Volkswagen - They Laughed (1966) printad (USA)

They laughed.

3000 B.C. Somebody invented the wheel. It was round and funny. And since the road wasn't invented yet, everybody laughed.

1879. The electric light bulb. It was so dim, people had to use a gas lamp to see it. They laughed.

1875. The telephone. Who'd want to stand and talk to a box full of wires? They laughed.

1877. The automobile sputtered down the road. The horse and buggy passed it like it was standing still. And it usually was.

1807. The first steamboat in America made it from New York to Albany in 32 hours. A small boy could've beat it in a rowboat. They laughed.

1903. The airplane. Off it soared into the wild blue yonder; down it came 59 seconds later. They laughed.

1950. The Volkswagen Station Wagon. It was square and homely. But it held almost twice as much as unfunny wagons, took 4 feet less space to park, never froze up or boiled over, and cost about half as much to run.

The VW Wagon is still a pretty funny sight. And people are still laughing. But the laughter is dying down.

Ad agency: Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB), New York