snow Plow
Volkswagen1964
Snow Plow is a 1964 60-second black-and-white television commercial for Volkswagen, created by Doyle Dane Bernbach (New York).
The line
Have you ever wondered how the man who drives the snowplow drives to the snowplow?
Why it works
A Beetle ploughs through thigh-deep drifts while an unhurried narrator asks a question nobody had thought to ask: "Have you ever wondered how the man who drives the snowplow drives to the snowplow?" The answer takes one more line: this one drives a Volkswagen, so you can stop wondering. Made by Doyle Dane Bernbach, with Len Sirowitz as art director, the 1964 spot is studied as a masterclass in demonstration by implication. It never claims winter traction; it simply hands the proof to the one witness whose job depends on getting through, and trusts the viewer to finish the argument. It carried DDB's dry, self-assured print voice into television with nothing added. Ad Age ranked DDB's Volkswagen work the No. 1 campaign of the 20th century, and when "Snow Plow" entered the Clio Hall of Fame in 2013, speakers at the ceremony noted that it could still run today if a modern car were swapped in.
Techniques
- Demonstration A Beetle ploughs through thigh-deep drifts on screen, proving winter traction without the narrator ever claiming it.
- Logos Poses a question nobody had asked, how the snowplough driver reaches his snowplough, and lets viewers draw the logical conclusion themselves.
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