(or, how to sell without a selling message)

This commercial tells us literally nothing about its product. There’s no intrinsic benefit to either buying or owning a Passat, which is the car featured in the last 9 seconds of the spot, in case you missed it.

There’s no differentiation (Remote starter? Please.), no unique selling proposition, nothing to separate the VW in question from the myriad other automobile choices on the market.

I suppose the car is nice and nice-looking people in affluent neighborhoods drive such a car, so if you’re nice and you leave in a decent neighborhood (or wish to ‘aspire’ to be nice and affluent) then you too, should buy and drive a Passat.

On all practical merits of advertising theory, the spot should be a failure.

However, the commercial is has been a huge viral success for Volkswagen. Why?

Because it’s about the human experience — which we are supposed to connect to a brand — Volkswagen. It’s horribly manipulative, but it’s so well done and so connected to human truths about family and behavior that we, the audience, don’t mind being manipulated.

The father and “son” (it’s entirely likely there’s a girl behind that black mask … my three-year old daughter knows the Imperial March by heart) also share a special, quiet bond that’s rooted in sincerity.

The spot also eschews recent advertising tradition that all kids are smart-asses, that all moms are overachievers, and that all dads are dumb, loutish types who need lessons on how to survive either dinner or the laundry.

Volkswagen is banking on sentimentality — that we are like the family in that house, with that dog, and we share those relationships and those bonds. Thus, we are a Volkswagen family. It’s not a Jedi mind trick — it’s just a good television commercial.