ABSTRACT
Meanwhile in Germany Volkswagen, which had been operated as a ward of the occupying Allies and then the West German state since the end of the war, announced that the government would be cutting its ties to the company and selling 60 percent of the equity in an initial public offering (IPO). On 16 January 1961, Volkswagen went public. The company had also selected a new ad agency by then. In the spring of 1959 Volkswagen of America, under the leadership of Carl Hahn, began its long and precedentbreaking partnership with Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB). Initial VW billings amounted to $1 million, not including dealer and distributor expenditures, which soon followed the corporate business to DDB. The truck division was assigned to another agency, Fuller, Smith & Ross, but went to DDB within a year.
