Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Ace of Spades On Audi's "Green Police" Ad

Ace:

Is this pro-green or anti-? Well, it seems pro-green, since it's selling a a "Green" car, and the Green Hero gets to skate past the authoritarian and effeminate Green Police at the end. So... I guess that's supposed to be a good thing, right?

But... so... why is it lampooning green fever?

Go to Ace to see the ad, if you haven't seen it already.

UPDATE - From Michelle Malkin:

... here is the context you need to judge which side Audi is on — from the company’s “Audi Green Police” website:

Who are the Green Police?

Green Police: Who are they? Here is a quick primer.

Every day consumers around the globe are faced with a myriad of decisions in their quest to become more environmentally responsible citizens. Paper or plastic? Bottled water or tap water? Gas or electric? Compost Bucket or Recycling Bin? So many questions; yet so many conflicting answers. It can be overwhelming.

Now consumers have help, from the Green Police.

As part of the lead up to their third consecutive Super Bowl ad, Audi has created a fictional Green Police unit that are caricatures of today’s “green movement”. The Green Police are a humorous group of individuals that have joined forces in an effort to collectively help guide consumers to make the right decision when it comes to the environment. They’re not here to judge, merely to guide these decisions.

Coincidentally, there are numerous real Green Police units globally that are furthering green practices and environmental issues. For example, Israel’s main arm of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in the area of enforcement and deterrence is called; you guess it, the Green Police. New York has officers within the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation that are fondly called the “Green Police”. The Green Police is also the popular name for Vietnam’s Environmental Police Department and the UK has a group who dresses in green as part of the Environment Agency’s squad to monitor excessive CO2 emissions.
Is the Jury still out?

UPDATE -

Commenter Wigglesworth (oh, for God's sake, I'm quoting a guy named Wiggleworth. What has this blog come to ...) says:


Just imagine you had developed a really great car. You wanted it to be fast and powerful and effecient because that's what you value in your engineering.

But you really resent the fuck our of the environmentalist nutjobs. They hate your diesel tech, they hate cars in general, and they probably hate engineering.

So you came up with a car that really is much better for the Earth than a Prius or a train, and you know you can market this car to them, but you resent those fuckers.

Perhaps an ad with those nutjob whackos ruining everyone's life but not finding anything wrong with your car is exactly what you want to say to teh world. Pass that through marketing a couple of times to dillute the message, and this ad is the result. Instead of hostility, they just make it a lark.

there's no doubt Audi wanted to make fun of green losers. The Orange Rind offense? come on.

But someone in the chain realized this car will also sell to those nuts, and decided to laugh and mock.

3 comments:

Epaminondas said...

Maybe some people are missing the irony DNA code.
People, there is no way they can sell Diesel as GREEN in a serious commercial. A actor in a lab coat with a clip board and an HP calculator is not going to convince my cat that diesel is clean with a bunch of figures. It's not a logical argument that wins.

They clearly are also sending a subliminal/not so subliminal msg about the nature of those who think THEY know what's best for the rest. They do it while making an emotional argument about an emotional objection ..clean diesel is an oxymoron. And they made it comedic because think how BITTER that message would be if serious. They would be blasting hte authority and accuracy of the UN, the US, the EU and until very recently the almost accepted science of the day. They'd sound like us. We have great comments but I'd hate to see us make a commercial for something.

You may find a car company who will ride the wave of green, but you won't find one who is born to love it. They make internal combustion engines for gosh sakes, and WILL for quite a while.

This is well done on every level.

Epaminondas said...

Here's more

Pastorius said...

Epa,
You wrote: People, there is no way they can sell Diesel as GREEN in a serious commercial.


I respond: I commented this on another thread, but I don't know if you saw it.

Back in the 80's the car all the "Greenies" drove was the Volkswagon Rabbit diesel. It was considered "Green" because it got 54 MPG.

So, since I pay no attention to the Green Movement, I had no idea that Diesel was a dirty fuel. I thought the greenies liked diesel.

The truth is, the Greenies can't even keep up with their ever-permuting bullshit.