Conspiracy theorists rejoice! Now there's even more proof you can add to your mounting evidence that Apple and Volkswagen are secretly controlled by the same alien forces bent on global domination. The similarities between the two companies were already spooky enough: both fell on hard times in the early nineties, and both are experiencing a recent resurgence due to slick, quirky advertising (think different, think "da da da") and curvy products that look just a little bit too alien to have developed from terrestrial origins-- the Beetle and the iMac have been compared so many times, we probably don't need to get into that here.

So here's the latest piece of the puzzle: according to Advertising Age, Steve Wilhite is about to join up with the mothership in Cupertino. Wilhite was Volkswagen's "de facto marketing chief" for nine years, during which time he helped revive the VW brand, culminating in the launch of the new Beetle last year. Wilhite left Volkswagen on January 1st, and signed on with a small motorcycle manufacturer called Excelsior-Henderson as the veep of sales and marketing in early February. Now, though, it appears that Wilhite may be filling the head marketing slot at Apple, which Steve Jobs himself has been filling since he wrested back control of the company in 1997. Advertising Age may think "the reasons behind Mr. Wilhite's sudden move from cycles to Macs" are unclear, but to anyone familiar with Jobs' Reality Distortion Field and the advanced mind control techniques of alien colonists, it's really not all that tough to explain.

Apple's official stance is that their marketing post has not been filled, and that "at this time, any names out there would be speculation." But if Wilhite does in fact become Apple's marketing czar (under the close watchful eye of Jobs, of course), you can chalk up one more Apple-VW connection. It's unclear just how long we have before colonization begins, but we're willing to bet that the looming Y2K bug figures heavily in the aliens' plans...