VDub was a parody tagline, used in a
short series of commercials for
German car manufacturer Volkswagen. As part of a 2006 advertising campaign for Volkswagen, advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky created a series of three television commercials directed by Jonas Åkerlund, starring Swedish actor Peter Stormare as an effete German engineer named Wolfgang, and German model Zonja Wöstendiek as his assistant Miss Helga. The ads were created as a parody of
MTV'
s Pimp My Ride.
The commercials began airing in late February 2006. Prior to the full launch of the TV campaign, the three 30-second spots became something of an
internet phenomenon when popular automotive news website Leftlane News uploaded the ads to video distribution service
YouTube. As of early March 2006, the ads had received over two million views on
YouTube. Three years later, that number was over 10 million. The Term used for Volkswagen's cars "VDub" as a parody became so popular that fans and owners started to use it for their cars and VW's in general.