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Audi's Super Bowl commercials blast single-use plastic products

MIAMI (Feb. 7, 10:30 p.m. ET) -- Single-use plastic products makers took fire from an unusual source during this year's Super Bowl game -- commercials from German carmaker Audi AG for a "clean diesel" vehicle. The "Green Police" ads took aim at plastic grocery bags, PET water bottles and polystyrene cups -- all with the aim of promoting environmental attributes of the Audi A3 TDI.

The Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council was quick to respond, with a release and Web site prepared in advance of the airing.

"Audi’s Green Police campaign goes to the extreme to make a compelling point: We all can make choices every day to help the environment -- in the cars we drive, the products we buy and the way we use them," ACC says on a Web site prepared in response to the Audi ad, at GreenPoliceConfused.com.

"And while an anteater sniffing out an environmental faux pas is funny, the tongue-in-cheek ads also demonstrate the shortcomings of using conventional wisdom to make choices regarding the environment -- particularly when it comes to plastics."

In an email sent prior to the Super Bowl game, Jennifer Killinger, senior director of sustainability and public outreach at ACC's plastics division, said the trade group will "evaluate additional response measures relative to the amount of traction the campaign gets and the level of interest it generates in plastics."

Will the ad generate anti-plastics sentiment -- or interest in the Audi's clean diesel technology?

Bob Garfield, a popular ad critic with Advertising Age magazine, gave the Audi spot three-and-a-half stars, tied for the No. 1 spot among this year's commercials. (View the Audi ad.)

Garfield wrote: "The Green Police, overzealously tracking your carbon footprint. Very funny, for all the obvious reasons. And the Audi turbo-diesel is a fine-looking Get Out of Jail Free car(d)."

But humor is a matter of taste, and the Audi ad wasn't universally praised by critics.

Tribune Media Service's Zap2it.com included the ad on its list of worst commerials from Super Bowl 2010, noting: "We care about the environment. Really. What we don't care for? Being preached to in the unfunniest way during the Super Bowl. Audi's clean diesel variant TDIs seem pretty damn cool -- fuel-efficient and sporty. Too bad the commercial was anything but cool.

"Instead of focusing on the TDI's best attributes, most of the commercial was spent following the Green Police cracking down on eco-crimes like not composting, picking plastic over paper, using energy-sucking bulbs. Sadly, the humor was misguided and came off more as preachy. Ugh. Talk about your energy suck."

The commercial features music by rock group Cheap Trick, set to the tune of their 1979 hit single "Dream Police." But in the place of Dream Police, the ads shows politically correct "Green Police" arresting unsuspecting users of plastic T-shirt bags, PET water bottles and polystyrene foam drinking cups -- as well as other presumed environmental bandits.

For its part, ACC's response Web site highlights the energy savings that plastics make possible vs. competing materials -- plus a video that features "the innovative uses of plastics" throughout the Audi A3 TDI.

Even though the Audi Super Bowl ad was not meant to be an attack, the message was obviously subliminal. My high school daughter aked me "I thought your company was making plastic better for the environment and now these people on TV are saying it is bad. Which is it, dad?" The message although satirical accomplished what it set out to do unfortunately.

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I agree with Bob. The commercial was not supposed to be an attack; it was supposed to be funny. Relax. Also using plastics in cars is very environmentally friendly because it reduces the weight of the car and increases fuel efficiency. Plastic bottles also weigh less reducing the amount of energy used in shipping, but while plastic alternatives are "better" they are not always "best." For example using high speed rail or riding a bike are better options than driving a car, and using a recyclable aluminum container that can be cleaned and reused without any shipping involved is better than buying cases of bottled water.

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To all, It was satire folks ... watch it again .

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I think the ad set the Politically Correct"Green Police" back 10 years. Consumers, who know and love their plastic products are tired of being told they are wrong...Good Bye Green Jerks

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We never hear how much energy (read Carbon) is required to manufacture a paper bag in comparison with the dreaded plastic bag. If a paper bag is burned or rots away in a refuse heap it creates more CO2(BAD?).

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Oh, and another thing: how about all those pesky polymers Audi needs to use to build the darn car? I'd call them single use too - except the use lasts maybe ten years. ;-)

Their ad agency could have done better; I wonder how many Audi people raised questions about the ad but were overruled.

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Audi's commercial was moronic, yet in a way the nanny state scene they set is probably the most ardent dream of many professional environmental activists.

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