40 Years of Vorsprung Durch Technik

"Vorsprung durch Technik" is a marketing tagline synonymous with Audi. The tagline was first used in 1971, for the NSU-Audi brand. I may be wrong, but I reckon "‘Vorsprung durch Technik" is the longest running marketing tagline for cars. BMW abandoned its "Ultimate Driving Machine" tagline sometime in the late 90s in favour of "Sheer Driving Pleasure" and most recently, "Joy." Although a recent TV commercial commissioned by BMW USA for the F10 5-series ended with the original "Ultimate Driving Machine" tagline, that was partly because the ad had the retro-90s theme to it; a remake of Shell TV commercial refueling a Ferrari F1 car with a refueling plane, which was one of the most recognisable ads of the era.

Back in 1971, Audi was a cog within the Audi NSU Auto Union AG company. "Vorsprung durch Technik" was adopted by both NSU and Audi branded cars. It was only in 1985 did the company became Audi AG. The NSU brand was dissolved in 1977, after warranty claims of the highly innovative but unreliable rotary engine powered NSU Ro80 (in the picture above, red sedan in the foreground) brought the company down to its knees.

This year, ""Vorsprung durch Technik" will be 40 years old. The German tagline is translated is translated into English to literally mean "advancement through technology." However, English cannot fully capture the meaning of "Vorsprung" (German "V" is pronounced with an English "F") which means "to leap ahead."

We are not sure who created the tagline but design consultancy Metadesign was commissioned by Audi in 1993 to expand the brand's tagline. Metadesign was credited for creating the Audi typeface, created by Paul van der Laan and Pieter van Rosmalen. The typeface began appearing in all Audi's communication materials from 2009 onwards, the year Audi celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Although "Vorsprung durch Technik" is Audi's main marketing tagline, it is not adopted across the world. Though it is used in English speaking UK, USA however does not use it, understandably so, considering the insular nature of American consumers versus UK buyers, many whom may minimal fluency in German, due to their proximity to the European continent. In USA, the tagline "Truth in Engineering" is used instead. But more importantly, Audi's largest market - China, does not use the ""Vorsprung durch Technik" tagline, for obvious reasons.

The tagline has since transcend automotive industry and into pop culture. In 1993, the band U2 included "Vorsprung durch Technik" in the lyrics of its song Zooropa.

Below are some early English language (UK market) ads featuring ""Vorsprung durch Technik."

Below is a TV commercial explaining the whole Vorsprung durch Technik mantra.


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