The first and last time I laughed at a funeral.

Most people don't know that the Volkswagen Beetle was designed in part by Hitler himself.  Instead, the cute little VW is thought of by most as the love bug, punch buggie, or hippiemobile.  So how did advertisers transform the Beetle's image from a Nazimobile into a positive cultural icon of the 1960s?

They had a funeral.

This is the only funeral you'll ever attend that it's acceptable--even encouraged--to giggle a little bit.

This is by far one of my favorite (old) television commercials.  It has to be against some unwritten advertising rule to use any idea surrounding death to sell a product-- especially something as expensive as a car.  But for some reason this commercial works, and it works well. It wasn't the first ad to transform the Volkswagen image, but (in my opinion) it's definitely one of the best. 

I am absolutely in love with the advertisements DDB did for Volkswagen in the 60s, so I'm going to spend the rest of the week highlighting my favorite ones.  What to look for tomorrow: the best (literally, the best) ads in American history.  According to me obviously.  Just kidding.  I let other people vote this time.  Kind of.