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The German automaker posted the announcement on the website on Monday this week, where it announced that the Volkswagen car brand will now be sold under the Voltswagen name in the US market.
The name change would take place in connection with the company’s increased investment in electric cars and the anticipated sale of the next electric model ID.4.
“Even if we replace our K with a T, we will not change our commitment to building first-class vehicles,” Scott Keogh, CEO of Volkswagen in the United States, boasted in the press release.
Claimed it was true
News of the name change gave the automaker a boost on the stock market, and several of the major US media and news agencies carried the news.
The company also confirmed the name change in a post on Twitter.
“We know 66 is an unusual age to change your name. But we have always been young at heart,” the company wrote.
But the news turns out to be false.
The company admits today that the press release on the name change should be a fun invention to publicize the company’s latest electric car.
The admission comes after company representatives repeatedly assured the media that the news was genuine and not a premature April Fool joke.
Journalists are furious
A spokesperson for the AP news agency reacts strongly to Volkswagen’s deception of the agency’s journalists.
– The Associated Press received repeated assurances from Volkswagen that they were planning a name change and relayed this information. We now know that it was false. We have updated our article after the company’s admission, says Lauren Easton in AP.
– This and any other deliberate publication of false information damages credible journalism and the interest of the people, says Easton.
USA Today newspaper also took a chance, and spokeswoman Chrissy Terrell says Volkswagen categorically denied that it was a joke about direct questions from newspaper reporters.
– The company used this false information to manipulate respected reporters from credible news sources to create rumors about its marketing campaign, it says.
– We are disappointed that the company chose this dishonest form of marketing.
Journalist Nathan Bomey, who wrote the case, chides Volkswagen on Twitter.
– This was not a joke. This was a hoax. If you didn’t know already, we have a problem with false information in this country. Now you are part of it. Why should anyone trust you again ?, writes Bomey.
– I did not mean to cheat
A spokesman for the automaker’s German headquarters tells the Wall Street Journal that they only had the best intentions of the stunt.
– We didn’t want to fool anyone. It was all a marketing tactic to get people talking about identification. 4, says the spokesperson.
In Norway, the Rema 1000 supermarket chain received massive media coverage when in 2017 they changed their store fronts to the Ræma 1000 name.
RÆMA: Rema 1000 changed the facade of its stores in 2017, which turned out to be a public relations stunt.
Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB
The temporary name change was a marketing campaign for the store’s new customer app.
