|
|
 |
Global Hits
|
| Click Here to go back. |
The World, Global Hits >>
Volkswagen has introduced a sport utility vehicle. That's surprising enough. But the real surprise is the name of the SUV. The World's Marco Werman explains.
American car makers appreciate the names of native American tribes. Jeep made the Apache and the Cherokee. Even an entire line of cars took the name Pontiac. So why would Volkswagen try to sell a new slimmed-down SUV in the States named after the unfamiliar ethnic group the Touareg? Tony Fouladpour, a spokesperson with Volkswagen, says Touareg was handed to them by the VW mother ship.
Tony Fouladpour: Touareg is a name that came from our parent company in Germany. And it's a tribe from the Sahara that is known for their resiliency and their ability to traverse very tough terrain in the Sahara.
You may not have heard of the Touareg. And that's the angle VW decided to wangle in one of their Touareg commercials: the fact that Americans probably would not know who the Touareg are, or even how to pronounce their name.
Sure, nothing like having a little fun at someone else's expense to sell your product.
Tony Fouladpour: I think we're just poking fun at ourselves and not at a particular people.
Again, Volkswagen spokesperson Tony Fouladpour.
Tony Fouladpour: It's really an ad that says, yes, Volkswagen's different, and yes we have different names, and this is an unusual name that only Volkswagen would actually use, with no intention whatsoever to poke fun at a people or a culture.
Of course, those cultures are more well-known to Europeans. French and Germans with their colonial pasts have historical reasons for thinking about the Touareg.
Europe's colonial history in Africa accounts partly for why France, the UK and Germany are more advanced in championing world music than the United States. The historical connection to Africa and the Touareg also helped Volkswagen in coming up with the name for their new SUV. Tony Fouladpour says even young Europeans are pretty savvy about who the Touareg are.
Tony Fouladpour: In Europe they have a little bit more of a historical lore in literature and in children's stories. Actually within the school system in Germany they do teach some stories about the Touareg. They're traditionally known as "the knights of the desert."
Let's face it though. Volkswagen's trying to sell cars. The company isn't really driving consumers to listen to Touareg music.
This is a somewhat less romantic view of the Touareg. It's from a new recording "Festival in the Desert," a concert given last January in an area of Mali inhabited by the Touareg. This is the ensemble Tartit, a group of Touareg women.
Volkswagen knows they're not in the education business per se. But VW's Tony Fouladpour says maybe their customers will learn that the Touareg have been around a bit longer than their new SUV.
Tony Fouladpour: We're not concerned about people learning about who necessarily the people are. We would hope that it would inspire people to find out who they are because they have a very interesting history. Once you look into it you understand why we named a car after this particular people. They have survived for nearly a thousand years in some of the harshest conditions in the world, they're semi-nomadic, they're still semi-nomadic. So we would hope that it would inspire people to learn a little bit more about that area of the world. That's for sure.
In the meantime, if you can't drive a Touareg, you can always listen to the Touareg. The Malian Touareg band Tinariwen is featured on "Festival in the Desert." The band cooks in overdrive. Tinariwen and the CD come at a fraction of the sticker price of the car. And you don't have to pump any gas.
For The World, I'm Marco Werman. 10/15/03 >> go there
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
