Here’s a fascinating little Volkswagen film from 1956, when the German automaker was still finding its voice.

Produced in 1956 by William Wilkens, Germany’s oldest ad agency, and directed by Kurt Wolfes of Hamburg, this artistic little film is called Palette Dansante, or approximately, “dance of the colors.”  Its purpose was to introduce six new colors for the Volkswagen Beetle that year, and that it does, in a remarkably expressive and highbrow way. By the way, among the six new colors for 1956 was the automaker’s first red (Coral Red). The colors are never named, as there is no voiceover in the production, only a musical score.

Charming—and intriguing. It’s the stark and total opposite of the strategy adopted a few years later (1959) by Volkswagen’s U.S. agency, Doyle Dane Bernbach. There, legendary copywriter Julian Koenig, art director Helmut Krone, and crew revolutionized the advertising industry with stripped-down and deceptively light-hearted campaigns for VW including “Think Small” and “Nobody’s Perfect,” among others. “Think Small” has been called the greatest advertisement of the twentieth century. This movie will never be called that; it’s a completely different flavor of soft sell. Video below.