gosh darn these kids with their hippity-hop music and their crazy dancing!

if you're trying to sound old and crotchety, then you've nailed it. independent of the particular merits of the technical or artistic merrits of the commercial in question, two points:

1.) try googling popping and locking, or breakdancing. this 'crappy hip-hop dancing' is an established form that's hardly even that new, and certainly nothing to do with everyone's favorite pop cultural bogeyman, 'MTV'. if a 20 year old dance form can't get respect...

2.) that's a whole lot of righteous indignation over pop culture recycling itself. the original and now somehow sacrosanct film, though it does feature our beloved gene kelly, was still a product, selling itself. they made a movie, to sell tickets, to make money. this is a car commercial made to sell a car... i see very little difference.

and how do you revolt against this apparently blatant abuse of consumer culture? you see the commercial and you go and buy a boxed set. boy you sure showed them!

I have to agree with Jack, there..

Singin' in the Rain is one of my favorite movies and I love the dancing of Gene Kelly. And yes, some of the scenes out of the commercial have some bad cg.. but I thought it was really neat to take an old classic and a twist.

That, and it was okayed by the Gene Kelly foundation/family.

Its not hip-hop...and you'll never see dancing like that on MTV...and you must be a very angry person... ~

OKOKOKOKOKOKOK ... so the truth comes out ... I'm old enough to be a curmodgeon. Heck, I'm old enough to remember when break-dancing became a sensation; which was right at the height of disco which was based on Latino and American ballroom dancing. But that kind of dancing that they have Gene Kelly do --whatever y'all call it-- was seen as an oddity, a fad.

That this is now part of the mainstream boggles the mind of an old fogey like me because it just shows how little people know about dance these days.

THAT SAID, the special effects are impressive.

Personally, I think it's one of the most striking pieces of modern advertising that I - or many other people (try Googling for it) - have seen in a long time.

Advertising is an artform; this piece rightly deserves to go down in history as being one of the freshest and most imaginative of the decade.

And quite how you can describe something that pays such a huge amount of respect to one of your heroes as "an abomination" is beyond me -- it's grossly apparent that you've entirely missed the point...as evidenced by the fact that you slag-off a car you blatantly have never driven, nor bothered even to accurately quote the model suffix thereof.

gimme a break...
hiphop?

you must work at a mall music store

rock/pop
URBAN
classical

This is one of the best adverts aroung at the minute. If the author of this article knew anything about Gene they would understand that he was at the forefront of new dance moves - he would have loved these updated version.

I think VW have scored an own goal with this one. The whole point of there ads is to show how the new Golf is an update of a classic, yet here we have an ad that takes the classic Singin in the Rain and makes it into a poor MTV video, the current Nike Women ad is much better. Kelly's choreography was innovative and classy yet this is neither and I'm really surprised that The Kelly foundation gave their backing. The CGI work is poor with very rough edges to the compositing, it just isn't believable.

Gary,

You get what am saying. Thanks!
From the standpoint of the message they are selling (that you can improve on a classic), the ad fails.

You might enjoy this dancing by the same fellow in the commercial.

Je pense maybe the golf GTI is targeted not at old fogeys, but at those who would know what to do with its brake horsepower!

The original was an affordable monster car, powerful, light bare bones and blasted VW's way on to the rally scene. The new GTI is on the heavier side so it wouldn't make it straight to a track but nevertheless it has some sporting credentials - that you pay extra for. Perhaps VW decided that rather than do your regular trip through the mountain roads commercial, they would appeal to what they thought was their market - people who go out to drive, the new money, people who are aware of and enjoy pop/urban culture - the kind of adults who would encourage their kids to take break-dancing lessons rather than ballet or tap-dancing?
I think anyone uptight enough not to respond positively to a beautiful piece of modern and innovative advertising like that, would generally be too conservative (or out of touch) to spend 5K-10K more to hear their car roar.

A few less related points:
1. To be honest, and without wanting to cause offence, I think tap-dancing had its heyday but it's not very relevant in today's world. It is far far away from the mainstream or any stream and I doubt it’s popularity will grow. You could even argue (shock horror!) it was a fad! On the small screen (apart from Bruce Forsyth who is 100years old), big screen (apart from Zaitoichi’s tap dancing which was meant to be based on a Japanese version) and most theatre productions; it’s a thing of the past.

2. If you look at the universities in the UK, most of them will have a break-dancing society. Salsa is also very common but all other forms of dancing are much less common.

3. All press is good press!

I've been involved in hiphop cultures for over 20 years.

The main dancer is interviewed here:
http://www.kottke.org/05/02/golf-gti-commercial-and-elsewhere

It would seem he is being credited with doing something new and fresh whereas he is actually merely an adept exponent of a long-standing dance form.

Most of his moves have been copied from other dancers (like Michael Jackson - still too few know the truth behind that story).

which raises some interesting points not so far mentioned in this thread:

Elsewhere seems to know little about the origins of the dancing he employs (he refers to it as breakdancing and believes it originates in NY which is wrong - popping and locking are seperate dances and originated on the west coast).

It would seem that he has learned the dance in isolation via videos from the web and gone viral on the strength of a few of his own vid clips and ended up getting ad contracts.

My concern is that these cultures will be diluted, not by the exposure itself but by the fact that the knowledge is largely passed down in the form of folk lore which is simply being missed out here - someone like Mr Wiggles would have used the profile to push the artform and build knowledge.

Its also worth noting that the dancer mentions using a prosthetic mask for the filming which puts paid to the widespead misconception that they have somehow made Kelly's body dance differently by use of CG (which would have been a ludicrously difficult way to achieve the desired affect).

I have to close by saying that, although I enjoyed the piece purely on a creative level, culturally it is still just another advert and the car in question has fuck-all to do with either Kelly or popping.

ok Liza... first, its not hiphop. second, learn how to spell "choreography." third, it was a complete body double, but with kelly's face superimposed on it. the crew that shot this ad spent a long time recreating the original sets and camera shots from Singin' in the Rain. please don't disrespect them or their time. VW is trying to make some money by appealing to the demographic that likes this sort of ad for this sort of car. just because you don't like it doesn't mean its bad. grow up.

Zrak,

For your information:

curmudgeon
n : a crusty irascible cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas

And for that matter : thbthhhhhhhhhhhh!

J:

Maybe Elsewhere doesn't know anything about those that went before him because he first saw this sort of dance at a rave, and not in the hip-hop underground. Do the kids growing up these days and learning the moves necessarily know the history?

ah jeeeze!!! Why argue about a frikin advert!??? It's a GOOD advert. Who cares if its a bad interpretation of what gene kelly really is... I certainly don't care.

That is by far the best commercial I have ever seen. If you have ever seen that breakdancer before you would realize how much of a talent it is to have that and for him to land a commercial updating gene kelly, a famous dancer, actor and singer, you would know how much of an honor that is. Maybe only I understand that because I'm young and I still have respect for old people who are close minded like you. It's a beautiful piece of art, that commercial, and it takes a lot to capture audiences in just 30 seconds, cmon you try it. i watch that video like on repeat and it always makes me happy.

how old are all of you btw...i really did stumble onto a good site. I feel like I'm talkin to a grave.

btw I do advertising and this is one of the top adverts I've seen in a long time...yea they used an old clip, but it's the way they treated it. it just was very reminiscent but only in a very positive way. it's like a vivid dream. I wish thy just made a full movie of this sort of stuff. i feel like i'm being told messages.

Seriously? You don't like this advert? Advertising is a very hard thing to master, as someone said earlier - it's trying to fit all of your information into 30 seconds of film ... that's why 90% of adverts fail and annoy. But this one ... it's absolutely outstanding - the concept of taking something old and 'updating' it is truly genius. Hats off to DDB, the company behind this advert.

idiots

i was gonna write an essay from what i read from the main 'statement' but i think i can do it in short....

This is the best advertisement that has been created for television in a long time, its fresh, innovative and brilliantly funky, its sad to see your stuck with the vision of a dated Gene Kelly, OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE WHAT A FANTASTIC ADVERT THIS IS.

Well, I am not a huge fan of old movies, they tend to be rubbish. In my personal opinion film making pinnacled in the mid to late 90s and early 2000s (if thats a word) but thats not really the point. The point is that this advert not only makes me want to buy a Golf, but it makes me want to go and watch Singing in the Rain.

Unfortunately, in my rush to kill some spam I deleted this great comment from Anna. Thank Goodness I always get a copy of all comments:

=================

Name: Anna
Email Address: saintbacchus@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
URL:

Comment:

Finally, someone else who hates this crappy ad! You'd think VW had reinvented sliced bread the way people are talking about this commercial.

For the record, I am 22, which puts me in the target age group. It's not so much the spooky computer manipulation or the pop culture recycling that gets me, it's the idea that spooky computer manipulation is somehow superior to Gene Kelly's talent and skill. Surely VW could have used the same clip in a way that doesn't feel quite so much like grave robbing.

I can see your points of view, curmudgeons, but in my humble opinion this was a great watch. No idea whether the ad works for me (I don't seem to be swayed by them too much, except to be informed that the product exists) but I liked the moves, the update and the music. Oddly enough, Liza, I thought the special effects were a little clumsy, especially when "Gene" is looking up and his body is all over the place underneath him.

Alarmingly, I think I might actually apply to the term "old"..

But hey, all this discussion certainly perpetuates VW's marketing efforts, no?

i wish everyone would stop whinning about this spot and enjoy it for its creativity and especially for the car it is marketing. 05 GTI sick!

a·bom·i·na·tion Audio pronunciation of "abomination" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (-bm-nshn)
n.

1. Abhorrence; disgust.
2. A cause of abhorrence or disgust.

this advert did not disgust me.
nor did it cause me disgust.
In fact if anything it reminded me of a great movie and made me want to go watch it.

However, I Abhor reading the way you decided to label it in a negative light in a way that makes you look like you haven't really looked into anything just spouted out another opinion based on no real facts.. posting the occasional link in an article is hardly 'research'.

Liza Sabater you're in Advertising, Animation, Dance, Marketing, Memes, Movies, Pop Culture, Viral Ads / Marketing (how is an ad viral by the way, no one I know ever died by advertisement!)

I would have thought seeing you are into so many things this would mean you should have an understanding which runs deeper than the immature and frankly out of order view you posted.

Next time before you spill such vitriolic babble, try and actually
take a look into what went into creation of your subject/s, and learn your background information first, it saves you from looking stupid in front of thousands of people online, I state the obvious here though a few times admittedly, but only because it appears you're unable to understand anything unless it's presented in such a way.

If I were your employer you'd be looking for a new job. I mean REALLY Liza, Shouldn't you be old enough by now to know better?

oh and for Anna, are you fat? actually for that matter are you fat too Liza?

I think the reason you're so upset is because you wouldn't FIT in one of these cars, don't worry a few MONTHS at the gym and you'll be singin in the rain, wait, poppin' in the rain, whatever..

I bet this gets deleted as spam *laughs*
typical bureaucracy

It's a brilliant ad. A brilliant remix by Mint Royale, brilliant dancing by David Elsewhere (yes, a REAL person -- NOT "bad CG" moves), brilliant recreation of a brilliant set, and the ultimate nod to a beautiful piece of cinema history.

You can't please all the people all the time.

- Eric

Hahaha, lady you have class, to insult not only the masterpiece that the computer graphics artists have spent blood sweat and tears to create, but also the talents of the three masterful dancers that employed their talents in the making of this commercia. Another point is this; the music is not hip-hop, it is techno, and you've also insulted the DJ's who created that piece of art. Aside from all of those insults, you finnally topped it off by insulting the ENTIRE board of advertisements working at VW.

[Comment edited due to crassnes]

You know, with trolls like you I could just easily delete your entire comment and move on. I've edited instead. It's my blog and I say whatever I want in it. You have a problem? Publish your own.

what a load of old bullshit the advert is pure class get with the times

Wow...for a website called Culture Kitchen there's not a whole lot of culture going on here.

Just a bunch of ignorance. It's a fucking commercial! A clever and innovative one at that. Those of you bitching and moaning about the original and its superiority should realize that perhaps this commercial may drive (get it? drive? it's a pun) somebody to go see Singing in the Rain. In this case some culture will have been propagated.

I have seen the film but the commercial made me want to see it again. It's like a visual form of Prozac.

Hello
Can I just say that I am also I great fan of Gene Kelly and a fan of dance including tap. I would like to say that being a fan of dancing I think Gene Kelly would appreciate the new twist on an old style. He was contemporary for his time and was probably open to new dance moves. I wish half the people who are negative about the ad should take a leaf out of Mr Kellys book and lighten up. Get with the times you kids of yesturday.

Hello
Can I just say that I am also I great fan of Gene Kelly and a fan of dance including tap. I would like to say that being a fan of dancing I think Gene Kelly would appreciate the new twist on an old style. He was contemporary for his time and was probably open to new dance moves. I wish half the people who are negative about the ad should take a leaf out of Mr Kellys book and lighten up. Get with the times you kids of yesterday.

I think the overbearing cynicism you have to this ad is totally unjustified. You must be passionate about Gene Kelly films or something, because to completely put down this ad is stupid. "Abomination"? No, it's not art - but we knew that - at the end of the day it is to sell a car. I can't believe you're being so negative towards it - do you have any idea how hard it is to master choreography like that? People often go so mixed up about the final production of it - yes it has to look smooth and is a little disjointed, but it is smooth enough to run with a strong concept and the song is fantastic - you have to remember that it's 18 year olds like me who will be buying this car.

I think completely shooting down something over the principle of it being a disservice to a classic is stupid - the film itself still remains a single article, it's just the director/designer of this ad has decided to put their own twist on it and give it a new perspective, and they've done a good job, in my opinion.

No, it's not the greatest concept the design world has ever seen, but then again they're not claiming that.

It's not the greatest ad ever, but the actual way the song pans out, the brilliant choreography and the skill involved in making an old film star body pop is admirable and deserves any award it gets - not overbearing and sweeping remarks - not everything is black and white like we would sometimes like to think.

Ok, first of all. The concept of the commercial is "The original, updated". It is not "We made Gene Kelly dance a lot better". It goes into what was 'hip' then and what is 'hip' now. It's just different styles.

One of the three dancers is a remarkable guy called "David Elsewhere". Liza (and others calling this an MTV hip hop dance), if you haven't already checked it out then please do :

Couldn't put in link (regarded as spam) but you'll find the link in comment #10

This is a video clip of David Elsewhere (the guy in the orange sweater). You will NOT see this kind of movement on MTV. PLEASE DON'T SAY SUCH BULLSHIT!

I love an old movie and I'm mostly into jazz but I'm always open to new things. The guy who's mostly responsible for the movements in the commercial is a genius. And when it comes to the special effects (putting Gene Kelly's head on the dancer etc) they've done a FANTASTIC job. I do a lot of computer graphics and at first I thought it was a Gene Kelly look-a-like.

The music in this video is very funky and catchy. I like the remix a lot. I don't think it tops the original but it still sounds great. And it has NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! FOR CRYING OUTLOUD... NOTHING TO DO WITH HIP HOP!!!

Since age seems to be a common question in this discussion I'll gladly inform you that I'm 21.

p.s. Love the commercial, can't stop watching it, love the song. I also love the original scene and the original song of course.

You should be happy that they're honoring Gene Kelly's memory. PLUS many people will now check out the original movie simply because of this brilliant ad.

DDB...
I dont know how many of you here are living in the US but all of the bud light commercials during the super bowl were created by DDB

Hats off to DDB and am looking forward to more excellent work from them

Just a few thoughts...
This idea of a person "popping" while using another person's face is not new.
check out Olympus' M-Robe commercial and a Korean pop singer's, JoPD, music video

Dear Liza,

Please, please tell all of us out here in the internet world what underlying psychological endeavour you have against this remarkable and well made advertisement? Did you not know that the Kelly family supported the creation of such an extraordinary commercial? Did you not realize that it took long, hard work to produce such a thing? Did you not know that this form of dance you call disjointed, ridiculous, and 'crappy' requires great skill, practice, agility, balance, coordination, and all around talent? I agree very much with Oskar that this creation is an 'update', not a replacement of or put down of the work of Gene Kelly. And to threaten us by telling us that you will edit or delete our comments is a sign that you have no real support for argument. Before you begin trashing the collaborative works of others, show us evidence that this is a, according to your negatively driven friend Ana, 'grave robbing' piece of 'crap'. So far, the group on the advertisement's side has shown that:
1. The commercial is an UPGRADE, not a put down
2. The Kelly family supports its creation, promotion, and existence
3. Gene Kelly was an innovator who seeked new dance styles, perhaps he would have enjoyed this new version
4. The dance is complicated, fresh and requires the talents of which few have
5. None of the commercial was hip-hop, the dancing is 'pop and lock' and the music is techno

You have proven to the world that:
1. You know nothing of CGI- those were two dancers and an acrobatist
2. For your information, there was only 2 (two...the whole number less than three but greater than one) instances in which the dancer covered his face with the hat, when he vaulted the lamp post and performed the backflip- in the other scenes, Gene Kelly's head had been meticulously superimposed(a process in which, still today, is done by tracing the images by hand and digitally pasting them individually onto the frames, one by one)onto the performers
3. You don't know how to spell the very simple GOLF GTI. Its the word GOLF and three letters G, T, and I.
4. You don't know how to spell GENIE.
5. You believe we are awed by the 'technology feat' (the word is TECHNOLOGICAL, get a thesaurus, or at least a dictionary...oh, by the way, its technology we see everday in films and tv, so no, its not the technology that 'awes' us 'MTV addicts') of the ad when we are in fact awed by the integration of the classic with the new to create something we would have never seen before had it not been for the efforts of the Kelly family, DDB, and VW.
6. You do not see the work of Gene Kelly in this advertisment in anyway, but that of greedy and ignorant car sales men. I wonder whose graceful movements, smooth voice and original choreography inspired the advertising company to make this commercial...hmm...oh, I know...GENE KELLY!

This next paragraph will explain what I mean by that. In order for the choreographers of the dance to properly plan this ground breaking commercial, they studied the exact steps, foot placement, and angle of the head of Gene Kelly. Notice the three splashes made in the water by the dancer? Those weren't really made by the dancer. Those were originally made by Gene Kelly in the movie and the effects crew and choreographers spent much time coordinating the dancers steps to hit the exact marks at the exact time to look like their feet created those splashes when in fact they were dancing along a raised green screen platformed set. And that set behind them?..it's no longer standing. To 'recreate' the set, the creators carefully removed Kelly in a process called rotoscoping (a process used in a new Frank Sinatra show utilizing old home footage)and place in the body of the three dancers and the car. The police officer and the man who takes the umbrella are in the original films. As for Gene Kelly's head, there was no 'spooky' 3d model recreation of it. The head you see is painstakenly pulled from several scenes of the movie than were moved and blended together. Everytime the dancers head moved left, the commercial makers searched for a moment in which Gene Kelly turns his head. The same goes for right, up, down, diagonal, sideways and so on. Those specific frames are then cut together (by hand tracing) and placed digitally upon the dancer. So all of the expressions of the faces seen in the commercial are that of Gene Kelly. The dance coordination itself was choreographed to integrate Kelly's use of space in the famous scene. In theater and film terms, use of space is the manner in which an actor occupies a space and how he or she moves about in it, for example the placement of his head near the post and the stance during the downward shot of Kelly facing the rain sing 'I've a smile on my face'. The voice heard in the commercial was that of Kelly. The costume fitted and tailored to mimic that of Kelly's as was the hat, umbrella, and hairstyle. Finally, the gentle tip of the hat was taken directly from the movie scene. The head, the hat, then hand, and the entire arm were taken from the scene and placed over the dancer. The dancer simply stood in place, knowing that Gene Kelly would perform the tip and not him (an unknown 'special feature' of the commercial).
Thank you. I have said my peace.

"You know, with trolls like you I could just easily delete your entire comment and move on. I've edited instead. It's my blog and I say whatever I want in it. You have a problem? Publish your own."

But isn't that why you put it out here for everyone to see? Perhaps you enjoy getting a rise out of people? Well the point is you know that people will comment on your negativity. This is a very artistic commercial. I had to play it a few times because it was so interesting. If you took offence to it then perhaps you just didn't understand it then. That isn't their fault but your own. Maybe if you were more open minded you wouldn't be so offended by this? There are worse things then this.... trust me.
And I'm sorry my dear but in this day and age there are a lot more young people running around with more money and education then you can shake a fist at. (Maybe you didn't have lots of money when you were young?) Maybe your bitter because of the age that you are and you are scared of losing sight of the things you enjoyed because you know that they are considered old. Well I have met many people that were your age that were so full of energy and were just not resentful the way it seems you are. You even went so far as to write a second article in an effort to save face. You should be ashamed of yourself but I doubt that you will be. Maybe you will write another article. Well to each his own. Have a nice day!

Having seen the commercial and David Elsewhere dance many times (I downloaded both clips) I have to say that this is one of the most masterful things I have ever seen. The blend between the old and the new is almost perfect except for a little jumpiness between cuts (and I can't tell if that's intentional or not.)

I don't see how you can criticize his dancing as "crappy" either. He's obviously employed a lot of skill to make his body move like that. After seeing the Kollaboration video (linked above) and reading the interview (also linked above) you can see the comparison between his usual dance style and what he had to do for the commercial. You can see what he means by having to speed up his dancing a lot, which made him look a little strange at certain points in the commercial, but overall I think it was excellent.

And I really liked the music too, so nyah to you (it's remixed by Mint Royale for anyone who wants to know.)

Seems like you've been unanimously shot down on this one. But I'd just like to add that what Gene Kelly brought to dance in film was spontaneity. Unlike Fred Astaire, who danced when an orchestra provided him with the opportunity, Kelly was ready to burst into song and dance without hesitation, with mastery of moves that were nevertheless made to look as simple and spontaneous as possible. Without a doubt, Golf captured this in the commercial. Gene dances in a way that modern audiences readily understand as absolutely astonishing, yet it's carried off with an ease that undermines its difficulty. The song remix is fucking great - that doesn't mean the original is bad in any sense, of course. And the smile on Gene's face throughout portrays his love for his craft. Absolutely perfect.

crappy?????????????????? that is simply retared. never seen such thing before. amazing