Greenpeace launches Star Wars attack on VW
Greenpeace is resurrecting its longstanding campaign against Volkswagen’s green claims with a second Star Wars-themed attack that could raise eyebrows at film producer Lucasfilm.
The lobbying group has created a digital campaign site that features a count down to the launch of a spoof “Jedi edition” Volkswagen Golf said to offer 75 per cent lower CO2 emissions than an average car and a hybrid engine that gives 315 miles to the gallon.
It features a video showing Volkswagen winning a Green Star award for the eco-friendly Jedi MK7 car. The attack is timed to coincide with the launch of Volkswagen’s latest Golf in September.
A Greenpeace blog posted earlier this week states: “Don’t you just hate it when someone has the power to make a real difference, but won’t use it? Take Volkswagen for instance. It’s Europe’s biggest car maker, eager to display itself as a friend of the environment and known worldwide for its high standards of engineering.
“Yet for years VW has failed to put its money where its mouth is and commercially produce cars that are both cheap to run and emit far less CO2 than the rest of the market.”
Volkswagen was unable to provide a response at the time of publishing.
The Greenpeace campaign apes Volkswagen’s own 2011 TV ads that starred a child Darth Vader.
By using the term Jedi and Darth Vader in the video, Greenpeace could again incur the wrath of Star Wars rights holder Lucasfilm. Greenpeace featured Darth Vader in a 2011 campaign attacking Volkswagen last year, but was forced to pull the video from YouTube for breaching Lucas Film’s copyright.
It is not known if Greenpeace obtained permission to use Star Wars characters in the latest campaign. Calls to Lucasfilm and Greenpeace were unreturned before this artcle was published.
