VW Amarok and Serious Sport
As Sunday will be the Super Bowl, there will undoubtedly be plenty of automotive commercials before, during and after the game, many of which focus on pickup trucks, because the ad agencies who work for the various OEMs have done deep demographic research that indicates that people who like football like trucks and vice versa. (We’ve always been a fan of the 1998 Nissan Frontier commercial that told us “Dogs like trucks.”) Anyway. . .there is one tough pickup truck that won’t be part of the festival of ads on Sunday because it is for a product that isn’t available in the U.S., the Volkswagen Amarok.
.jpg;width=70;height=70;mode=crop;format=webp)
As Sunday will be the Super Bowl, there will undoubtedly be plenty of automotive commercials before, during and after the game, many of which focus on pickup trucks, because the ad agencies who work for the various OEMs have done deep demographic research that indicates that people who like football like trucks and vice versa.
(We’ve always been a fan of the 1998 Nissan Frontier commercial that told us “Dogs like trucks.”)
Anyway. . .there is one tough pickup truck that won’t be part of the festival of ads on Sunday because it is for a product that isn’t available in the U.S., the Volkswagen Amarok.
Yes, it is a pickup truck that’s just like, well, a pickup truck. And it even comes with a 3.0-liter V6 diesel. Absolutely a real truck.
In fact, this past fall it received the International Pick-up Award (IPUA) presented by the International Van of the Year jurors, who represent trade journalists from 25 countries. It is the only pick up that has won the IPUA twice, with the previous presented in 2010, for the first-generation Amarok. (Odds are that a good percentage of some of the 25 countries are places where lots of the terrain—even if it is paved—is somewhat unforgiving, so trucks are the ticket.)
Vehicle manufacturers typically sponsor events that are congruent with their products. So football and trucks.
But here’s something that is somewhat different: Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles—that’s the channel the Amarok is sold through, further underscoring the functionality and utility of the vehicles—is partnering with Andreas Stihl AG on the Stihl TIMBERSPORTS extreme sports series.
This includes the following events:
Springboard, Underhand Chop and Standing Block Chop axe competitions, and Single Buck (cross-cut saw), Stock Saw (standard chainsaw) and Hot Saw (up to 80 PS, tuned chainsaw) timed cutting competitions.
These participants are chopping down trees, not just throwing a ball around.
Nine-time and reigning Stihl TIMBERSPORTS individual world champion Jason Wynyard with his two-meter long, one-man cross-cut saw.
