Yeah, Right.
“Because new is cleaner. The Environment Premium Plus”
There’s an old saying amongst writers that when you write satire, you’ll never beat real life.
This advert shows how: the problem is where to start amongst the rich pickings of nonsense? The idea that scrapping a perfectly good car and buying a new one is good for the environment? That’s an interesting suggestion, as the old, and by implication, dirty vehicles were made by the same people that now want you to buy new ones, so are car companies now saying the very vehicles they claimed were clean and effecient are actually dirty polluters? Have they just found this out?
The really lovely bits are in that green panel entitled, “The Environment Premium Plus.” As presented here, the ‘Environment Premium Plus’ package has the following points: on top of the government handout of €2500 for scrapping your old car, you’ll get an extra reduction, 0,9% Financing, Insurance, and a lengthened gaurantee.
The new Greenwash, coming to a town near you. And if you don’t drive the car companies will take your money anyway.
Back to more positive stuff soon, I promise.
5 comments
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July 17, 2009 at 9:42 am
Nick
They don’t by any chance offer free petrol/diesel as well, do they?
July 17, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Karl McCracken (twitter: @KarlOnSea)
Gah! This sort of thing drives me nuts. The problem is that people fall for it unquestioningly – a sad indictment on the educational standards. My favourite (or is that most detested?) ones are those featuring ‘clean’ electric vehicles. Once we figure out how to generate 100% of all our electricity cleanly, they will be ‘clean’. But until then, they’re just dripping in fresh greenwash.
July 17, 2009 at 8:15 pm
David Hembrow
It’s been going on for ages. About 20 years ago, when I was computer contracting, I stayed for a while in a B&B in London where the landlady was changing her old car for a “green car”. The “green car” was called this because it burnt unleaded fuel. No catalysers in the UK yet.
My landlady was a person with a social conscience who was trying to do good. I tried to explain why scrapping the existing car wasn’t really going to achieve much, but the car company green-wash was just too strong.
“Clean electricity” is a bit of a myth, and even if cars were powered by a truly green source of energy they would still have a huge impact on the environment from their construction, maintenance (tyres etc.) and disposal. Batteries don’t help with this.
July 18, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Nick
On a slightly more serious note, people fall for it willingly, because it’s a way to feel you’re doing good and provides you with an excuse to bury the underlying knowledge that to do REAL good you’d have to change your way of living so radically that nothing would ever be as comfortable again.
“Mankind cannot bear very much reality.” Ain’t that the truth.
And I speak as a longtime advertising copywriter (on car accounts mostly) here.
Sorry about that, but that’s the way we all are. And I do mean all.
July 21, 2009 at 9:29 am
Andy in Germany
I think Nick’s point shows the reason. It tells people what they want to hear so they do it. The whole electric car thing is the same idea of telling people they don’t need to change, just buy more and they will be greener. I don’t hold much hope for people working out that this is twaddle, but I think that the sheer impossibility of replacing petrol cars with electric (a point so far ignored by car companies) will probably force a change.