A contest was recently held by The Alliance for Climate Protection and Current TV to create "eco-spots" that encourage people to take action to help solve the climate crises. Dave Schlafman was the grand prize winner with this somewhat humorous entry. It was featured in Al Gore's TED conference slide show but since so many of us suffer from short attention spans we thought we'd give it it's own special place here on AutoblogGreen just in case you missed it.

Although the video, titled "Sky is Falling," doesn't offer up any specific solutions, it certainly does a good job of helping us get our heads around the amounts of CO₂ we emit into the air by burning carbon-based fuels. Hit the jump to enjoy the video and watch out for those elephants!

Leave it to a Japanese company to try and make engines cute and friendly. In a new advertising campaign titled "Engines," Honda has unleashed four animated engines (well, three engine and a hydrogen fuel cell) bouncing around a world of expensive gasoline and rising temperatures. Honda says the campaign is intended to be a "comical, yet serious expression of Honda's commitment to providing a cleaner and safer environment for the future generations."

The engines featured are the gasoline burning i-VTEC and IMA hybrid systems, the diesel i-DTEC, and the hydrogen FC Stack. Each makes an appearance in the video, but it's the i-VTEC that checks out the hottie at the pump from a somewhat in appropriate angle. Not sure if that the comical or serious part.

[Source: Honda]

It was a Sunday like any other Sunday. I was on YouTube, browsing through the many Japanese game show selections, when I noticed a clip in English entitled "Aptera rolls into town". Although aptera means "without wings" in Greek, none of the flightless birds I've ever heard of roll, so much as they walk. I quickly realized they were talking about that other Aptera, the ultra-aerodynamic car that is my heart's desire.

Apparently, Touchstone Energy Cooperatives, self-described as "a national alliance made up of more than 640 local, consumer-owned electric cooperatives in 46 states," wanted something in their advertisement that showed they were future-oriented as well as environmentally aware. Works for me. I was poking around the Touchstone website in no time and, thanks to a post by c0mp13x over at ApteraForum.com, I just discovered a pair of recent video interviews done by AlternativeEnergy.com. One is with Aptera founder and CEO, Steve Fambro, looking spiffy and discussing his creation as well as some interesting upcoming plans. The other is with Aptera designer, Jason Hill. Both are well worth your time.

Check out the commercial and interviews after the jump.

[Source: YouTube / AlternativeEnergy.com]

Chevy has two new TV ads for its Tahoe hybrid. First a little background. The Chevy Tahoe hybrid won Green Car Journal's Green Car of the Year award last year. A full-size SUV winning a green car award supplied much comedic fodder for Top Gear (see first video below the fold). Okay, the first new Tahoe hybrid ad (see second video below the fold) begins with a riddle: Which is heaver, a hundred pounds of bricks or a hundred pounds of feathers? If you figured out they are the same weight, then according the ad, you are just as smart as the Chevy Tahoe hybrid, winner of Green Car of the Year award.

The second ad (see third video below the fold) begins with children wearing paper car costumes. The small paper cars are uncomfortable and have no room for their "stuff." Just around the corner, however, is a giant paper SUV and when the children see it, they are ecstatic. They throw off their small paper cars and run to the paper SUV. The teacher character in the commercial explains the paper SUV has the same fuel economy of small cars (like the Camry), room for your friends and most importantly, room for all that "stuff" the children are carrying around for some reason. "I guess they like it" the commercial's teacher character concludes.

I have to admit, I really like these ads. I think they're the best hybrid ads out there. I might not agree with the message that hybrid SUVs are green but at least these ads have a message. Recent hybrid ads from GM and Lexus are too vague for my taste. These Chevy actually persuade with facts about the Tahoe's fuel efficiency or the CotY award. Besides, SUVs are the only vehicles large enough to carry all my "stuff."

[Source: YouTube]

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A TV ad for Saab BioPower was yanked off the air in the UK for tying bioethanol to reduced carbon output. According to the UK's Advertising Standards Agency, Saab's "Release Me" commercial (watch it below the fold) incorrectly states that using bioethanol-capable cars reduces your carbon footprint. The ad said carbon is reduced thirty percent when you drive with bioethanol. Unfortunately for Saad, it's closer to carbon neutral if you measure from seed to tail pipe. However misleading the ad campagn, I think the "more horsepower and a smaller carbon footprint" idea is very compelling.



[Source: Telegraph via Crash.Net, AOL Lifestyle]

Shiro Nakamura, Nissan's global design director says "the Cube is coming to the U.S. market." The Cube gets 37 MPG and has something called e-4WD, which includes an electric motor that kicks in when you need it. The Cube is already out in Japan (see wacky Japanese commercial below the fold) and there were rumors it might come to the U.S. Now that it's confirmed, I wonder who needs the Scion xB? Well, Nissan has said they don't intend to compete with the Scion xB. To that I say, "Yeah right, whatever dude." Look out for the Cube's U.S. release in late 2008 or, more likely, early 2009.

[Source: Auto Spies, LA Times]

Fuel efficiency is becoming more important to cars buyers. Ads are starting to reflect that and the best one I have seen recently is Kia's ad for the Spectra. The commercial's music is just a piano and the folksy voice of Joe Purdy singing "I just can't seem to get it right today." The visuals are a variety of melancholy people struggling to remember something from so long ago. What is this thing all these people have forgotten to do? How to fill a car's gas tank! The commercial explains "with fewer fill ups, you just might forget which side it's on." In one of the funnier parts of the commercial, one Kia owner refuses to re-position his car and tries to see if he can drag the gas pump nozzle all the way around the car. You can watch the commercial below the fold.

[Source: YouTube]

The video above is the Climate Kids ad where children are asked how do cars harm the planet. There responses are what you might expect from kids except for the second to last kid who understands it better than I do. The ad was done by Ibuyeco, an eco-friendly car insurance company that off sets your carbon pollution and adds it your car insurance rate. Kids say the greenest things.

Below the fold is the Ford Escape hybrid ad "Father / Daughter" that shows a daughter asking her father to drop her off a block before she gets to the movie theatre. That part of town, she explains, has people that ride bikes and hybrids and stuff, and she doesn't want to be embarrassed by showing up in an SUV. But this is a hybrid, her father explains. Why didn't he talk about this before she asks. Her father replies I never thought I had to talk about it. Yeah, who talks about their cars?

[Source: YouTube]

The video above includes six TV ads for a variety of green Chevy vehicles. These ads were part of the campaign that began to position Chevy and GM as a green car maker. Looking back, our reactions were shock and confusion over ads for cars not for sale, giant hybrids and vegetarian cars. We were shocked because when you think Chevy, "this is our country" ads with big trucks on a farm come to mind, not vegetarianism.

GM is making serious progress on the green technology front but in my humble opinion, the first year of green ads is a failure. You might say it was just too much of a shift and to that I say the best car ad of 2007 is probably Think About It by Hyundai. Hyundai making me think is probably a bigger shift than Chevy going green! For comparison, you can watch the Think About It and This is our country ads below the fold.

Has a year of these Chevy ads changed you idea of what Chevy means?

Related:

• Chevy describes its car as "vegetarian" in TV ad
• VIDEO: Three years before Job 1 and GM is already advertising the Volt
• Video: GM ad for Chevy Tahoe hybrid says other hybrids are "tinsy-winsy"

[Source: YouTube, GM]

I saw a TV commercial last night for the Toyota Highlander hybrid that highlighted the EV Mode button. The commercial was about a new father that constantly woke up the baby with the sound of the car as he arrived home. This problem is solved in the commercial by pressing the EV button, allowing the father to silently park, before walking into his home. The father's efforts are dashed however as the commercial ends with him accidentally fumbling something, making a noise and waking the baby anyway. I think this may be the first commercial in America to feature the EV mode button. The Japanese Prius has an EV mode button but it was removed from the US Prius for some reason.

Related:

• Chicago Auto Show: 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid, now with EV ONLY mode!

Toyota has launched its "Why Not?" campaign, the "biggest, broadest corporate campaign in its history" according to Ad Age. Toyota would not discuss how much it will cost but the spending on the national TV, print and online ads in America, is expected to well exceed the $40 M they spent last year on ads. The campaign will run through March and focus on three corporate pillars; environmental commitment, economic impact and social responsibility. The ads were created by Dentsu America, New York; Toyota choose the theme of "Why Not?" after 6 months of consumer research.

Why is Toyota doing this? Toyota has received a lot of bad press recently such as green groups attacking them over a proposed CAFE standard and losing a recommendation from Consumer Reports. We admit to adding a few articles to the pile, noting decreases in Highlander's safety rating and 2009 Corolla's fuel efficiency. Steve Sturm, Toyota's VP-strategic research, says there is no connection between the new ads and the recent bad press, that the ads are just a way for America to better understand Toyota's corporate image.

The website toyota.com/whynot has two print ads, video of the TV commercial "Harmony" and making of the TV commercial. The Harmony commercial features a car made from twigs, mud, etc. by three people that slowly fades in time lapse images into the natural environment. The voice over asks "Can a car company grow in harmony with the environment? Why not?" and explains Toyota is working towards cars with zero emissions and "zero waste" in everything they do. Ad Age is not amused writing "striving isn't accomplishing, and it strikes us as a bit disingenuous to be selling some unattainable vision of the future."

We will have more on the "Why Not?" ads as they appear through March. Tell us what you think of the ads and if you see any of them we miss when they appear on NBC Nightly News, Meet the Press, Nightline, 20-plus magazines and even on PBS, part of a sponsorship package of Nature.

[Source: Ad Age]

So, I am watching the History Channel and a TV commercial comes on with a car driving down a country road. The voice over says "what can a car that gets 50 miles per gallon do for the environment?" It's not a Honda or a Toyota, so my interest is piqued. What can it do? "Not as much as the car that carries it" explains the voiceover as the car drives into the back of a train, somehow in the middle of a road. The voice over then says CSX trains can carry a ton of freight 426 miles on one gallon of fuel. Thanks for getting my hopes up, CSX. You can watch the dissapointing ad at CSX's website.

[Source: CSX]

This is why I could not wait to see the ad for the hybrid Chevy Tahoe. I knew something like this was coming when the GM PR guy at Boston AltWheels told me the Chevy Tahoe was a "big ass hybrid." Twice. So, the theme of the ad is the same as other recent Chevy ads, kids learning about GM cars in nature. The children are asked are hybrids "small?" The kids respond yes because obviously they are small. "They're tinsy-winsy, aren't they?" asks the teacher again. The kids respond "yes," again. Then the teacher says, "wrong."

The teacher explains this Tahoe is the first "full sized hybrid SUV." Is it "brilliant?" "gigantic?" and "can it do jobs tinsy-winsy hybrids can't do?" the teacher asks. Yes to all those questions the kids reply and "that's why they made it" the teacher replies. The kids giggle. The fine print is interesting. The teacher says city mileage is 40 percent more than the non-hybrid Tahoe but the EPA has not released the numbers. So the fine print explains MPG 20 city is "based on GM testing." I think that's the first time I have seen that in an ad. Watch it after the break.

[Source: GM]

Below the fold is an odd TV commercial for the Toyota Prius. The commercial features a Prius owner at a gas station snack shop noticing everyone guzzles milk, coffee and soda. The Prius owner then walks out of the snack shop to see the cars at the pump are all large SUVs. The commercial ends with a voice over saying the Prius is "100 percent guzzle free" and the Prius owner getting into his Prius. Oh, gas guzzlers. I get it now.

[Source: YouTube]

I saw a TV commercial for a Chevy flex fuel car last night. The format for the ad was a lot like the Chevy Volt commercial: kids learning about a car outdoors with a teacher. The interesting part of the ad was the teacher's description of the flex fuel car as "vegetarian." I find the description of a GM car as vegetarian odd considering the Hummer, which, like Chevy is a unit of GM, uses ads that say tofu munchers must buy the Hummer to "restore your manhood." I can't wait to see how they advertise the Tahoe hybrid.

Related:

• Chevrolet moving ahead with more green vehicle promotions 2007, "Gas-friendly to Gas-free"

[Source: Chevy TV commercial]