The whole world is going green. Well, except maybe for the US and India and China and really, let’s face it, the UK.

So maybe I should start again, the whole world isn’t going green but we’re doing a bit of recycling.

We love recycling because it makes us feel like we’re saving the planet (a laudable task) but in reality it’s all a sham. If we had to turn our TVs and computers off for an hour every day (between say 7 and 8 at night), to reduce the amount of electricity we use and maybe really help save the planet we’d say “Fuck that!”.

So we’re all pretending that we’ve gone green whilst watching Corrie and writing blogs as the planet chokes (according to some folks).

Vauxhall have jumped on this pretence in their latest advertising campaign. Their new Eco Flex initiative offers us middle class mugs “…a £1,000 bonus for… …trading in a car, which is then scrapped, in exchange for the lowest emission versions of the Corsa, Meriva, Astra and Zafira.”

But why are they doing this? As the ever-so pompous, self-satisfied voice-over in the advert says:

“For them. For this.”

Yes, Vauxhall claim to have gone all Earth Song on us. But let us not be fooled into thinking they’re genuinely doing it for the benefit of our children or for the benefit of the planet. GM, the owners of Vauxhall, is one of the big 3 car manufacturers in the US and they like to make money, money, money (after all it is a business).

So when they ask:

“Why have we reduced the amount of energy used at our Ellesmere Port plant by 30% over the past 4 years?”

I agree, the energy reduction might have a marked impact on the environment, but the actual answer to their question is “Because improving efficiency is a great way for a company to make extra money”.

On top of this productivity is up at the Ellesmere Port plant so they have more cars to flog (maybe they need some month long initiative to get the punters in and the motors out).

What really get’s me about this advert is the way Vauxhall have jumped on a scheme to improve efficiency, and spun it to seem like they’ve done it to save the planet whilst manipulating the vanities of us suburban eco-warriors. It’s the sort of under-handed advertising campaign that can give big corporations a bad name.

And each time I see this advert, I can’t help but feel that if Vauxhall really cared about the environment, they’d give you a grand just for dumping your old shed-on-wheels with them if you were going to buy a new low emissions car regardless who you buy it from.

But then that’s not a very good way to make money, is it?

Judge for yourself.

Just How Bad is this Ad?

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