Filed under: Trends, Sports/GTs, Marketing/Advertising, Hatchbacks, Volkswagen
VW pulls GTI billboards after complaints ads are offensive to Hispanics
It seems like we just got through telling you about Volkswagen’s controversial new ad Speedy Gonzales campaign geared towards Hispanic consumers, when this little gem came across the wire: the automaker is pulling billboards from three cities because of complaints about the advertisements being offensive to the same ethnicity.
Billboards for the 2006 GTI with the text “Turbo-Cojones” in Miami’s Little Havana had received objections, and VW went ahead and pulled identical signs in New York and Los Angeles. While ‘cojones’ (meaning ‘testicles’ in Spanish) has taken on a more lighthearted meaning among most English speakers (rather like “chutzpah” or “guts”), among some Spanish speakers, the connotation remains altogether more graphic.
The advertising campaign accompanying the revitalized GTI has been remarkably edgy and aggressive (tv commercials for the hot hatch seem to be on every five minutes), including the Fast and Unpimp My Auto spots.
The replacements for the CreativeOnDemand billboards? “Here today, gone tamale” and “Kick a little gracias.”
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
bobdobbs 1:33PM (3/19/2006)
Couldn't they have said "Turbo-Huevos" instead? Or was VW afraid people would think that was in reference to the GTI's shape?
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Bill 1:43PM (3/19/2006)
Duh! Didn't we all predict this just a few days ago that this was not a good idea?
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That One Person 2:00PM (3/19/2006)
Gotta love VW...they seem to be digging their own hole deeper and deeper everyday. Idiots...
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wcgems 2:16PM (3/19/2006)
People need to chill out. If you find THIS offensive.... GET A LIFE!
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JayP 2:33PM (3/19/2006)
Pretty smart actually- anyone who's looking to buy a hot-hatch is probably going to think the Turbo-Cojones is funny. Controversial = free press.
Everyone else will either buy an hybrid or something vanilla. And then the masses will forget the whole shebang.
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Mal Fuller 2:58PM (3/19/2006)
I hear that VW's next ad campaign will be targeting blacks. The action packed ads will feature Uncle Remus singing Zippity Do Da.
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Blog 3:42PM (3/19/2006)
Why doesn't anyone have a sense of humor, it is just an advertisement. I am very sure that there was at least one Spanish person who was apart of the advertising team and knew well in advanced what was going on.
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Mal Fuller 4:07PM (3/19/2006)
Gosh Mr. (or is it Ms.?) Blog, did you think that my comment was humorless? And, your unfortunate use of the word "apart" instead of the two words a part obfuscates your intended meaning.
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Patrick 4:09PM (3/19/2006)
Racism? What about BET (black entertainment television)? I feel that this TV station is racist, and they slam white people all the time. Racism goes every which way. I think people need to stop whining. Our society is SO imature.
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Bob Stressling 5:25PM (3/19/2006)
It's probably the illegal's that are upset with the ad
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Joey (Kev) 5:32PM (3/19/2006)
As a native speaker of Spanish I can tell you I don't see any offense. To have cojones is actually an expression for bravery. And half of the population have testicles and most of the other half have at least seen some so getting upset is kind of childish.
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Luis Otero 6:13PM (3/19/2006)
On the contrary, the Turbo-Cojones ad points to the absence of a latino marketing specialist among the probably the many german experts. The use of the cojones word is very offensive to the Latino community, its not joke. There are some fine universities in Latin America where Germans can hire fine marketing executives.
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mike 6:42PM (3/19/2006)
Gosh Mal Fuller (or is it Ma Fuller ?) Aren't you the pot calling the kettle black?
"...your unfortunate use of the word "apart" instead of the two words a part obfuscates your intended meaning." is obfuscated by the fact that you failed to put quotes around "a part". Actually, it reads as if you don't understand the difference either. You do, however, have a great sense of humor.
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ZoomZoomin' 6:54PM (3/19/2006)
Sense of humor surrenders...
People got upset about "Cojones?!?"
Of course, a nipple almost started an armed uprising by some people, so the level of what "shocks" people almost never shocks me anymore. I imagine a bilboard that reads "this is a car" would still offend some people.
So far, I'm enjoying VW's new ad campaign overall...a couple of the "my fast" ads are hit/miss, but other than some of those, I think their ads are pretty funny/memorable. "It's definitely sucking!"
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Blog 7:34PM (3/19/2006)
Thank you Mike for trying to correct people who think they know it all. I guess Mal tries to set himself APART from everyone by using $5 words and proof reading each log. Mal should but a G in front of his name and drop the M thus creating acronym for (G)et (A) (L)ife
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n8 7:41PM (3/19/2006)
Proofread is one word. :)
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Mal Fuller 8:10PM (3/19/2006)
"Mal should BUT a G..." says old buddy Blog, offering an additional argument for proofreading!
And, as for you mikey, there were no quotation marks around the two words a part because neither Mr. Blog or anyone else had used those two words.
You're right though, I do have a sense of humor!
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mike 8:58PM (3/19/2006)
Mal Fuller is a boogersnot!
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Grajeda 9:05PM (3/19/2006)
its always the same...
no one is blaming anyone...
but then one group that think have all the power of decisions and representation think something is wrong...
you cant say that a person is black despite he or she is...
yes, there are afroamerican that arent black and black people that is not african...
give me a break!!
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Carlos 9:34PM (3/19/2006)
This shouldn't be surprising. "Cojones" is as strong to them as "ass" is to us, and we all know it'd be a stretch to put that word up on a billboard. My English ads suggest the word (eg. "hauls you know what") but it's too strong to show in public.
Latin American TV has less swearing on it than most American TV. I think that gives an idea about the acceptance of vulgarity in public.
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