Volkswagen of America celebrated its 40th anniversary last week with the launch of a North America-wide image campaign to recapture the brand recognition and marketshare it enjoyed in the 1960s and ’70s.

The campaign, using the tagline ‘Drivers wanted,’ is meant to reconnect Volkswagen with consumers and reposition the brand to a target market of drivers 45 years old and younger.

Arnold Fortuna Lawner & Cabot, the Boston agency chosen by Volkswagen in March to handle its US$90 million North American advertising account, has created 10 tv spots, radio spots and newspaper ads around the theme.

The advertising focuses on how driving makes people feel.

In a departure from Volkswagen’s understated efforts of the past several years, the tv spots are energetic, fast-paced and set to the throbbing beat of loud rock music.

The copy superimposed on the screen includes the lines:

‘It’s the difference between just living and being alive. It’s about feeling something again. It’s about being connected,’ and, ‘It’s about having kids and not becoming your parents.’

All advertising ends with the line, ‘On the road of life, there are passengers and there are drivers.’