For those who like to follow the legal wrangling over such parody ads, there's this from the NYT, 1973:
A $30‐million defamation and copyright‐infringement suit by Volkswagen against National Lampoon, a satirical magazine, was settled yesterday by an agreement that included a recall of 135,000 copies of a special issue that attempted to spoof Senator Edward M. Kennedy's 1969 Chappaquiddick accident.
Lawyers for Volkswagenverk and Volkswagen of America, Inc., signed the agreement with counsel for National Lampoon less than a week after the auto maker filed a Federal court suit calling a mock advertisement of a Volkswagen in water “tasteless publication of tragic mishap.”
In return for the recall of all outstanding copies of The National Lampoon Encyclopedia of Humor and removal of page 29 from 10,000 hard‐cover copies, destruction of printing plates, a “forthwith” press release by the publisher and corrections in the next issues, Volkswagen agreed to release National Lampoon from all claims. [End of article]
Contrarian's take: A "twofer" for Volkswagen, despite apparently not receiving a large cash settlement! Another year of news stories about not only the 1972 parody ad itself, but the ensuing lawsuit.