Advertising

Nissan and Kia are big spenders on electric-car advertising, but not Chevy.

A new Lexus hybrid ad depicts electric cars as woefully inconvenient.

The piano music is somber, the announcer's voice well modulated and filled with gentle concern. Over the next year, we'll be faced with a decision to support, oppose, or even ignore the future of hydrogen-fueled propulsion. Indeed, and most likely the discussion--whether it's a flat decision is...

Toyota has been quite upfront about its belief that plug-in electric cars are not the technology of the future. (It says hydrogen fuel-cell cars are.) And now this belief has appeared in the advertising for its Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid. That car is the third or fourth best-selling car with a...

Well, it's about time: An electric-car maker is using straight-out sex appeal to market a new electric car. Even if it is, errrmmmm, rodent sex appeal. A new video posted last Wednesday uses Kia's now-familiar supersized hamsters to market the new 2015 Kia Soul EV. DON'T MISS: 2015 Kia Soul EV...

Few things make electric-car advocates as cranky as criticism of their vehicles. But when the criticism is factually wrong, and comes from a carmaker that has resolutely said it doesn't think plug-in electric cars are "ready for prime time," the howling gets harsher. Perhaps Toyota's Lexus luxury...

Chevrolet's range-extended electric vehicle, the Volt, has been on sale for more than three years now. Its sales of 58,000 units so far are still small compared to more conventional vehicles, but many people will have seen one on the road by now--and seen TV ads or information on the internet. Even...

Why do we work so hard? Because hard work means "anything is possible"--and maybe you'll get a nice pool and a fancy car out of it. At least, that's the answer if Cadillac's "Poolside" ad for its ELR range-extended electric luxury coupe was to be believed. MUST SEE: Tesla Model S To Get Titanium...

In general, getting people talking about your ad is a good way to get people talking about your car. In the case of "Poolside"--an ad for the 2014 Cadillac ELR range-extended electric luxury coupe aired during the Oscars and the Sochi Olympics--however, not all the talk has been favorable. MORE...

Well, if this is the guy who's actually going to buy a 2014 Cadillac ELR, there may be some interesting conversations to come with Nissan Leaf owners. This ELR driver is a hard-charging, self-assured, contemptuous-of-vacations, modern-home-owning middle-aged white male, as portrayed in a recent...

Ads for the RAV4 EV will target specific, tech-savvy buyers in the California cities where the car is sold.

The question isn't, "Why electric?" It's, "Why gas?" And with those eight words, Nissan marketers crossed a line that no other established carmaker has dared to cross. In a 20-second ad for the 2013 Nissan Leaf electric car now running on television--you may already have seen it--Nissan said it out...

Marketing plug-in electric cars isn't all that easy. There are many different reasons people buy electric cars, and for the mass market, the high prices against gasoline cars of the same size can lead to sticker shock. So among the many efforts to put a little muscle behind explaining why plug-in...

By now, you've probably seen it: the new ad for the Toyota Auris Hybrid. But on the off chance you haven't, here's the Cliffs Notes version: Sometime in the future, a man and woman awake in their stylish apartment. It's got enough bells and whistles and Roombas to give Michio Kaku a heart attack...

We liked the 2013 Fiat 500e electric car, a lot. It may be the best of the low-volume compliance cars, in fact--though the 2014 Chevy Spark EV and 2013 Honda Fit EV are pretty great too. We're less sure how we feel about the ad campaign Fiat is using to pitch the car, under the tagline...

Electric cars might have plenty of environmental benefits over their combustion cousins, carmakers are finding that angle a hard one to benefit from. In fact, it's much more likely modern electric cars will be sold on the back of plain, simple cost savings, says Bloomberg. It presents an unusual...

Although its arrival is still months away, we already know a lot about the all-electric BMW i3. We have a good idea of its range (with and without the optional range-extender), we've hypothesized about its sticker price, and a few lucky journalists have even gotten to drive around in it. But...

To paraphrase Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast, but social media moves faster." Think of the Harlem Shake phenomenon: one minute it was an obscure YouTube meme, the next, it was being performed by a bunch of Today show employees. If marketers want to jump on a trend, they have to move at...

The 2013 Nissan Leaf electric car has some lofty sales goals associated with it--certainly higher than the 9,750 deliveries that Nissan averaged each year in 2011 and 2012. So it's encouraging to see a new television ad for the 2013 Leaf that actually highlights the fun and special features of...

Suppose you went to the gas station, filled up your car or SUV, and then the pump said you had to go inside to pay. And suppose that even though your total was $40 or $50 (maybe more), the cashier smiled and charged you ... $2.50. What would the expression on your face be? That's the premise of a...