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.
Mark Folkestad says:
I had an argument with a staffer at the Alaska Marine Highway ferry terminal in Ketchikan a few weeks ago. I happened to mention that I would be always carrying a stainless steel revolver on my hip at last-ditch protection against bears.
A more reasoned objection would be that a rifle is likely to be more use against a polar bear than any handgun.
Sigh! Obviously the other Mark just above did not read my clarification. The discussion with the ferry staffer revolved around the possibility of my encountering a BLACK bear on my wanderings around Prince of Wales Island, at the south tip of the Alaska Panhandle.
I remember the grizzly man. He had no use for information from scientists. Better dead than informed.
Where is the link to the guy in BC fedding one of the 22 bears around his house out of his hand?
Could you please give the url to your post about people offering cokes to polar bears after watching the super bowl.
The actor/Polar Bear in the commercial lives a few doors down the street from me in Abbotsford, BC, and seems a gentle sort. The bear is a professional actor and has had numerous acting jobs.
I agree that it is irresponsible to misrepresent Polar Bears, as a species, as gentle and loving creatures. The bear in the commercial is not a wild Polar Bear but rather a large domesticated/tamed animal that looks just like a wild Polar Bear.
Panic is over. Given that neither man nor beast cast an appreciable shadow, or reflect in the paintwork of the car, what we are seeing are two Undead greeting each other.
Both will be trawling the neighbourhood to eat human brains once the smoochies are over…
Pogi the Polar Bear from Ice and Stone Park – “I’m smarter than the average warmie – pass another tree hugger from thepic-e-nic basket, Hoo-Hoo”
Polar bears be dammned, not many people are going to by a $32,000 sub compact car + like $3000 for a charging station (of course Uncle Sam will make us regular Joes foot at lesat part of that bill unwillingly). Also note that the vast majority of the worlds population that doesn’t have a garage are kind of SOL. If you live in an apartment, condo, or townhouse tough biscuits. 100 mile range (on flat surface, with no AC or heat, in warm weather), 100 hp, for basically $35,000? Uh, no thanks, I’d rather hug the polar bear.
Luboš Motl says:
September 11, 2010 at 12:01 am
Re: The Leopard and the baby – I have seen that behavior with our domestic cats. They have killed many a squirrel (and other small animals), but twice when a baby squirrel was blown out of its nest, none attacked it. They guarded it until my wife or I came out and picked it up.
I wonder if that is a feline trait?
>>you can hug a polar bear. Some people are actually stupid enough to try it.
Not more than once.
Luboš Motl says:
September 11, 2010 at 12:01 am
“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:”
My neighbor, who comes from South Africa, emailed me a photo of a female Rhodesian Ridgeback, nursing a piglet that had become separated from its mother. It’s ironic, considering that Ridgebacks are the premier lion-hunting dogs in the Southern part of the continent. And it’s especially surprising, considering that she hadn’t been lactating when she was first approached by the piglet. Sometimes the tend-and-befriend drive trumps the prey drive.