For some reason, I've heard a lot of people complaining about Volkswagen's current line of television advertisements.

I'm sure you know the ones I mean--some people are driving along and, just as you're lulled into the safety of their casual conversation about crying in movies or -- in one almost-self-aware case -- the commercials themselves BAM! They're in car accident.

"I never see them coming." I've heard. "They're too scary. They're too violent."

How can you deride a commercial--in an arena where the main goal is to garner attention--for being a little blatant when ratings kings like Grey's Anatomy and Lost subsist almost solely on the concept of shock value?

Yes, the commercials can be a little jarring, but that's only because they are well made--they're supposed to be jarring. If you have ever been in a car accident, you know how sudden, intense and surreal it can feel. The commercials are all those things, because they're accurate. They capture the intangible aspects of getting into a car accident well enough that any viewer who has gone through the experience can relate to them easily. Dummies don't get into car accidents that often; people do.

It has often been said that without suffering there can be no art. A car accident is indeed a taxing experience, and these commercials are undeniably "art," regardless of how you define it, in both the practical and the abstract sense.

Compared to the recent past, you can get away with a lot more on television today. What was once taboo (specifically hypersexual and ultra-violent imagery) is now acceptable, inasmuch as it's now permissible, which makes for an entirely new vehicle for expression. In the recent past, the art lay in suggesting that these unshowable acts were occurring without actually showing them. But, now that these acts are 'showable,' portraying them involves a completely different skill. With how desensitized we as a culture are supposed to be, it can be challenging to fit something so shocking into such a small area.

Conveying such imagery is a relatively brand new art form for which aesthetics and criteria for evaluation have not yet been established, but as with many other kinds of art, the aim is to elicit an emotional response from its audience. Volkswagen has done a killer job.

Most commercials--car ads in particular--are lame. How many times do I need to see Wrangler drive through the Grand Canyon or a Corolla zip around some inexplicably wet curve? Thanks, but I'd rather see a brand new Jetta get t-boned. I don't care about heated steering wheels or leather upholstery--and I don't even know what fixed APR is--but I'd definitely like to see how my car would hold up if suddenly obliterated by an out of control pick up truck.

At the very least, the spots have people talking, but not only did Volkswagen make an effective advertisement, they made one that is, whether intentionally or otherwise, artistically valuable. Even if it ends up hurting sales in the long run, Volkswagen should be applauded.