Great Story Behind a Great Commercial

I was listening to Sound Opinions yesterday and they had the record producer, Joe Boyd, on as a guest. Joe Boyd is a legend who produced early Pink Floyd, The Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Richard & Linda Thompson, and Nick Drake. He told a story about Nick Drake and the song "Pink Moon" that I thought was very interesting. He said he and Nick's family were approached about using the song for a commercial and his initial reaction and recommendation was to not let it be used. Volkswagen, though, sent him the story board for the ad and he was won over by the fact that there would be no voice over in the ad; the ad would simply contain Nick's music and a couple of sound effects.

I don't think that ad sold many Cabriolets but I think it did add some equity to the Volkswagen brand. Why don't more advertisers go for these more subtle, less jarring ads? Let's face it, 99.99% of ads are tuned out and in a lot of cases they are physically tuned out by someone lowering the volume on the TV or fast fowarding through them. Why not make ads that, at the very least, don't aurally assault people and give a quiet moment before their show starts again?

PS: This may be my favorite commercial of all time.