Last evening, my better 95+% was flipping through the channels and received the rare: stop, go back to that. What was that? A Nissan “innovation” advertisement in which the Nissan Leaf played a prominent roll, “if you never needed to buy another gallon of gas …”
Watching this well-done advertisement made me think of Who Killed The Electric Car? and how GM used black-and-white anti-promoting advertising in relation to the EV-1 (See after the fold for examples.)
Nissan is aggressively marketing the Leaf, offering it as a sexy product which will, as well, help address the world’s challenges. And, it is doing so in catchy innovative ways. For example, there is Lance Armstrong with the Behind message to let people know that the Leaf, for the first time in his cycling career, offers the potential for biking without car exhaust in his face.
Perhaps the most aggressive, thinking of the political culture of the United States, is this strong (unstated) statement that electrification of transport is part of the path toward mitigation of (that non-existent problem of) climate change.
This Nissan advertisement stands in sharp contrast to many other car companies, such as Toyota’s support of climate deniers via the Lexus Darker Side of Green “debate” series.
As per Joe Romm,
As an advertisement for a product aimed at a specific demographic, I think it is quite clever. I’d give it an A.
And maybe I should add a “+” for the fact Nissan ran this on Thursday’s National Football League opener, which featured the New Orleans Saints, the closest thing we have to America’s team thanks to Hurricane Katrina. Coincidence? I think not.
Romm’s post is highly recommended with many good points and a good deal of links within it. Let me echo Romm in emphasizing the importance of a major Corporation embracing an iconic image re climate change science and using that in a prominent venue (the first NFL game of the year).
A tip of the hat to Nissan and their advertising company for putting out a scientifically sound advertisement (okay, no, don’t try to hug a polar bear) in promoting a real step forward with a product that could truly help climate mitigation solutions move ahead.
EV-1 Advertisement Examples
Ben Popken put it well,
You don’t have to have a PhD psychology to figure out that they were trying to scare consumers away from buying electric cars.
3 responses so far ↓
1 “I was very happy to get blown up to save the world.” // Sep 30, 2010 at 4:55 pm
[…] The question is, truly, whether the bloody ‘if you don’t act with us, you’re dead’ is the right path toward convincing people to join with an effort to create a mass movement to help drive actual and, well, political change. This might be more effective in the United Kingdom (where it was produced and is targeted) than, for example, in the United States. (For a more effective, imo, advertisement for the U.S. discussion, see here.) […]
2 The Power of Zero // Apr 18, 2011 at 12:57 pm
[…] Nissan’s Leaf advertising is capturing a vision of a different path forward that we can hope communicates to and with the public. […]
3 The Value of Zero // Apr 20, 2011 at 9:36 am
[…] Nissan’s Leaf advertising is capturing a vision of a different path forward that we can hope communicates to and with the public. […]