The biggest day in advertising – I mean American football – has come and gone. The last calories from that foot-tall pile of nachos have been burned (or stored in and around essential arteries), the Monday morning hangover is a distant memory, and the Drew Brees love-meter has returned to sub-stalker levels. As post-bowl normalcy returns, we can begin to reflect dispassionately on what came to pass: Yes, Roger Daltrey still has pipes. No, Peyton Manning is not God. Yes, a “green” commercial held its own in the ad parade.
…Wait, say that again?
It’s true, Audi’s “Green Police” was a hit. According to my own unofficial laugh poll at the bar, Audi’s spot fared as well as Snickers hard-hitting “Betty White,” almost as well as Hyundai’s instant “Brett Favre” hit, and oh-so-much-better than Budweiser’s “Body Bridge” yawner – just to compare a few. (That’s what I call definitive market research.) But is getting people to laugh about green really that innovative? Is it going to move people down the “funnel” from awareness to consideration to purchase? And, to put it against a loftier standard, will the ad have a legacy? Will it have bearing on the sustainability movement at large?
Good ads respond to context. Great ads forge new ones, and then they drive demand. If you’re going to spend the money to be a Super Bowl advertiser, you best have a truly great ad.
So how does “Green Police” stack up? Thus far, I’ve heard a mix of reviews for Super Bowl XLIV’s only explicitly “green” ad. Putting it in some context (and recalling your darkest SAT memories), here’s the spectrum of opinions offered in analogy form:
Audi’s Super Bowl XLIV commercial: The Sustainability Movement
A) Jimmy Fallon: Late Night TV (i.e. funny but completely extraneous)
Yeah, it made me laugh, but when it actually came to giving me a reason to buy this car, there was no relevant value proposition. So it was the ‘Green Car of the Year.’ So it runs on bio-diesel. So you don’t get stopped by the fake Green Police. Tell me why it’s better for me.
B) This year’s Tar Heels: Tar Heel legacy (i.e. not doing it any favors)
We have seen levity used effectively in the green marketing space before. GE’s “Scarecrow” didn’t take itself too seriously. IBM’s “Treehuggers” was kind of a riot. But unlike these forbears, Audi’s tongue-in-cheek portrayal of greenies didn’t make sustainable technology or green choices look any smarter; it made them look like the only way to avoid semi-obnoxious harassment. Victory for green movement? Probably not.
C) Saints victory: NOLA (i.e. highly necessary shot in the arm)
At a moment when even President Obama and the majority Democratic Congress are intimating that this may not be the right year to focus on explicitly “green” goals, Audi came out with a no-veneers green ad. They unabashedly used the word green. They bravely believed no other value prop besides greenness was needed to sell people on the merits of the car. Audi didn’t say, “This car will save you money” or “It gets us on the road to American energy security.” Instead, Audi said “We’re doing green because green will get us – and our drivers – ahead.” In so doing, they demonstrated more courage and prescience than most.
D) Lada Gaga: Pop Music (i.e. representative of the next generation)
A little wit and humor may not be new in the sustainability marketing space, but such traits are certainly not pervasive. Audi’s ad is on the leading-edge of a trend to make sustainability funny and fun, not moralistic and urgent.
E) Wikipedia: Internet-Users (i.e. purveyor of mass enlightenment)
Audi, like GE in the last Super Bowl, is taking green mainstream – and not just to health- and family conscious moms but to couch-sitting, bologna sandwich-eating, Bud-drinking men. This has not historically been sustainability’s sweet spot. Yet Audi’s ad makes the burgeoning sustainability paradigm accessible to these man’s men by supporting their anti-granola predispositions while still giving green technology a certain universal cachet (i.e. it gets you out of traffic. What guy doesn’t like that?)
F) Retirement: Brett Favre (i.e. a huge step – and about damn time)
Gosh, it’s refreshing to see a little self-deprecation in the green space. There was nothing worthy, nothing bigger issues-oriented, nothing agenda-setting about it. It was just good fun. And for a sustainability movement that’s getting a little tired of fighting the noble battles, it’s freeing to see that we can have a few good laughs (at our own expense) and continue to drive the movement forward at the same time.
Answer: Just like the SAT, it’s highly subjective. But I'm going with (D)
