Greenpeace Guerrilla Campaign Attacks Volkswagen's Environmental Record
Greenpeace unleashed a guerrilla marketing campaign against Volkswagen on Tuesday morning, by placing banners over the top of London billboards.
The first of 5 guerrilla banners was revealed at London’s Old Street roundabout at 7am on 28th June which coincided with the roll out of a global campaign against the car manufacturer. The campaign which focuses on Volkswagen’s environmental record highlights key failures by Volkswagen to live up to the company’s ‘carefully crafted reputation as a family-friendly and environmentally responsible car manufacturer’.
Greenpeace campaigner Emma Gibson said: ‘Volkswagen has spent millions on its new advert, using children and Star Wars iconography to persuade the public that it’s a responsible company.
‘It was a stunningly successful advert, so VW can hardly complain if we now turn its own tactics back on the company to shine a light on its poor environmental record.’
Greenpeace consulted legal advisers before the launch took place, and the climbers spent the last three to four days preparing for the activities.
The billboards feature an image of Darth Vader with the VW logo as the mouth. Copy reads, "Volkswagen. The Dark Side." Once one of the billboards was up, 12 activists dressed as Stormtroopers patrolled the street to canvass opinion.
The billboards are part of an integrated campaign which includes a viral film that spoofs the car-maker’s own Internet advert featuring a mini Darth Vader. In Greenpeace’s version, young Star Wars characters challenge VW’s mini Vader while a VW-branded Death Star threatens the Earth, view the video>>
A new Greenpeace report released today and trailed in The Independent points to Volkswagen’s ‘political muscle’ to lobby against environmental laws and accuses it of failing to reduce petrol consumption as quickly as other brands.
