- Vladimir Nabokov, CONVERSATION PIECE, 1945

So, in order to be consistant, shouldn’t Kahomono duct-tape his kids into a big cardboard box and dump them into the bay? Typically, though, econazis like Kahomono want other people’s kids to die.

Yah, so I found this so unbelievably horrifying that it had the precise opposite effect of the commercial’s intent. The wild thing though is that apparently there are enough guys watching the superbowl for whom this sort of commercial is likely to work! But who ar they?!?

They aren’t NoCal Swipples and they aren’t women so…who? Guys who want to impress women? The legendary gay football fans? who?

“Thank you for contacting Audi of America on the subject of our
commercial in this year’s Super Bowl.

Every Super Bowl brings with it advertising that takes a humorous slant,
engages in hyperbole and presents viewers with wry storylines. And it
is in that spirit that Audi presented its tongue-in-cheek Green Car
commercial. Any attempt to read more into our ad strains the bounds of credulity.

We believe it is possible to agree that we all try to do the right thing
in our daily lives to measure our use of resources, no matter where we
fall on the political spectrum. Our Super Bowl ad was simply making the
point that driving an A3 TDI, the 2010 Green Car of Year, is one of
those right things to do.”

AudiTalk

I wrote:

“Dear Krauts:

“RE: Your Green Police ad campaigns”

“The Germans never learn, do they? Please take your Green Police, your overpriced Nazi cars (including all variations of the Strength-through-Joy Wagen) and your ecofascist ad campaigns back to the Fatherland from whence they came. There you can lurk in your gloomy forests, brooding on the ingratitude of der lesser races. If you ever feel inclined to do more than brood, please remember what happened to you 1944-45.”

@Kahomono #60 I agree. This comment thread is full of a pretty disgusting level of “I don’t give a shit how my actions affect anyone else, I’ll pollute if I want to”. (Absolute) libertarianism is not a tenable position in world that has not eliminated externalities. And the externalities from driving a car are huge–CO2 and other exhaust-based emissions including several known carcinogens, rubber and VOC emissions from tire wear, noise, smell, the monopolization of public space otherwise usable for human living space, the fact that every mile you drive increases your lifetime likelihood of killing someone other than yourself with your car.

All of this is not even mentioning the fact that industries like the auto industry and many others flourish on externalizing their costs onto populations who are not their customers, such as the inhabitants of third-world nations who have to deal with the environmental destruction wreaked by the incessant need for more raw materials and fuel. Exploitation of these environments and their inhabitants’ cheap labor is in large part what makes cars (and gas) affordable to you as a (I presume American) consumer. This is not libertarianism–the people being shafted by our consumption were not consulted or given a free choice in the matter, and the planet does not have a voice unless people stand up to give it one. It is parasitic exploitation of a finite set of resources that by rights belong to everyone, including future people, but is instead being disproportionately and unsustainably sucked dry by a small fraction of the world’s current population.

Don’t get me wrong. I have no interest in raiding your home for improperly-recycled batteries or policing your composting habits. I just want to live in a society where everyone’s personal economic decisions reflect their true cost–which is to say, that gallon of gas you or I consume reflects the cost to the world of mitigating the damage it does, or where the price of your new car reflects the cost to the manufacturer of assuming responsibility for taking it back and recycling its materials into new vehicles at the end of its life. Make all the bad environmental decisions you want, as long as the people and ecosystems you are harming are properly compensated for your careless choices.

Thanks to FZ for that paraphrase.

But when you get your panties all up in a twist about being pushed to live greener, you’re peeing in MY pool too now. And my kids’. So go read your Ayn Rand but quit exhaling, K?

Nuh-uh! Everybody knows we don’t do it unless California does it first.

Seriously, though, I was absolutely repulsed… and I’m the co-founder of a sustainability consulting firm. (In my defense, I would like to note that I am the quality/economic balance to my partner’s green fervor. She’s a socialist, too. I’m really not sure how we make it work most days.)

Part of the reason I signed on for starting this company is because I truly believed, “If we do it voluntarily now, the government won’t force us to later.” I don’t think that’s true, though, and I’m kinda freaked out about it.

…and, yeah, Seattle’s approaching that vision at what feels like a break-neck pace. :(

It was satire, but too close to reality. I’m sure there are some eco-facists that thought it looked great.

My problem with the commercial was less the content and more the message. I thought it was a weird way to try and sell a car.