Audi brings 'Vorsprung' position to fore with new TV ad

The ad, by Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), harks back to the early days of the brand in the 1920s, depicting Audi as a "design pioneer", all the way through to its current A5 model.

Named ‘The Swan’, the clip, directed by Oscar-winner Joachim Back, is a reinterpretation of the classic children's tale, 'The Ugly Duckling'.

It shows an early teardrop-shaped Audi prototype car named Jaray Audi, driving through a Bavarian town, drawing disapproval from local people and scaring horses, due to the unusual design. The ad ends with the historic car arriving at a lake, and its reflection showing the new A5.

Dominic Chambers, head of marketing for Audi UK, said: "The film illustrates perfectly Audi's pioneering heritage and its historical commitment to 'Vorsprung Durch Technik'."

The TV, print, digital and outdoor campaign breaks on breaks on Sunday (1 April) during ITV's Titanic. Media planning and buying was by Mediacom.

In September last year, Audi moved away from its long-running style of black-and-white animated ads, with a £3m campaign for its A6 Avant estate, featuring a metallic "Audi hummingbird".

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk