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Comment by adrianb | Hacker News Reader

If anything, this is an amazing insight onto how the media will report anything from a press release without a minimum of investigation. The name change was essentially breaking news everywhere.

- they're changing the almost 100 years old name with... a pun on that name? Even a teenager would see it as a joke.

- the announcement comes out 2 days before April 1st and is deleted from the website shortly after publishing?

- the media packages it as an amazing "leak" and spins it into VW attempting to distance themselves from the diesel scandal?!

I'm worried if we trust a press that can be so easily and obviously misled.

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I certainly didn't think it was a joke, it's seemed a perfectly reasonable thing to do

* They got in trouble for diesel

* They're pivoting to electric

* The name sounds really similar, within the bounds of accent changes between cultures

* The logo (VW) wouldn't have to change

If it was a joke, then it failed because it was too realistic

I don't see it as a joke, but rather a marketing gimmick. IHOP did it a year ago (IHOB to announce their new burgers), and it got them a ton of press. I bet Volkswagon saw that and wanted in.

Probably kind of both at the same time, I think.

Clever puns and wordplay gimmicks seem to always stir up a bit more press and word-of-mouth than just regular business decisions.

Making it interesting without being too complicated to hold the interest of the public is a fine line that a lot of marketing firms are good at walking, although unfortunately some are just terrible.

My thoughts exactly.

There was verification - and intentional misleading on VWs part - before talking about it. It was not quite the "read press release and instantly write articles" timeline you've dreamt.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/volkswagens-name-change-of-u...

> An unfinished version of the initial press release went out briefly on VW’s U.S. media newsroom website Monday morning before it was taken down. Media outlets, including CNBC, *reported it as news __after__ it was confirmed by unnamed sources within the company, who apparently lied to several reporters.*

Or the "unnamed source" checked their website, assumed it was what it was and confirmed it.

They quite literally - and it is still this way - changed the branding on their Twitter account AND TWEETED ABOUT IT so I am not sure why we should be beating up the press over this.

ref: https://twitter.com/VW/status/1376868756782219266

There’s nothing unprecedented about a company temporarily changing branding and tweeting about it during April Fools day.

2 days before April Fools day is not April Fools day.

Sure, but if a global company pulls a stunt like that (pun and all) 2 days before April Fools day, it’s probably related to April Fools day.

Given all of the signals, and the proximity to April 1st, a little bit of sobriety and common sense would have gone a long way. As it is, the news outlets added zero (0) new information on top of what was in the press releases.

Like how Halloween is now the entirety of October, should we expect the duration of "April Fools" to inflate, leading to an entire Mischievous March?

Regardless of proximity to April Fools; VAG is a publicly traded company. I think that a lot of people would prefer they didn't misuse their official press releases for banal pranks.

Who said anything about a holiday being an entire month? We’re talking about 2 days; and really 1 day for the time zone that’s furthest along.

If someone tweeted about pumpkins and skeletons on October 29th/30th, it’s probably related to Halloween.

Which ones of VW’s size, on March 30?

> On March 30

You mean publishing what sounds like a joke 2 days before April 1st? Occam’s razor would suggest that it’s just a premature April Fools joke.

Except it is not April Fools day

Minimum of investigation? It's a story about a company's self-reported intention.

So investigate why it’s their intention. If you’re just going to repeat the press release I might as well read the wire myself. What are the journalists for?

The criticism I was replying to was that the info the journalists were reporting wasn't reliable, not that they weren't adding additional value.

I mean, that's exactly what they did:

> - the media packages it as an amazing "leak" and spins it into VW attempting to distance themselves from the diesel scandal?!

Your criticism is fair in general, but in this case CNBC claims the fact checkers were actually lied to when they attempted to confirm:

"Media outlets, including CNBC, reported it as news after it was confirmed by unnamed sources within the company, who apparently lied to several reporters."

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/volkswagens-name-change-of-u...

Also, I took a screenshot of the press release in case anyone missed it:

https://i.imgur.com/kJLMX5L.png

> I'm worried if we trust a press that can be so easily and obviously misled.

Roughly ~55% of Americans don't trust the press. What's more worrying is the void that leaves, to be filled with marketing / spam / "fake news" style manipulation that tells people what they want to hear.

Didn't IHOP do this a couple years ago?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/07/10/ihop-fake...

Yes, the media reporting makes those outlets who did look foolish; that being said, this could have been a trial balloon or one hell of news play by VW to get a lot of people to realize they have a fleet of EVs.

The latter being actually true, but whithout the cost of actually changing their name, right?

Or just a tiny fraction of the cost..

http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Also, why is this such a big deal?

Just change the name and change it back, the media can have at it, not their problem. Ultimately it's the car that matters.

> Just change the name and change it back

For real? A company with global presence, to LEGALLY change their name? And then run through the bureaucratic hell with countries, tax authorities, customs, contracts, insurance companies, changing logos/templates..

Do you have what is the actual cost to change a name for a company?

The top hit on a DDG search:

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-do-i-change-my-business-na...

Before you start the process, think about the costs and time to change a business name. The legal change of business name is only one part of the process and the cost. The other part is making the change in all the places where your business name is displayed to the public and internally and on legal documents.

Now take this and apply it in (practically) every country on the planet, as VW is not a single store across the street.

You don't have to legally change your name, you can just change it on your website as long as nobody else is using it.

Well, Daimler announced something similar just about two months ago: https://www.daimler.com/investors/reports-news/financial-new...

It wants to separate its car business from truck business and plans to rename the car business to Mercedes-Benz - the brand name it's been using since virtually forever. It's probably also a PR stunt, I don't know.

Oddly enough, they are taking their name off the Superdome.

You don't need to legally change the business name. In fact, many of the businesses you're familiar with are incorporated under unfamiliar names. Rather, you can often just register a trade name (aka DBA name), which is a sort of formal alias which in principle is readily resolvable to the business name. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_name

But that still requires plenty of costly changes. They will still have to amend the name in every country, every poster/sign, paper templates, stamps, cards. When you create yor company you still have to declare both the legal entity name "XYZ Ltd" and trade name "X".

It means that they have to send teams (outsource most likely) to every building, in every country, measure, create new models for each dimension, replace. Then, one month(?) later after the fun part is done, they will have to go back and redo everything.

Perhaps it won't cost them 100m, but it will cost them 50m. And then another 50m to change it back.

Turns out they are making the change after all.

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