Audi ‚Truth in Engineering‘ Ads Come Back to Bite Amid Probe

That was Kermit the Frog‘s lament to comedian Joel McHale in an advertisement during Sunday night‘s Primetime Emmy Awards which touted Audi‘s latest innovations in low emissions technology. The punchline couldn‘t have come at a less opportune moment for the German luxury carmaker and its parent Volkswagen AG.

Just hours earlier, VW Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn apologized for breaking the trust of customers following revelations his company cheated on emissions data for nearly half a million of its diesel cars. The Audi campaign‘s discordance was compounded by the marque‘s U.S. slogan, „Truth in Engineering,“ which also featured prominently in advertisements shown Sunday during U.S. football games. The VW brand‘s North American slogan is: „Isn‘t it time for German engineering?“