HERNDON, Va. -
Volkswagen of American went the comedic route by recently launching a series of online videos spotlighting a Saturday Night Live star to promote its models.
VW teamed up with SNL funnyman Bill Hader and SNL writer John Mulaney for the "Inside the VW Academy" series, which is composed of 18 videos designed to not only get a chuckle, but to help teach consumers about VW products.
Alongside Hader in the commercials is VW product specialist Danielle Gumro.
The first nine videos were released last week and emphasize key features including safety, performance and technology in the 2011 model-year Jetta, Tiguan and Touareg vehicles.
Each of these models has three dedicated videos, which blend facts about the cars with humorous banter and improv.
"There was a real collaboration between Volkswagen and Bill Hader on the set of ‘Inside the VW Academy,’ and the unscripted comedy resulted in a unique and interesting format to engage consumers," explained Tim Ellis, Volkswagen of America’s vice president of marketing. 
"This high-quality online entertainment highlights our superior German engineering in a new way and underscores all the value you get when buying a Volkswagen," Ellis continued.
Chiming in his comedic two cents, Hader added: “I was excited to get to work with the elusive Danielle Gumro. But I was bummed I couldn’t keep my wardrobe from the shoot.”
VW plans to roll out more videos in March.
The current videos can be seen at www.vw.com or www.youtube.com/vw. Consumers can upload these videos to their Facebook pages and to YouTube, as well.