Ted Kennedy's National Lampoon Ad

ME

[NotchJohnson]

A long time ago National Lampoon magazine had an ad on the back that was satire. It had a VW BUG in the water floating. The ad read "if Ted Kennedy had been driving a Beetle he would be President today." VW Bugs were supposed to float. Does anyone have that ad?

[cweese]

...notch, check out the first page of replies to this post from yesterday :

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1112327/posts

cweese...

[ALASKA]

I used to have a copy of that ad, and probably still do. I wouldn't know where to begin looking for it, I hope someone has it.

[Izzy Dunne]

15 seconds with Google:
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[Mr.Atos]

Maybe Kennedy's nickname should be, "Toonces!"

Atos

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[Libertina]

LOL POST that picture!

[So Cal Rocket]

That was in the National Lampoon Encyclopedia of Humor (1973). It's listed in the contents page (under D) as "Doyle Dane Bernbach" and was written by Anne Beatts. If you buy a copy of this issue, you may find the ad is missing. As a result of a lawsuit by VW over the ad for unauthorized use of their trademark, NatLamp was forced to remove the page (with razor blades!) from any copies they still had in inventory (which, from what I gather, was about half the first printing of 250,000 copies) and all subsequent reprints. For what its worth, Ted Kennedy didn't sue.

[Tribune7]

I always thought it was illustration in which Teddy was saying "If I drove a Volkswagen, I'd be president."

[cweese]

...see post #4...

[Samwise]

Mother threw away all of my Lampoons, Madd Magazines, and Supermans. She told me to quit wasting my money. I could support her well in her old age if she hadn't done that.

I had that issue. That is not exactly the ad I remember. I think someone tried to reconstruct it. As I remember it was a full page ad/spoof with the words "If Teddy Kennedy had driven a Vokswagen, he'd be president today" underneath it.

Does any one else remember it?

[AgThorn]

No, but you could caption this one to say as much!

[AgThorn]

Found this update:

In the early 70's, when VW still sold their beetle in the USA, they
were fond of bragging about how air tight they were. One of their ads
showed a beetle floating in the middle of a pond.
National Lampoon ran the same picture with the caption: If Ted Kennedy
had driven a Volkswagen, he'd be president today!
When a law suit was threatened... by VW, National Lampoon ran the
following retraction: Even if Ted Kennedy had driven a Volkswagen he
wouldn't be president today.

[A.A. Cunningham]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1112327/posts?page=46#46

[Bommer]

If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he'd be President today

It floats.

The way our body is built, we'd be surprised if it didn't. The sheet of flat steel that goes underneath every Volkswagen keeps out water, as well as dirt and salt and other nasty things that can eat away at the underside of a car. So it's watertight at the bottom. And everybody knows it's easier to shut the door on a Volkswagen after you've rolled down the window a little.

That proves it's practically airtight on top. If it was a boat, we could call it the Water Bug. But it's not a boat, it's a car.

And, like Mary Jo Kopechne, it's only 99 and 44/100 percent pure. So it won't stay afloat forever. Just long enough. Poor Teddy. If he'd been smart enough to buy a Volkswagen, he never would have gotten into hot water.

[scotiamor]

How mean-spirited we American conservatives are to poor Teddy. I think that's the reason why Teddy supports the Iraqi Sunnis. As Saddam's sons proved, the Sunnis let you kill girlfriends without any hassle from authorities. In MA, it took a lot of Kennedy money to buy off the Koepeckne family, the judges, prosecuters, police, etc. That would not have been necessary in Iraq under the good old days of Saddam that Teddy Kennedy wants to restore.

[NotchJohnson]

Thanks.