The ad was the brainchild of New York-based agency Doyle Dane Bernbach.
It's held in esteem for its faultless integrity. Speaking honestly in an ad in 1962 was nearly as against-the-grain as you could get.
In an era when motorists in the US were addicted to power and flash, the ad also tapped a shadowy part of the Zeitgeist, by asking readers to consider different values.
By chatting candidly about the simple virtues of economy, DDB persuaded 200,000 Americans to buy the stubby, 40-horsepower "Beetle" that year (the peak year for Beetle sales in the US).
