First let me say this: I like electric cars for city use. I own and drive one. That said, this has got to be the stupidest professionally produced commercial I’ve seen in quite some time. The ad agency that serves Nissan (as does Nissan management) deserves a smack upside the head for promoting the idea that you can hug a polar bear. Some people are actually stupid enough to try it.
Watch the video of the Nissan Leaf commercial below, then have a look at some of the polar bear attacks on people.
Here’s a few comments gathered in this article at the New York Times:
The ad garnered mixed reviews online. “As subtle as a box of hammers to the face,” a writer for the Web site Autoblog opined.
The advertising blog Copyranter was even less charitable, calling the spot “outrageously manipulative” and “hubristic,” and pointing out that the millions of non-electric cars that Nissan continues to produce each year were “helping to destroy the bear’s ice pack.”
Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic posted the commercial on his blog with the headline “Smug Alert.”
Now let’s have a look at what polar bears actually do to people given the chance:
here’s another:
and another:
Even in sealed captivity they’ll try, though this person was asking for it:
So if you are so inclined by the Nissan commercial “huggy” portrayal, go ahead, hug a polar bear. Win yourself a Darwin Award.
Frequently black bear are prepared as one does ham and tastes about the same if done in the “baked ham” fashion. I’ll guess polar bear could be prepared in the same way. Because of a high amount of Vitamin A you should destroy the liver of polar bears.
A driver in a Nissan Leaf is a polar bear candy bar – crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside.
Inspired by a Far Side comic.
Michael sed:
“I was also wondering how good polar bear meat is to eat? I was hungry at the time.”
Always reminds me of narwhal. And now I have to wonder – is polar bear “the other white meat” too?
Polar bear en truffe et chanterelles
1 pounds of truffles
1 large bottle of Madeira
1 pound of young shallots
2 pounds of chanterelle mushrooms.
Polar bear filet for 4
Sauce veloutée (see recipe online.)
Sear the polar bear filets in a hot skillet. Set aside to rest. Prepare the truffle/Madeira/mushroom stew in the usual manner.
Eat the mushroom stew while you get busy picking the Trichinella Nativa roundworms out of the bear meat. Drink the Madeira for entertainment. (If Madeira is not available substitute any other booze on hand.) Discard the bear meat as you can be sure you haven’t found all the parasites.
If you want a truly effective lifelong diet regimen, eat the bear meat. You will have a spectacular case of trichinosis, and will be thin as a rail till your dying day.
Advertisers pulling at people’s heart strings to sell stuff.
The other one was Kia using Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel to sell their product.
Both equally as manipulative in my opinion because their entire objective is to tap into emotion, not logic. Pure evil.
This ranks right up there with all those other advertising affronts to my intelligence. On second thought it ranks above them, since it is not even the least bit funny or satirical. It is simply cynical.
Park ranger (Yellowstone?): “My problems begin when the smarter bears come into contact with the dumber humans.”
I can’t wait for the whale hugging a fisherman to thank the Asians for not using whale oil by buying coal. It does not get any worse than this ad but time will PROVE me wrong.
Dr. Dave says:
September 10, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Michael says:
September 10, 2010 at 8:38 pm
“…I was also wondering how good polar bear meat is to eat? I was hungry at the time.”
______________________________________________________
“It tastes about the same as Giant Panda.”
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Tastes like spotted owl.
About 30 years ago I had a buddy in college who was a Chicago native. During a holiday break he gave me a ride as far as Union station where a friend from home would meet me. He pointed out all sorts of landmarks that were “famous” to native Chicagoans. One was a restaurant that served all manner of wild game and you could actually get polar bear. The Inuit continue to hunt and eat polar bear but I bet it’s hard to find on a Chicago menu anymore.
Black bear is relatively common on some restaurant menus (particularly out east), but black bear are omnivores. I can’t imagine that a top-of-the-food-chain carnivorous predator would be all that tasty (e.g. lion, tiger, polar bear, etc.).
Is it too mean to want all AGWérs to try to hug a polar bear?
Michael says:
September 10, 2010 at 8:38 pm
“I was also wondering how good polar bear meat is to eat? I was hungry at the time.”
Well, I met a German tourist who was on his way to kill one. The tag for it was something insane, in the thousands (2k?) and I was surprised they even sold them. I’d be really surprised if he ate any of it.
If they are anything like black bear then they probably aren’t the best meat. On the other hand, they probably have a higher fat content and their seafood diet might make them taste interesting. As previously mentioned, the liver has fatal levels of vitamin A in it.
If I have any objection to ‘capitalism’, then this is it. The shameless promotion of altruistic principles to sell stuff for a company’s bottom line.
It also confirms the truism that bad aims are always achieved via good intentions.
Question is, what’s the solution? Surely not more rules and regulations; that requires bigger government.
Always nice to see the Vancouver area in commercials. Didn’t know they had clean, washed polar bears running around the streets though (all the ones at Stanley Park are kind of yellow). That would certainly temper any plans to visit.
Dr. Dave says:
September 10, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Other than man they have virtually no predators although Orca have been known to kill them in the water…but I suspect the whales prefer to avoid such encounters.
And the polar bears have been known to return the favor. They find a hole in the ice where a whale surfaces to breathe, wait for it to surface, then smash the bone round the whale’s blowhole with their paw.
DEAR ABBIE: I think it’s terrible! I mean how could they just clip out the very last scene, of the blood and paramedics, go ahead and use the ad, and of all things, so soon after his burial. Brings back horrid memories every time I see it on TV. What am I to do?
— BEING TORN APART IN CA
Believe it or not, a significant percentage (more than half by some estimates…) of black bear attacks on humans are provoked by the humans getting too close (seeking to have their pictures taken with the bears!) or, even more insanely, trying to PET THE WILD BEARS!
I’m all for this! It could be a win-win situation: keep the bears well fed and help cull the idiots.
This “dances with bears” zoo behaviour illustrates liberal thinking:
(1) Wishing makes it so.
(2) Love conquers all.
(3) All we’ve been told about ___(fill in blank)___ is a misconception.
(4) If one’s intentions are noble, his actions are beyond reproach, ipso facto
(5) We can’t really define truth, so lies are just as valid.
(6) If my cause is noble, then you are evil if you oppose me.
(7) There are no absolutes; everything is relative.
I had a gal at a party tell me emphatically that rattlesnakes never bit humans. I have no idea where she got that loony idea; I suspect one of her college profs was behind it. I set her straight (or tried to), but I really didn’t care if she sat on a rattler. I’ve heard some people say that wolves never hunted people in packs, too. Another nutter told me that Pasteur said on his deathbed that he no longer believed in germs. [The source of that tale was an anonymous health-nut writing ten years after Pasteur’s death. The story doesn’t match those of people who were known to be in attendance at his passing.] These people are barmy in the crumpet.
Doug in Seattle wrote:
“Didn’t know they had clean, washed polar bears running around the streets though (all the ones at Stanley Park are kind of yellow).”
=======
You wonder where the yellow went? … It’s obvious … they brushed their fur with Pepsodent! (It’s been years since I’ve heard that jingle!)
Polar bears are godless monster killing machines, of course.
But look how a leopard who could enjoy a really tasteful snack behaved near a baby monkey:
For the poster yesterday who asks the greenies if they think polar bears die in old people’s homes surrounded by their loved ones: My wife would like to know if that home is next to the child care center for baby seals?
Richard North did a piece on the Leaf a while back
Hits the nail firmly on the head.
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-energy-crisis.html
One reason Anchorage Airport has displays of bears is to “educate” the tourists that bears are dangerous. One would “think” it self-evident that bears are dangerous and to stay away, but there are a lot of stupid tourists.
In 2008, the record Polar Bear was 12 ft + and over 2,200 lbs.
The idea of moving a ton of batteries around every day fills me with horror. They only last about two years and cost the earth to replace.
Introduce a polar bear to an environmentalist.
Lots of stuff about poleybears.
What about electric cars?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/31/battery_cars_destroy_the_world/
Sorry, Anthony. I drive a nice diesel pick up and my wife has an even nicer diesel SUV.