Guaranteed to get attention, but is it attention the company wants?

"Thinking about purchasing a Volkswagen? Think again," says a boycott campaign announcement from the American Decency Association. "Will you buy VW? We will not!"

The organization has posted the contact information for the carmaker to encourage people to call, write or use e-mail to express their concerns.

"The leadership at VW of America should be embarrassed," one person who contacted American Decency said.

"We definitely wanted to keep the male promiscuity of the rabbit in there," said Rob Strasberg, of MDC Partners, the Miami agency working on the ad plan, told Adweek.

The Adweek report said a coming television commercial features black-and-white Rabbits driven around in what could be perceived as a mating dance.

"The big thought was getting VW to bring the Rabbit back, because we love it. It's playful and fun. It wasn't a leap to go from rabbits to fornication and multiplying," Strasberg said.

The company, which made the boxy hatchbacks called Rabbits during the 1970s and 1980s, is returning the car to the North American market this year and teamed up with the long-time publisher of porn, making a connection between the magazine's rabbit logo and a logo of a running rabbit for the car.

According to promotional materials for the car company, the Volkswagen Rabbit logo "mimics its distant cousin, the official Playboy Rabbit Head logo" in the new ad on the back cover of the September magazine.

The back cover "showcases" models Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson of E! Entertainment Television's "The Girls Next Door."

It was produced "using special simultaneously shot front and back cover images," the company said.

"The Playboy opportunity was a great chance to unite two famous and iconic brands," said Kerri Martin, the car company's director of brand innovation.

The television show, which also has been targeted by various issue groups concerned about morality in the United States, claims to give "viewers an inside look at life at the Playboy Mansion."

An auto industry website noted that the "unique and rather playful advertising tie-in is interesting.

"We're not sure how effective VW's marketing strategy is going to be, but merely wonder if the new Rabbit/Playboy connection may turn off some potential female customers," the site said.

The company even shipped copies of the magazine to car company sales managers.

"Enclosed please find your September issue of Playboy compliments of your friends at VW. We hope you'll enjoy it cover to cover. Especially the back cover," the recent letter said.

The American Decency Association website addresses issues involving pornography and cites a study noting confessed mass killer Ted Bundy discussed before his death how he became addicted to pornography through soft-core magazines and believed his violent outbursts were prompted by that addiction. He eventually was executed in Florida.

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Volkswagen Rabbit Meets the Playboy Bunny

AdWeek, 8/2/06 - As a part of its "Rabbit is back" campaign for Volkswagen, MDC Partners' Crispin Porter + Bogusky said it has arranged for the three Playboy bunnies on the magazine's September front cover to appear in a reverse angle shot on the back cover ad sporting the Rabbit icon. Polybagged versions of the magazine ship this week, the agency said.

Clad only in their panties, one of the models, Holly Madison, has the red VW Rabbit icon, which has been used in guerrilla outdoor postings in the campaign, as an apparent tattoo on her bare lower back. The copy, including the Playboy logo, is in reverse type, suggesting transparency to the front cover, and reads, "The Volkswagen Rabbit. It's Back."

"The original idea was to replace the actual the hidden Bunny icon on the cover," said Rob Strasberg, vice president and creative director at the Miami agency. "But Playboy said no one messes with that rabbit. So we went back and threw this other option at them."

Strasberg said the Rabbit is "one of the most youthful cars, and we definitely wanted to keep the male promiscuity of the rabbit in there, so the rabbit made sense and the target matches Playboy."

The campaign had already suggested the connection between fast-reproducing bunnies and the Rabbit, including a 60-second spot in which black-and-white Rabbits are driven around a city as if in a mating dance. After they emerge from a tunnel, other Rabbits, including ones with paint jobs suggesting the mixed genes of both parents, emerge; dogs chase them down the road; and finally the streets are clogged with Rabbits.

The wild postings have appeared in major cities in unexpected places. Each posting has a specific connection to the city in which it appears. For example, Miami postings show an alligator, mosquito, and rabbit. New York's have a pigeon and cockroach. Los Angeles postings, however, show a Chihuahua and a Playboy Bunny icon as part of the promotion.

Strasberg said the original idea for the Playboy cover came from Jeff Steinhour, a partner and head of account services at the agency. "The big thought was getting VW to bring the Rabbit back, because we love it. It's playful and fun. It wasn't a leap to go from rabbits to fornication and multiplying. But when you can play with another brand's icon, it raises both brands," he said.

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