After making its original debut as the ‘Pink Color Edition’ at the 2015 New York Auto Show, Volkswagen (VW) noticed that fans were inspired by the bright pink Bug, causing it to trend on social media with the hashtag: #PinkBeetle. Some diehard fans even took it a step further by having their own cars repainted to match.
So when it came time to bring the colorful car to market, VW didn’t give it a boring and generic name. Instead, it went with the name that popularized the new model, #PinkBeetle, making it the first car to use a hashtag as a name.
VW is marketing the cars release via the channels that gave it its identity, making the whole thing seem like a case of what came first, the chicken or the egg. The marketing campaign is like the car’s color, filled with an abundance of pink.
The car’s official color is Fresh Fuchsia Metallic, but that wouldn’t have been as fun of a name as #PinkBeetle, or the runner up #PeptoBismol.