Greenpeace: Attack of the VW Ad Clones

During this year's Superbowl Weekend, Deutsch launched "The Force," a successful TV spot for the 2012 VolksWagon Passat.



It ranked highly on the Superbowl Ad Meters. The video above was a huge viral success with over 40 million views to date. It also won a Gold Film Lion at Cannes.

It found success through the use of nostalgia (the iconic Star Wars Imperial March Theme by John Williams) combined with a storyline involving a cute little Darth Vader who's having a hard time mastering "The Force" - until his father helps him out with the VW Passat beeper.


THE GREENPEACE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Fast forward to this week, where Greenpeace - unable to conjure up any original message of its own, decided to target VW.

Here is the viral video launched at the start of the week.



A second segment was released on the same day.

These videos were released in several different language versions.



OK. So the little Chewbacca, Leia and Lando are also cute. The VW logo is displayed on the recreation of the "Death Star". The clips use real imagery and footage from the Star Wars films.

A few questions... If they went to all this trouble to make these clips, why is the Death Star ray still green?

And why did Greenpeace single out VW in this "Dark Side" campaign?

Looking at the statement on Greenpeace's website, it is clear this was aimed at a European audience - and yet they chose to parody an American viral / TV spot. The message they are attempting to convey is that "VW is opposing key European laws that we need if we are going to save our planet from climate change".

Greenpeace "Dark Side" Guerrilla Banner
for the half-witted, scruffy-looking Nerf herders.

Greenpeace have also taken to guerrilla tactics by throwing banners over existing billboards advertising other unrelated brands such as Budweiser and Schweppes in London. The VW logo is positioned over Darth Vader's mouth.


MAY THE LAWS BE WITH YOU

Unlike Deutsch and VW, Greenpeace failed to get the rights to Star Wars copyrighted material from Lucasfilm.

As a result, the two "Dark Side" vids were pulled from their site and YouTube (the ones I have embedded above are reposts from other YouTube users and may not last). There are also copies posted on Vimeo but these will most likely be pulled again due to copyright infringement.

The use of the VW logo may also be a breach of copyright laws.

It appears that Greenpeace never completed their training in legal issues. Their viral videos didn't even last a full week - granted there are "shadow" copies still floating around. The billboard banners have most likely already been removed.

If this planet is really headed towards the dire straits "sky-falling-in" catastrophe that they've successfully labelled as Climate Change, why are they resorting to cheap, underhanded tactics to get their message across?

Did it work?

Will VW be persuaded to change their perceived anti-environmental policies?


IMHO this is a poor effort by Greenpeace. Unoriginal and unimaginative. Did they employ an ad agency or did they come up with this all by themselves?

Their campaigns are becoming more and more militant around the globe.

To Greenpeace, I offer these words of wisdom, as delivered by Yoda in "The Empire Strikes Back" -

"Wars not make one great."

Aussie Beer Ads - The Real Fair Dinkum Deal

Everybody has seen those Fosters beer ads which promote their brand as "Australian for Beer." You would think Fosters is a popular brand of beer in Australia.

Frankly speaking as an Australian, I can say that everybody knows about Fosters but I don't know anybody who actively seeks to drink it. It's viewed as more of a beer for exporting - "fosterizing the world" and not so much for actual consumption.

As a nation of beer-sculling larrikins, the Australian beer market is highly competitive. Likewise, the market for Australian beer advertisements. These are usually divided into the different regional and state beers which dominate the market.

There were some classic beer TV ads from the 1980's. From the jingoistic Victoria Bitter ad which ended with the line, "matter of fact I've got it now" (from Victoria) to Queensland's XXXX brand beer (pronounced fourex) with the tagline, "Australians wouldn't give a XXXX for anything else."

Another recent viral video by Victoria Bitter (VB) called "The Regulars" is an "ad for the every-man" and speaks directly to and for VB's target audience. It was launched at the start of summer, 2009, by ad agency Droga5.

Other memorable campaigns include Tasmania's Cascade "Big Cans" and the more recent and disturbing "Tongue" ad for Tooheys Dry. I'm not sure if crawling detached tongues really makes me want to try a Tooheys.  

But there has been a series of TV ads in recent years for Carlton Draught that has really got people reaching for their beer.

It began to take off with a viral video named the "big ad" in 2005 - which eventually ended up on TV. Carlton  Draught's "Made from Beer" campaign by ad agency, George Patterson Y&R, won numerous awards and grew to an epic popularity worldwide.

This parodied both the big blockbuster Lord of the Rings movies released earlier in the decade as well as a memorable "Global Face" TV ad for British Airways back in 1989.

The song parodied in "Big Ad" is Carl Orff's "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana. The production had a cast of approximately 300 extras. The rest were added digitally with CGI.

This was a tough act to follow but in 2006, Y&R launched "Flashbeer" - which silenced the critics again.

Another parody - this time the iconic final dance scene to the 1980's dance movie classic "Flashdance." The song from the movie is Giorgio Moroder & Irene Cara's "Flashdance... What A Feeling." The popularity of this ad also sent it into the viral halls of fame.

So how did Carlton Draught follow this up?

In 2010, they turned to Clemenger BBDO - who continued the "Made from Beer" tradition with the TV ad "Slow Mo."

The ad makes classic and iconic "slice of life" scenes inside any Aussie pub look almost classy and tasteful with the slow motion effect and the accompaniment of a "Nessun Dorma" parody. If you listen closely the words have been changed - not everyone picks this up the first time.

These three ads have cemented the Carlton Draught brand into the traditional Australian beer advertising narrative.

To the marketing team at Carlton Draught, I say, "good on ya" for a tip-top effort.