Chuck Norris has already inspired advertising for the Volkswagen Gol

Legendary actor and martial arts master Chuck Norris passed away this Thursday (19), at the age of 86. Star of several action films, such as McQuade, the Lone Wolf, Braddock – The Super Command and Walker, Texas Ranger, he also inspired an advertising campaign for the Volkswagen Gol.

During the 2000s, at the dawn of social media, a very common joke was the “truths about Chuck Norris“. They were memes before this term existed.

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The idea was to credit Chuck Norris with the most absurd facts, because in the movies the actor used to be unbeatable. All of them are numbered, check out some examples:

• 5 – Chuck Norris counted to infinity. Twice.
• 19 – Chuck Norris doesn’t read books, he stares at them until he gets all the information he needs.
• 801 – Chuck Norris defied the Laws of Physics. And he won.

Piggybacking on this subject, Volkswagen created the advertising campaign “Truths about the Goal” in 2007. The compact had been the best-selling car in Brazil for decades and its fame was for being a “jack of all trades”.

The facts were equally absurd, such as “it is not the monkey that raises the goal. The Goal is what makes the monkey push the Earth down.” Several TV commercials illustrating these “truths” have been produced.

Volkswagen also created a website called “verdadessobreogol.com.br”, where it was possible to submit the facts and they were listed there. Unfortunately this portal has been deactivated, but it is possible to see parts of it by the Wayback Machine. We recover some:

• Truth No. 8189: When the Gol starts its engine, the Earth trembles, with its power.
• Truth No. 8003: The Big Bang created the universe, the ignition of the Gol created the Big Bang.
• Truth No. 1528: The difference between Superman and Gol is obvious: one is strong, fast, can fall from unimaginable heights, make the Earth rotate backwards… The other is just a Kryptonian.
• Truth No. 236: The Gol does not sing tires. The asphalt is the one that screams in fear.
• Truth No. 6877: The map to find the Holy Grail is in the Gol owner’s manual.
• Truth No. 95: When the Gol reaches the speed of light, it’s time to shift to second gear.
• Truth No. 304: When man reached the moon, the Gol was waiting to show him the region.
• Truth No. 361: In the first “Jurassic Park” the Tyrannosaurus Rex was not chasing the jeep. The Gol was chasing the Tyrannosaurus. And the jeep.

In addition to the jokes, Internet users could send the “real truths”, which were stories they had with Gol. They could also submit animations and illustrations. But even with the Wayback Machine it is difficult to recover the artwork, because the site depended heavily on Flash.

In total, there were more than 270 thousand hits, coming from 82 different countries, and more than 15 thousand truths sent. The only thing missing was Chuck Norris himself to star with Gol.

Chuck Norris also starred in commercials directly

While Volkswagen do Brasil was indirect in references to Chuck Norris, only being inspired by the jokes, other brands even hired the actor. The most famous case is when he was the poster boy for Dodge Ram.

In the series Walker, Texas Ranger he plays the role of the protagonist and is always driving a new Dodge Ram. The images have already been used in commercials and print advertisements.

In 2007 Chuck Norris starred in a commercial for the Honda Ridgeline, the brand’s first and only pickup truck. But they only hitched a ride on the “truths” years later, with the European Fiat Ducato campaign in 2017.

But the brand that matched the actor’s tough guy fame the most was Toyota. In 2018, some commercials for the Tacoma medium pickup were made with Chuck Norris.