Announcing A Week Of BS At Volkswagen

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: June 22nd, 2013

Jeff Glucker absolutely LOVED his seat! Business Class – by the door! (Can get a bit drafty on long flights in an old 747 …)

Good news for a certain vociferous segment of TTAC’s readership: This coming week, you will read very little BS. On Sunday night, I will be on a flight from Tokyo to Hannover, graciously laid on by Vokswagen, and I will spend the better part of the week in Wolfsburg and Berlin, to hear the latest on MQB, to drive the Golf GTD, the Volkswagen XL-1 super saver, and to enjoy Volkswagen’s hospitality, which has come a long way since the days when hospitality consisted of slices of cold cuts between soggy buns, served on a piece of grey cardboard.

Taken from Jeff’s window at the Ritz Carlton in Wolfsburg: The “Kraftwerk” – old power plant on the other side of Volkswagen’s private port at the Mittellandkanal

This will be the first time since seven years, when I was last on the inside of Wache Sandkamp, the main gate of Volkswagen’s monstrous factory in Wolfsburg. For more than 30 years, I went, or drove through these gates, multiple times a week. Huge changes happened between 1973 and 2006, and I wonder what changes I will see on Monday afternoon and thereafter.

First Golf GTI – I was already an established copywriter when we did the launch campaign for this one. Volkswagen was convinced it would not sell more than 5,000 – and none in the U,S. . They changed that opinion after a while …

This will also be the first time I meet the creme de la blogs, from Automotive.com all the way to VWVortex, and of course our good friends at Jalopnik. In Tokyo, I usually hang out with the antisocial media from Reuters, Dow Jones, The Nikkei , and my “from the backset” driver Martin of Germany’s Handelsblatt. Let’s see how social the social guys really are – Berlin beckons! I hope they are all over 18 …

That’s Jeff Glucker’s flight back from Amsterdam. I would have staid the night in Amsterdam if I were Jeff Glucker

(The pictures are by Jeff Glucker of Hooniverse. He was with the first wave. As I type this, Jeff is on his way back to LA , with a sadly way too short stop in Amsterdam.)

Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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3 of 18 comments

Genuineleather on Jun 23, 2013

That is truly an appalling international business class product. Guess VW didn't want to pop for the newer Lufthansa offerings. Bertel: typo on "stayed" beneath picture four.

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Doctor olds on Jun 23, 2013

Aren't you on VW's payroll already?

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- Bertel Schmitt on Jun 24, 2013
  
  @olds: Regretfully, I never was on the payroll of a large OEM. I must admit I worked as a consultant for this here company, until some 7 years ago. This paid so well that I can still afford editing TTAC. This was the friendly version. The unfriendly version is: Unlike others, TTAC does not peddle paid content. Any suggestions to the contrary receive the same answer: Prove, or retract, or get fired. Dr Olds is pardoned - this time. On the Autobahn. B
  
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