VOLKSWAGEN’S NAME CHANGE TURNS OUT TO BE APRIL FOOL’S JOKE

What was meant to be an innocent publicity stunt for the German car manufacturer, turned into a PR nightmare.

Earlier this week, Volkswagen announced that it will be changing its US operations to Voltswagen of America.

While the announcement was meant to be an April Fool’s joke as part of the company’s marketing campaign to raise awareness around it’s all-electric ID.4 SUV, the joke was on them.

The Deccan Herald reports that reporters reacted angrily to the stunt. Some said it was tone-deaf coming from a company still recovering from the 2015 ‘dieselgate’ scandal, when the German automaker was forced to admit it had used cheating software in cars for years to skirt emission tests.

With fake news already a highly sensitive topic in the US, many people are angry at Volkswagen for making a joke of a serious matter.

Well, no publicity is bad publicity after all.

Watch the Reuters video below for more on the Voltswagen April Fool’s joke and its implications.

Image credit: Aster Times