Dying polar bear travels thousands of miles to thank man for buying an electric Nissan.
(via) What an absolutely outrageously manipulative insensitive hubristic piece of Green advertising bullshit. From a fucking car company! A car company who's (non-electric) cars are helping to destroy the bear's ice pack! Ah-HAHAHAHAHA!!! You dicks. By TBWA\Chiat\Day LA.
Previously in: bullshit Green Marketing.
Previously in: terrible Nissan ads.
posted by copyranter @ 1:45 PM
24 Comments:
Can't wait for the director's cut.
That is disgusting. It really makes one wonder, how do they justify all the money spent on an ad like that? Who does that coerce into buying a Nissan??
You've been working in advertising for 25 years. There is no way in hell you have not seen/done worse.
Anon, that's the sniveling tiny person ad industry spirit I know and love! YAY!
(I'm 6-2, btw)
they clearly know their audience.
Let me get this straight. A company that has been hurting the environment finally develops a product that provides good transportation without the ecological impact and they produce a powerful commercial to help move people to join in this movement towards sustainability and you guys think it's a bad thing. Nobody can win in this environment. Let's try to support good behavior and denounce bad behavior. We need more hate like we need more carbon gas emission.
"powerful" commercial... Please rethink your adjective choice.
you're the one that doesn't get it 'anonymous'. Apart from this ad being devoid of any fresh thinking at all ('uuuuh.... eco- ad... i know! let's a use a polar bear! please) this ad pretty much sums up the complete disconnect between our environmental needs and a pervading lack of awareness about how to engage with the challenges.
It is good that Nissan are championing the electric car (albeit decades after it should have happened). But it's still yet another model of the individual/ family car, the production of which is extremely energy intensive and completely unsustainable. Which begs the question, if they genuinely care about their impact on the environment, shouldn't they be focusing on how they can create new, fully sustainable solutions from their technology and crafting new revenue models from this rather than pumping out hundreds of thousands of slightly more 'eco-friendly' units?
Advertising is dead. Long live active social solutions using corporate marketing budgets.
But isn't this about tone? From the moment the commercial begins (the music!), with the shot of the dripping ice, etc., the viewer is supposed to understand that this ad is winking at the "eco-ad" mode. It's a serious subject (the environment, global warming), but the ad resists casting the choice to buy this car in terms of a superior ethical choice.
I got that the first viewing, but the "wink" is too subtle, obviously, judging but the reaction to the spot around the web by some pretty smart people (me not included).
do the earth a favor then, build us an ad of that polar bear gone to tennessee to maul a nissan exec for blocking fuel efficiency regulation.
I think Electric Vehicles are the right way to move. Better than hybrids. Hydrogen not here yet.
Sustainable energy production will do the rest.
Is the ad too obvious? Maybe, it's funn though, that's it.
You're all right though, brands want to be green at all costs. Fact is maybe Leaf does it.
What do you think that electric car runs on, alejwalker? Magic unicorn juice? Somewhere, just over the horizon, there's a giant coal-fired power plant generating its electricity.
Copyranter wrote:
"A car company who's (non-electric) cars are helping to destroy the bear's ice pack!"
Q: Can you prove this? If yes, I guess you are the only one on this planet who can!
Autos produce over 3% of all the CO2 created, which helps increase global warming, which causes ice packs to melt. I know this doesn't "prove" it. But why don't you prove that cars don't help cause global warming to me? I'm all fucking ears.
Anonymous,
Coal -> central power plant -> battery -> motor -> wheels is somewhat more efficient than gasoline -> refining (spilling!) -> engine -> wheels, and as the electricity mix changes to less coal (as in California and the Northwest), electric pulls further ahead.
An electric car is better for the environment than gasoline. Shrilly pointing out how it's not absolutely good or greenest for the environment is just a cheap way for people doing f***-all for the environment to feel better about their pathetic inaction. Such people are the real source of smug in these debates.
Inaction alright...like NOT owning a car for 20+ years, and only taking public transportation. Horrible for the environment.
@copyranter, I was responding to Anonymous, but a big (squeezes eyes shut, gives thumbs up) South Park "good for youuuuu" for your lifestyle choices, seriously.
If you're upset about people continuing to drive polluting cars, say so. Criticizing Nissan for marketing and selling them a less-polluting alternative is muddle-headed, and it only supports the do-nothing majority, even if you're mot a member.
@hapa, The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers does the most to resist environmental legislation aimed at cars, and Nissan isn't a member.
Remember Nissan is a Japanese country who go around harpooning whales for leisure. Whale meat is on the menu at around a sixth of Japan's state-run elementary and junior high schools - this info is readily available online. The Japs are soulless murderers as proved by WWII and would gladly eat that Polar Bear after the shoot was done for Nissan. This is the price paid for the over-population of this planet of "consumers" and the resulting dumbing down of said consumers, too stupid to realize they are born to SHOP!
OK I have read through almost every blog on this site and I can tell you all that I am sick to my stomach from it!! First and foremost the ad is not onll amied at getting interest in buying a Nissan, but at making people open their eyes to what we, by we I mean everyone on this planet, are doing to destory our home! We as a people take for granit that the earth will be here forever and we can do whatever we want. Fact is that this planet may or maybot be here for ever, I'm guessign it will be, but will it maintain it's ability to substain life as we and our forefathers knew it. Probabbly not. SO get off your hollier than thou soap box, stopping pointing fingers and bringing up bullshit like whale killing & over bredding and take a good long hard look into your life and see what you aren't doig to preserve our home. Yea it has taken a long time for a car company to make this type of move, but at least they are making an effort which I am sure most of us arent!! SHould we have been doing this before now, YES, but have you ever been in attendace in congress when they, those whom we have elected to serve us, have turned a deaf ear to this issue in return for big monies from oil companyies? I's guess not, & no I haven't seen this for myself either, but i can see it happening.
In closing I think it only fare that I confess that I am a Nissan employee in their fine manufacturing site in Tennessee. No I am not a dumb country boy, nor am I blinded by the fact that I work for Nissan. WHat I am is a grandfather who very much wants to see his grandchildered grow up in a healthy, safe and properous environment. With the ability to make changes and stand out as a leader without the worry of some dumbass, bitter people dogging them for it!!
Living in NY, a mega city, and claiming you're green because you don't drive a car is a pretty thin argument. Cities suck resources out of the surrounding countryside; every bite of food you eat has to have been shipped/flown/trucked in, as are all the other goods you buy, merely by living you are adding to the carbon more than most others on the planet. Being an advertising copywriter means you are at the heart of the capitalist destruction of the planet, you are encouraging people to consume more [if you are good at your job] and are thus even more responsible for more carbon than most. So lay off the holier than thou, look at me pointing the finger at Nissan pose, you ain't green. And your put down of those who disagree as 'sniveling tiny person' is pretty juvenile don't you think?
If one buys one's power from a renewable supplier [as I do] it means electric cars can be charged totally environmentally. Plus, at the end of their useful life, the batteries can be sold to the power grid for storage, making the intermittantancy of wind power a non issue. Of course car makers aren't green, of course the ad is a manipulation both of the consumer and the truth, so what's new? You know the business after all. You must be short of things to rant about. I won't be buying a Leaf, can't afford a new car anyway.
You want to hear something embarrassing? I pretty much had the same reaction to this ad as most of you all...but it wasn't my first impression. Which involved a lot of "awwwwwwwws" and sending the link to the ad out to everyone I knew praising it. They got me - at first. Pretty embarrassing.
It's not embarrassing, you're just not an angry pessimist.
I don't think I have ever seen a whole blog site dedicated to trolling. But lemonade from lemons... people are being expressed. copyranter, you obviously don't care who likes you...anonymous web blogging facilitates that and I can almost nearly respect that. I like watching a polar bear. I like it. He's almost cute...never beat a kitten or puppy. Once the logo goes up, my guard goes up. I watched WAY too much TV as a kid and somewhere the switch went on...they want you to buy stuff. OK. But you can kill some time and maybe generate some click revenue spinning your angry sarcasm into inciteful reading. Enterprise on!
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