These Are The Most Tone-Deaf And Insensitive Ads Of All Time

A VW Ad No One Was Supposed To See Featured A Suicide Bomber

Photo credit: Gerlach Delissen/Corbis via Getty Images

Volkswagen was embroiled in controversy after an ad about a suicide bomber went public (it was never meant to be released). VW didn’t commission or approve the ad. A creative team trying to make a name for themselves made it to garner attention.

It featured a Middle Eastern man wearing a military jacket and checkered kaffiyeh cloth parking a VW Polo in front of a cafe where a mother and her baby were seated.

The man had explosives strapped to his chest, but when he pressed the detonator switch, the explosion was contained within the car. The tagline was: “Polo. Small but tough.”