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.
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I spent some time in the arctic and fully understand the dangers of polar bears. But then there is Ferdinand the polar bear:
Polar bears, of course, have featured in commeccials for Fox’s Glacier Mints – at least in the UK. There’s also a fox, of course.
What will happen to the glacier mints if AGW is runaway, as Honest Al Gore seems to believe?
I’d better stock up now.
The ad should end with the word “Don’t try this at home.”
I live in a rural area, miles away from the nearest town, where roads tend to flood a lot in the hollows so a small electric car would be quite useless to me. I do drive a Nissan X Trail (small SUV) and there is no way I’d swap it for what is basically a wind-up Noddy car with a low wheelbase. I like to keep my feet dry and my tyres gripping the road thanks. Electric cars are for townies where driving such a beast makes more sense.
In this five minute video, the polar bears are shown as threatening. The creepy voice helps to add to the effect.
“Message to the Environmental Movement – Climategate”
This is Too much! 😉 I love Nissan and won’t hear a bad word against them. But that’s because my Nissan is 3.8ltr of twin-turbo V6 NO2 and CO churning speedy goodness 😉
But seriously. Whilst we are on the polar bear subject, anyone want to do an article covering the monstrous ‘facts’ contained on this page?
http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears/climate-change:
Craig: fully paid up member of PETA ( people for the eating of tasty animals )
If this stupid ad encourages equally stupid idiots to jump into polar bear enclosures, I’m all for it.
Natural selection, and all that.
I humbly confess I thought this ad was funny. It was so absurd it made me laugh. I felt the writers knew darn well we are sick to death of having polar bears milked for sentimental value, and was playing off the fact we want to gag when we hear certain theme-music and see a polar bear.
I stand corrected. There are idiots who believe whatever they see on TV. We should insist on a higher standard of truth.
However I have wasted too much of my life impotently raging at TV sets. (My pet peeve is the stuff they advertize as “nutritious” and sell to little kids, when it is fifty percent sugar, and makes kids bounce off the wall,) (and school-teachers cry out for Ritalin.)
We should demand truth in advertizing.
We should demand truth in politicians.
We should demand truth in climate scientists.
However, in the mean time, I sigh and accept the fact we live in a world of outrageous liars. Some of the liars are so outrageous I can’t help but shake my head and laugh.
This ad is a case of that.
If Gore is pushing so much to save the Polar Bears, why not put one of those cute big fuzzy things in his house as a surprise?
Fighting the grizzly
I made my own analysis and compared the Leaf with a Golf TDI… The conclusion here: http://bit.ly/ai7ZlL
If you have ever seen polar bears like I have, up close and personal with no cages, then your opinion will vary. At Ft Churchill Ca, a research facility used for study of the aurora borealis, you do not go outside without a heavy caliber gun at the ready.
These are huge, brutish, no fear, animals, who can kill you with one single backhanded swipe. What are people thinking … Besides if man could wipe them all out, all we would have to do is get more brown bears to move north for free seals. They would turn white quick enough.
What is, has not always been.
Polar bears advertise Bundaberg Rum. I haven’t been able to work out what polar bears have to do with rum produced in subtropical Queensland.
If a wild polar bear had its “arms” around a person like that, the next step would be to bite the person’s neck to make the kill. Then lunch.
The infantile “Disney” version of mother nature still pervades into adulthood.
Meh. I think they seem to understand their target audience with this ad.
I happened to spot this commercial last night and was pleased to see a post on the commercial today.
I don’t often have the sound on for TV – can’t hear it anyhow even with both hearing aids in and sound is permanently muted on my ‘puter – so when I spotted the commercial, I was wondering who made it and where they were going with it.
I admit that I was hoping the upshot was going to be that the poley-bear was going to town to kick someone’s @ur momisugly$$. Disappointing last 5 seconds…
As for the effectiveness of the commercial, I think Nissan scored a home run. A major goal of advertising is that when people are thinking about cars, your brand will pop into their mind and you’ll go check them out. The 370Z commercials worked for me. I certainly remembered them and checked them out. They got their shot at my wallet. (Wound up buying a CTS instead, although I passed on the V-version. I have trouble keeping cars under triple-digit-mph speeds. Outstanding performance and two extra seats. What’s not to like? Vroom! Vroom! Mazda lost too.)
For all of you naysayers of the ad; it worked. You reacted, albeit negatively. The Nissan/electric vehicle connection has been made. If by political force we have to buy electric vehicles, Nissan will pop into your heads.
Bundy Rum (Bundaberg) pretty yummy over ice.
and after a few some people ACT like bears with sore heads..
thanks everyone for the fun film clips:-)
I was wondering if Disney was the first to humanize animals, reptiles, snakes, insects and blobs or did someone do that earlier like Alice in Wonderland. At any rate its an example of how fiction is used in the debate and to sell a product.
As for electric cars, I have enough batteries to charge with cell phones, cameras, weadeaters, lawn mowers, power tools, GPS and such to want to recharge a car before I drive it. I forgot, car and truck batteries. And the hug, while the idiot feels a hug the bear smells lunch. And the animal does not care if its a child or an adult, male or female. They have no restrictions on their hunting license.
ked5 says:
September 11, 2010 at 12:43 am
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.
Sad to say, but all those tourists are our next-door neighbors.
Psychologically, it’s a fascinating commercial that mixes disjoint and opposite emotions associated with 1) a cuddly toy and 2) a merciless killing machine. All that should make you want to buy a car that gives you the warm fuzzies or lets you flee from immanent destruction. I’d love to hear the comments from the focus groups that tested this ad.
“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.”
I presume you are refering to Beluga whales. And what utterly despicable behaviour it is too! Yet if it was someone like Glenn Beck who did that, the enviro’s would be up in arms. What hypocrits they are.
I posted a comparison of recent Green Ads on my blog. I still like the Audi commercial much better.
The ad will help Nissan sell alot of cars. It promotes their Leaf electric car and positions them as a green company (what ever that means) for buyers who care. That will be tens of millions of potential consumers. And it reminds the public that human-caused global warming carries a terrible cost for other creatures. Have a nice day, nutjobs.
There was a technical need in Russia back when Putin was a boy, for a 2-stroke engine to replace a 4-stroke one. In those days, a project like that required party approval which was duly applied for. After a long wait, the answer came back: the committe believes that such a large technical step should be made with more caution and that they had decided to allow the development of a 3-stroke motor to ensure a greater chance of sucess. (If you do not understand why this was a ludicrous idea then you need to get out more.)
Mix politics with engineering and you get a Nissan Leaf which is fuel ineficient to a laughable degree: Burn fossil fuel to produce electricity (efficiency loss), distribute electricity over a distance (efficiency loss), store electricity in a battery (efficiency loss). If you burn the fuel in the car (internal combustion engine), you avoid the three losses. In other words, you burn less fossil fuel.
A car choice is an extension of your personality. If you drive a lifted truck with things hangin off the hitch or a greeneie weenie mobile, the content of the ad connects with certain koolaid drinkers. Their being seen in a car send a message on what is important to them.
You will not see a cowboy wearing a tall hat drive VW beetle. The VW has great headroom compared to most cars.
The Leaf will sell well to flakes. The market will be flooded with trade ins when people discover the hassle. Electric for many years will be a great choice for a 2nd or 3rd vehicle.