How to shoot a commercial while leaving no carbon footprint
Unfortunately, I’m not on the “Go Green!” bandwagon. I probably should be, but that’s a whole new blog post. The point I’m trying to make is I’m not as easily influenced by the, “Ohhh, we’re a green company, buy the shit we sell!” campaigns that are oh-so-prevalent in 2010.
Consequently, this Hyundai commercial didn’t impress me. Going green for the sake of going green isn’t going green. You follow? I mean, Hyundai….you’re a car company. We all know this isn’t going to continue. You did it once. ONCE. And only once so you could garner publicity and hopefully a few car sales. But really, what people will think (or at least what I think) is, “you had to PUSH the car around? Seriously?”
If your car was that energy efficient, you would be able to drive it in the commercial. Sooo maybe your new challenge should be, “How can we create an advertising campaign that makes our product look good instead of pointing out the fact that it contributes to our environment’s slow demise?”
You think that’s weird to push a car around in a commercial? Really? Have you ever seen how movies are made, cars that appear to be driving are often on a flat-bed truck, so the actors can concentrate on acting? Never? They push or tow cars often in movies and commercials. Now go find something else to comment on that actually makes sense.
October 28, 2010 at 12:07 AM
Yeah, MOVIES might be made that way. Not a CAR COMMERCIAL.
And the car wasn’t being pushed around so “actors can concentrate on acting,” it was so the car didn’t emit anything bad into the environment. Watch the video, genius.
October 28, 2010 at 12:18 AM
Really, this is for you.
What the hell are you talking about?
Of course movies push cars around and place them on stable platforms in order to make things work better for their shooting.
The question is: Do they then tout the ‘greenness’ of their finished product because they didn’t drive the car around?
Of course not.
Hyundai, on the other hand, is trying to demonstrate how ‘green’ they are without actually doing anything to make their product ‘greener’ than any other.
The author here is simply pointing out that pushing your car around doesn’t make the car ‘greener’ or more energy-efficient, it simply points out that the only way to make our car ‘green’ is to avoid starting the thing in the first place.
Don’t be a jerk.
October 28, 2010 at 12:21 AM
Oh, Bethany.
I got this from Fark.com.
Congrats… You made it to Fark!
lolz
Farkers are an outspoken lot, for the most part, but good people overall.
Thanks for the post about the ridiculous commercial and good luck here!
October 28, 2010 at 12:33 AM
I had refried beans for dinner. I need someone to push me around so I don’t release any emissions.
October 28, 2010 at 12:41 AM
@Baldemar Huerta, you got an audible LOL from me
@Um, thanks for the congrats!
October 28, 2010 at 12:56 AM
OK, 100 crew driving to the set
How many
cube vans
honey wagons
motorhomes
car trailers
extra people to move set pieces
extra documentary crew
Really green.
October 28, 2010 at 2:31 AM
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I’ve seen a few of these commercials and thought the same thing.
WOW you made a commercial with ‘zero emissions’
Why don’t you focus on reducing your actual products pollution you fucking idiots.
October 28, 2010 at 8:46 AM
And all of the background stuff, bikes, cameras, lights, scrims, batteries and such. Didn’t it take a whole lot of carbon to make those too?
And ‘investing’ in carbon credits = no carbon? Really?
October 28, 2010 at 10:18 AM
I haven’t actually seen this ad, but maybe they could alter it to be more of a fitness advert to help bring down America’s obesity.
Ever had to push a Sonata up a hill?..Cause I’m a beast!..And in as little as three weeks you could loose 20 pounds. ***Geography may change results***
October 28, 2010 at 11:21 AM
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Human powered devices are way less green than even coal powered electricity. Do the math people.
October 28, 2010 at 12:49 PM
I can’t criticize them for the attempt, mind you; it seems like they made a reasonable effort to reduce energy consumption and the intentions are good. But someone in marketing needs to review the definition of “carbon footprint”. You can’t shoot a commercial with zero carbon footprint. The stage lights burn power, the manufacturing process that built the car you’re advertising produces pollution, and the trash they produced will eventually wind up in a landfill. “A” for effort and motivation, “C-” for understanding of the terminology. (I’d rate it lower, but this kind of misconception seems to be roughly average; otherwise, marketing wouldn’t have tried it.)
October 28, 2010 at 2:25 PM
So how did you transport all of this equipotent?
Should have just driven 1 car to location, cameraman gets out, films shit, then your done..
Instead, you used trucks and shit to more things around everywhere and fuck around for days..
Fucking stupid IMO.
October 28, 2010 at 10:43 PM
I don’t know what everybody is really complaining about. Yes the commercial is flawed and not entirely eco friendly, but the idea is to reduce emissions, they reduced waste on the site by like 3/4′s i think the lady said.
If all production companies did this, it would reduce a huge amount of emissions.
October 29, 2010 at 12:17 AM
As many have noticed, there is no shuch thing as 0 carbon footprint, people move to somewhere by using fuel, all the structures they used to make rain or movility effects are metal made, metal has to be heated up in order to shape it, for heating it up it requires energy, energy is made up by burning something, 0 carbon footprint does not exist in our world
October 29, 2010 at 12:49 AM
No carbon footprint? Soooo, I guess these people don’t eat food unless they find it growing on a bush, right? And they wished their equipment right out of thin air, obviously.
Seriously, people who do anything other than die and decompose in the dirt are consuming resources. The more refined a tool or process is, the exponentially bigger the resource pyramid becomes (with this computer and the internet server farms I’m using right now being some of the best examples).
Kudos for reducing the impact of a commercial shoot, Hyundai, but don’t whitewash it as some sort of revolutionary breakthrough in environmental conservation.
October 29, 2010 at 2:59 AM
Why in the hell is fark linking to your insipid blog? For Christ’s sake, you like Jersey shore. That makes you white trash which is far worse than anything Hyundai is doing.
October 29, 2010 at 1:29 PM
@sowhat Ohhh sick burn! Super original. I bet you’re the first elitist douche bag on the planet that has ever made fun of Jersey Shore and the people that enjoy it. How can I be more like you? Teach me!
October 29, 2010 at 2:29 PM
Thanks. I know.
October 29, 2010 at 3:06 PM
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Well, men made the commercial using man-powered stuff because…
…because if they had started the car, that just wouldn’t be green anymore. ‘Cos the car’s not green enough, so they made the commarcial green, to show us that they made someting that’s actually green. The fact that this time it’s not a car but its commercial… well… I’d prefer if Hyundai made cheap bycicles instead of cars. ;)
Just think:
“Hey teacher, I know my physics test is worth shit and you’re gonna fail me ‘cos I’ll prbably won’t get 5% of the problems right… but hey check this out, I invented this pencil! I made it from charcoal and wood, using Physics! See, I know physics, the pencil proves it!”
October 30, 2010 at 11:58 AM
I understand why Hyundai made the commercial all green, and I think it is cool in theory. But I have to agree with you that it just does not make sense from an advertising perspective. They are admitting their car is not green enough to be included in the commercial unless they push it around. They are pointing out a flaw in their own product when they are supposed to be reaching a “green” demographic. Not too bright. But I do think it is cool that they did an all green commercial.
And to address the other people commenting saying the production and set still left a carbon footprint, at the end of the video they addressed that: “We reduced our CO2 emissions by 96% versus traditional production methods, and invested in carbon offsets for the remaining 4% to make this entire commercial campaign with no carbon footprint.”
November 1, 2010 at 3:52 AM
sorry but i think u are looking ate the wrong side of this…I get your Idea but i think it’s a very good and original idea!…Yes they are a car company, so what? I THINK THAT THE POINT OF THIS ADD IS NOT THE CAR, BUT THE ATTITUDE.
People wont stop driving their comfortable cars to help the environment… factories wont care about deceasing the emission of greenhouse gases to prevent global warming… people wont suddenly stop producing the quantity of garbage they do to help the nature…actually, things seem to get worst every single day…
However… everyone can make a little difference… and a little difference in a large scale turns into a big difference!
IT’S A SHAME THAT PEOPLE DONT CARE ABOUT THEIR RESPONSiBILITY AND SPEND TIME criticizing INNOVATIVE ideas!
u brought up a good point though!
November 8, 2010 at 5:45 PM