Mid-Life Crisis Retreat

Our humorous campaign for Passat centres around a fictional clinic called ‘The Retreat’. Gently parodying places such as The Priory, The Retreat is where men can be cured of their mid-life crisis, leaving them free to appreciate the understated style and integrity of a Volkswagen Passat. 

A video-rich campaign, it launches with a microsite (www.midlife-crisis-retreat.co.uk), a rich media ad campaign and email, with additional video content that can be personalised and sent to friends. 

On the site’s home page, visitors can watch a humorous 60 second film of a man in his psychiatrist’s office discussing his mid-life crisis and how it can be remedied. Visitors can also take the Mid-life Crisis Test so they can evaluate how close they are to having a mid-life episode, as well as find out more about the Retreat’s treatment programme, national statistics (“the average buttons done up on a 46 yr old's shirt has decreased by 2 since 2001”), and hear previous patient’s testimonials (“I finally did it. The rollerblades are on eBay.”). 

Video MPUs launching on Top Gear, FriendsReunited and Yahoo play the same introductory film on the site’s home page, with an invitation to visit The Retreat website. Skyscrapers show other humorous videos showing a man squeezing into a pair of tight leather trousers or another being washed up attempting to wakeboard. In the background, the same psychiatrist advises that if you, like these men, are showing mid-life crisis tendencies, maybe you should also be visiting The Retreat. 

The ad campaign runs until July and is part of a wider brand campaign that includes TV, Press, DM and PR.