A Wackel-Elvis is a small, hanging dashboard figure designed to resemble musician and actor Elvis Presley. A prototype of the figure was first introduced by the German automobile manufacturer Audi in a series of television commercials which were broadcast in several European countries. The commercials were produced by the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi in 2001 to promote Audi's new continuously variable "multitronic" transmission. Due to a high demand by Elvis fans after publication of the commercials, 15,000 Wackel-Elvis figures were produced and sold at the Audi factory outlet store.
Wackel-Elvis dashboard figure at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee
Parts of Wackel-Elvis
Wackel-Elvis in the Audi television commercial by Saatchi & Saatchi (2001)
Wackel-Elvis retail box
Multitronic is a stepless transmission launched by AUDI AG in late 1999, jointly developed and manufactured by LuK. The capitalization used is multitronic and is a registered trademark of AUDI AG.
Audi Multitronic partially disassembled
Close-up of the multitronic transmission's chain