Shawn Fanning of Napster fame, turns up as latest Volkswagen spokesperson

Posted April 22, 2008 at 08:18 PM by Sue Walsh

Section: Gadgets / Other, Transportation, Web, Websites, Online Music/Video

Shawn Fanning, who rose to fame as the founder of the legendary music sharing network Napster before crashing back to earth thanks to the likes of Metallica and the RIAA, has turned up in a new role as a Volkswagen spokesperson. The new ads from the German automaker portray a classic 1964 Volkswagen Beetle named Max hosting a talk show. His guests have included Leonard Nimoy from “Star Trek”, David Hasselhoff from “Baywatch” as well as Bobby Knight and Heidi Klum. Each guest discusses a particular trait of the Volkswagen brand.  Max, the Beetle talks about how Fanning brought music sharing to the world and Fanning talks about how the Volkswagen has developed clean diesel fuel. When Max argues that Fanning’s thing is cooler, Fanning wryly replies “Yeah but your thing is legal and trust me, legal is cooler!” Not surprisingly, the word Napster isn’t actually mentioned at all but it didn’t have to be. Everyone knows what “free music sharing service” is being talked about! Keep reading to check out the video…

Read[Valleywag]