“Forced”… The very spirit of the authoritarian. The commercial is a very effective humorous critique of your view.

The biggest problem with the modern environmental movement is it is turning the personal preferences of the envirotarians into legislative decrees of “forced” compliance. What was once merely your choice will now be the law for all us once free citizens.

It’s going to happen with light bulbs, solar panels, housing and already is happening with paper vs plastic and plastic water bottles. It continues to happen with automobiles as people try to exercise their freedom of choice and envirotarians try to excise the freedom of choice.

I felt insulted on multiple levels when I saw this commercial. Not only were they mocking very real issues, but of all things, they completely ignored the historic associations with some other German-based “green police.” Anyone who has read about the Holocaust knows that’s not really something you want associated with your brand.

If Audi is trying to sell a trendy product, it may have accomplished its goal. However, I’ve found that the best way to encourage investments in cleaner, greener technologies is to inform the intended buyers. They definitely missed that.

There were so many ways they could have engaged their prospective buyers. Speaking at least for myself, all Audi did was convince me I won’t be buying one of their cars anytime soon.

Great post.

On the other hand, some things will need to be forced. I have seen it countless times in my own line of work- we ‘infringe’ on the rights of landowners to ‘do with what they please with their own land’- even when that means preventing them from dumping garbage/oil/sewage in ‘their’ stream.

We live in a global world and our actions have an affect on things, not just locally, but in some cases globally. The individual was not only poisoning his own stream, but all of his down-stream neighbors who were powerless to stop him. In this regard, it was the ‘environmentalists’ and ‘government regulation’ which saved the day, not only for the environment, but the downstream landowners as well.

These laws may be ‘environmental’ in appearance, but prevent the suffering of tens, thousands or millions of individuals as well.

Coming off my tangent, I think the commercial itself was indeed an atrocity. It created a reality for a green authoritarian society oppressing its people (and not the manufacturers of these goods), all while greenwashing a car.

Yes there can be backlash against green initiatives but you also have to have some level of suspension of disbelief when watching ads and movies. Ads have to be clever to discern themselves from all the other marketing messages directed at consumers.

Does this ad work? We won’t know until several months from now when we look at Audi’s sales numbers for this product.

I think I’m like you, and most people. I fill my recycling can every week, and usually only have 1 bag of “trash”. But when you force people to do anything, there’s always a backlash, and that’s what that commercial made me think of. It didn’t make me want to run out and buy that car that’s for sure.