Summary
- Campaign: “Porsche 111 Diesel Cabriolet” / “A Very Special Car Needs a Very Special Service”.
- Brand: Porsche Service (Porsche AG / DDB).
- Focus: Highlighting Porsche’s relentless dedication to customer service, heritage preservation, and brand heritage, regardless of the vehicle model or age.
- Core Message: Every vehicle that carries the Porsche crest deserves the highest standard of engineering expertise, white-glove care, and respect.
- Key Insight: Over 70% of all Porsche vehicles ever manufactured are still operational today. By playfully reclassifying a humble 1950s single-cylinder Porsche-Diesel 111 tractor as an “open-top Cabriolet,” Porsche used warm, self-aware humor to demonstrate that its service technicians treat every piece of Porsche history with the same reverence as a modern supercar.
Ad Plot
The advertisement uses a clever misdirection based on automotive terminology:
The ad opens in a sleek, ultra-modern, clinical Porsche service center.
A young female service advisor takes a phone call from an elderly farmer who speaks in a thick German accent.
The farmer states that the “starter is sticking” on his “Porsche 111 Diesel Cabriolet”. The advisor trained purely on high-end luxury sports cars grows confused.
She politely tries to correct him, asking if he means a 911 Cabriolet, because Porsche obviously doesn’t make diesel convertibles. The farmer firmly insists: “No, a 111 Diesel Cabriolet.
A few days later, a bright red, impeccably maintained 1950s Porsche-Diesel Junior 111 tractor slowly rumbles onto the pristine dealership driveway. It technically is a diesel, and because it has no roof, it is playfully dubbed a “cabriolet”.
Instead of turning the farmer away, a veteran Porsche mechanic smiles, walks out and treats the vintage agricultural machine with the exact same precision and respect given to a modern supercar.
Reception & Recall
The “111 Diesel Cabriolet” campaign became a viral triumph for Porsche Service across global digital channels, accumulating tens of millions of views on social media and video platforms.
- The primary tagline, “Whether classic or modern… we’ll do our utmost for your Porsche,” highlights that Porsche never abandons its engineering. It proudly reminds customers that over 70% of all Porsche vehicles ever built are still on the road today
- The ad resonated deeply with automotive enthusiasts because it wasn’t fiction. Ferdinand Porsche designed “people’s tractors” in the 1930s alongside the VW Beetle to help mechanise European farming. Between 1956 and 1963, Porsche-Diesel Motorenbau GmbH manufactured roughly 120,000 tractors. The specific tractor in the ad the Porsche-Diesel 111 “Junior” was a highly dependable, single-cylinder, 14-horsepower workhorse built to outlast generations.
- The commercial remains a masterclass in emotional branding, proving that a brand’s legacy is defined just as much by how it treats its oldest, humblest machines as it is by its newest supercars.
