Seriously?
When I first heard the phrase "Certified Pre-Owned" a few years ago, I thought it was an unbearably pretentious way of referring to used cars, an example of euphemisms gone awry. It didn't help that it was always used when talking about Mercedes, BMW, Lexus… cars that, apparently, can't be sold "used". After a while I've come to accept that the phrase does have some value, in that the "certified pre-owned" car, presumably, undergoes screening and servicing and repairs prior to being offered for sale. It also, I assume, stems from the increase in the number of leased vehicles being returned to dealers for sale to their clientèle. If my experience of leasing is at all indicative, the car I returned to the dealer was in nearly pristine condition, compared to the car I now own, which I couldn't wait to make "my own"—swapping out the car stereo, adding an amplifier, etc.
But Volkswagen is running an ad campaign on KROQ this week for their version of the "CPO" used car, but their version is the "Certified Pre-LOVED" Volkswagen, 'cause, you know, Volkswagen owners LOVE their VWs. (Let's not get into how inane the ads themselves are, but you can assume that any ad campaign for a concept as inane this will be suitably inane to coincide).
Maybe Volkswagen thought their image was too manly these days.
(My concomitant digression into the phrase "That's so gay" led to this interesting discussion, and the notion that we're watching the migration of the meaning of the word "gay" from happy and carefree, to homosexual, to stupid in the course of just a few generations. I'm willing to bet that there are few people today using the phrase "gay old time" in anything but an ironic fashion, for instance. )
When I first heard the phrase "Certified Pre-Owned" a few years ago, I thought it was an unbearably pretentious way of referring to used cars, an example of euphemisms gone awry. It didn't help that it was always used when talking about Mercedes, BMW, Lexus… cars that, apparently, can't be sold "used". After a while I've come to accept that the phrase does have some value, in that the "certified pre-owned" car, presumably, undergoes screening and servicing and repairs prior to being offered for sale. It also, I assume, stems from the increase in the number of leased vehicles being returned to dealers for sale to their clientèle. If my experience of leasing is at all indicative, the car I returned to the dealer was in nearly pristine condition, compared to the car I now own, which I couldn't wait to make "my own"—swapping out the car stereo, adding an amplifier, etc.
But Volkswagen is running an ad campaign on KROQ this week for their version of the "CPO" used car, but their version is the "Certified Pre-LOVED" Volkswagen, 'cause, you know, Volkswagen owners LOVE their VWs. (Let's not get into how inane the ads themselves are, but you can assume that any ad campaign for a concept as inane this will be suitably inane to coincide).
Maybe Volkswagen thought their image was too manly these days.
(My concomitant digression into the phrase "That's so gay" led to this interesting discussion, and the notion that we're watching the migration of the meaning of the word "gay" from happy and carefree, to homosexual, to stupid in the course of just a few generations. I'm willing to bet that there are few people today using the phrase "gay old time" in anything but an ironic fashion, for instance. )
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