[Headline] Lemon. [Body Copy] This Volkswagen missed the boat. The chrome strip on the glove compartment is blemished and must be replaced. Chances are you wouldn't have noticed it; Inspector Kurt Kroner did. There are 3,389 men at our Wolfsburg factory with only one job: to inspect Volkswagens at each stage of production. (3000 Volkswagens are produced daily; there are more inspectors than cars.) Every shock absorber is tested (spot checking won't do), every windshield is scanned. VWs have been rejected for surface scratches barely visible to the eye. Final inspection is really something! VW inspectors run each car off the line onto the Funktionsprüfstand (car test stand), tote up 189 check points, gun ahead to the automatic brake stand, and say "no" to one VW out of fifty. This preoccupation with detail means the VW lasts longer and requires less maintenance, by and large, than other cars. (It also means a used VW depreciates less than any other car.) We pluck the lemons; you get the plums.

There's a classic story about the agency creative director on a big car account who couldn't get his client to buy anything. The client, equally frustrated because he wasn't seeing any creative work that knocked him out, finally burst out in a tense meeting, "Just give me a Volkswagen ad!" To which the exasperated c/d calmly replied, "Sure, just give me a Volkswagen."

Great campaigns derive from the character of the product itself. The legendary and unique work of Doyle, Dane Bernbach for Volkswagen was made possible by the agency's intimacy with this singular machine - and the people who made it.

In the book, "Small Wonder," by Walter Henry Nelson, Bill Bernbach relates how a whole team from the agency spent days at the factory talking to engineers, assembly line workers, executives: "We marched side by side with the molten metal...and kept going until every part was finally in its place...we were immersed in the making of a Volkswagen...we knew what our theme had to be...this was an honest car."

That was over 30 years ago. But the lesson is certainly relevant for advertisers today, given their susceptibility to cutesy-poo copy, hyperactive type and high-tech contrivances masquerading as concepts. The lesson: immerse your agency in your product.

Bob Stevenson