{"id":9321,"date":"2021-03-31T14:50:24","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T14:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/?p=9321"},"modified":"2021-03-31T14:50:29","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T14:50:29","slug":"volkswagen-fools-people-yet-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/news\/volkswagen-fools-people-yet-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Volkswagen Fools People Yet Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Volkswagen is not being rebranded as Voltswagen. The automaker giant admits its misinformation as April Fools\u2019 Day prank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Volkswagen, earlier Tuesday, issued a news release announcing the name change; however, the automaker giant put a \u201creverse gear\u201d saying the rebranding announcement was a pre April Fools \u2019 Day joke and was intended to garner the interest of the people on its electric SUV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere will be no renaming of Volkswagen of America,\u201d said Mark Gilles, Volkswagen spokesman Tuesday night. \u201cThe alleged renaming was designed to be an announcement in the April Fools\u2019 Day, highlighting the launch of the all-electric ID.4 SUV and signaling our commitment to bring electric mobility to all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some sections within the media have called Volkswagen\u2019s joke an \u201cintentional fake news release\u201d. The marketing strategy of Volkswagen has also left several branding and ad gurus gasping for air since this would only add to the damage done after the September 2015 scandal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had discovered that Volkswagen had fitted deceptive software in over 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide. The cheat software showed 40 times reduced emissions than permissible in the U.S. soil. The 2015 Volkswagen scandal cost them $35 billion in fines and civil settlements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Argenti, professor of corporate communications at Dartmouth\u2019s Tuck School of Business said, \u201cIt just shows a lack of understanding about what this company did and what its standing is in the world and how it needs to rectify its history and rebuild its image.\u201d The professor further added, \u201cGoofing around about who it is and what it\u2019s trying to do, particularly with anything related to sustainability strikes me as really, really bad taste. It\u2019s just terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Volkswagen\u2019s name change news resulted in articles and reports by several media outlets including The Washington Post<\/em> and The Associated Press. <\/em>The news created confusions which resulted in moving the shares of the company. The name change news, which immediately lit up online news sites and social media, had Volkswagen\u2019s communications team on the defensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Cox, professor of corporate and securities law at the Duke University, said misinformation which can twist stock prices must be dealt with all seriousness by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cox said, \u201cThe whole market has gone crazy.\u201d The professor further added, \u201cWe need to throw a pretty clear line in the sand, I believe, about what is permissible and what isn\u2019t permissible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies attempting April Fools\u2019 Day stunt to garner some public attention is nothing unusual; however, a company deliberately misleading reporters to create sensational news is out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe problem is that in the short run, you can fool people, and it seems cute and entertaining,\u201d said Tim Calkins, professor of marketing at Northwestern University. \u201cBut in the long run, you really need positive and good relations with the media. For a company that already has credibility problems, this is really a strange move.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is true that the \u201cApril Fools\u2019 Day\u201d incident might not hurt Volkswagen consumers, the company needs to keep healthy relations with reporters, especially for a brand trying to rebuild its image.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Volkswagen is not being rebranded as Voltswagen. The automaker giant admits its misinformation as April Fools\u2019 Day prank. Volkswagen, earlier Tuesday, issued a news release announcing the name change; however,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen.jpg",1920,1280,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen.jpg",1920,1280,false],"penci-single-full":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen.jpg",1920,1280,false],"penci-slider-full-thumb":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen-1920x800.jpg",1920,800,true],"penci-full-thumb":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen-1170x780.jpg",1170,780,true],"penci-slider-thumb":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen-1170x663.jpg",1170,663,true],"penci-magazine-slider":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen-780x516.jpg",780,516,true],"penci-thumb":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen-585x390.jpg",585,390,true],"penci-masonry-thumb":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen-585x390.jpg",585,390,true],"penci-thumb-square":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen-585x585.jpg",585,585,true],"penci-thumb-vertical":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen-480x650.jpg",480,650,true],"penci-thumb-small":["https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/volkswagen-263x175.jpg",263,175,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Christiaan","author_link":"https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/author\/chris\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Volkswagen is not being rebranded as Voltswagen. The automaker giant admits its misinformation as April Fools\u2019 Day prank. Volkswagen, earlier Tuesday, issued a news release announcing the name change; however,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designbro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}