German automaker enlists Star Trek stars for new ad

Looking for a new or used car to replace the one you've got? If you are, Volkswagen is hoping to attract your business with a new marketing campaign featuring Kirk and Spock of the original Star Trek series.

William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, who played captain James T. Kirk and Vulcan Scientist Mr. Spock, respectively, will star in the automaker's coming commercial for its first electric car, the e-Golf.

While the German manufacturer's vehicles are known to be well-constructed (when not assembled in Mexico), VW struggles to make the listing of best-selling cars. According to car tires.com's blog Kicking Tires, Ford cars and trucks, the Dodge Ram Pickup, Chevrolet's Silverado truck, the Toyota Camry and RAV4 and Honda's CRV and Accord comprise the Top 10 best-sellers for 2014 in the United States.

Volkswagen was one of many German companies that were complicit with the the Nazis during World War II, and in recent years, it has made an effort to remove that stigma from its identity. In 2011, the car maker donated $1 million dollars to the Anti Defamation League (ADL), and last year, it donated more than $1 million to the international youth centre at Auschwitz in Poland.

In one of our earlier posts this year, we brought you excerpts from Nimoy's in-depth interviews conducted by the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project. In one of the three videos, Nimoy explains the story behind the Vulcan salute. Could it be that VW's bold ad strategy was inpsired by the fact its logo looks like Nimoy's iconic hand gesture?

It is truly a meld for the next generation.