Volkswagen Recruits Top Comedic Talent for “Inside the VW Academy” Series of Digital Only Webisodes

Comedian Bill Hader to Star in Unique Online Series Created to Educate and Entertain

HERNDON, Va., January 3, 2011 — Volkswagen of America, Inc. has created a series of humorous and informative webisodes starring Saturday Night Live comedian, Bill Hader paired with trained Volkswagen product specialist, Danielle Gumro, and SNL writer John Mulaney. The series titled, “Inside the VW Academy,” shows the duo weaving together useful and hard-hitting product features in a compelling and entertaining way. The videos will be featured on the official Volkswagen YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/vw) and on its completely redesigned website (www.vw.com). The series is made up of eighteen videos in total, the first nine branded entertainment clips debuting January 5th.

“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,” said Tim Ellis, Vice President of Marketing, Volkswagen of America, Inc. “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.”

"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," added actor Bill Hader.

The first nine videos feature the all-new 2011 Jetta, 2011 Tiguan and the 2011 Touareg. Each model will be featured in three videos that highlight key features, safety, performance and technology, and each video shows a competitive comparison. The content will provide factual details interspersed with humorous dialog and comedic improv. Consumers will also be able to post the videos via YouTube and Facebook. Additional videos will launch in March.