National Lampoon, Ted Kennedy, and Chappaquiddick=Great Satire

 

 

[Text:]
  It floats.

  The way our body is built, we'd be surprised if it didn't.

  The sheet of flat steel that goes underneath every Volkswagen keeps out water, as well as dirt and salt and other nasty things that can eat away at the underside of a car. So it's watertight at the bottom.

  And everybody knows it's easier to shut the door on a Volkswagen after you've rolled down the window a little. That proves it's practically airtight on top.

  If it was a boat, we could call it the Water Bug.

  But it's not a boat, it's a car.

  And, like Mary Jo Kopechne, it's only 99 and 44/100 percent pure.

  So it won't stay afloat forever. Just long enough.

  Poor Teddy.

  If he'd been smart enough to buy a Volkswagen, he never would have gotten into hot water.

 
[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for the image and text.]
 

The National Lampoon Encyclopedia of Humor, 1973, edited by Michael O'Donoghue and art directed by Gross.

This publication featured the fake Volkswagen ad seen above, which was written by Anne Beatts. The spoof was listed in the contents page as "Doyle Dane Bernbach," the name of the advertising agency that had produced the iconic 1960s ad campaign for Volkswagen. According to Mark Simonson's "Very Large National Lampoon Site":

"If you buy a copy of this issue, you may find the ad is missing. As a result of a lawsuit by VW over the ad for unauthorized use of their trademark, NatLamp was forced to remove the page (with razor blades!) from any copies they still had in inventory (which, from what I gather, was about half the first printing of 250,000 copies) and all subsequent reprints. For what it's worth, Ted Kennedy didn't sue."
 

[The latter information comes courtesy of Zen at Volks Folks Forum.]