The company you keep, or who keeps you

I am looking forward to this. I get the ST anyway, so it's a bonus not to have to go out and buy it.

By way of reminder, I just had an email.

Thing is, the ad alongside was/is from BMW.

No real problem, there (well, maybe a teensie-weesnie one). Their 1 series is apparently better than a Prius. Not that this seemed to be the message. More about touring the globe, and going on a journey together. The example I saw was Hong Kong, with a night view of all the skyscrapers ablaze. Apparently, the light show went on all night.

Not sure, but that may also go a small way to '... explaining the damage we're doing'.

Just a thought.

Treehugger - (are they following me?) - How Green Can a Newspaper Afford to Be?

The difference between the views of on-line and paper readers is notable, with 81% of paper readers thinking the coverage on climate change was excellent but only 45% of the web readers agreeing. - Well, D'uh. Which medium is lower impact?

Not sure the Editor has quite nailed the justification, mind.

Dirty great big car and skiing holiday ads (while the snow lasts!) next to pieces about how awful it all is what 'we' are doing to the planet and how 'we' need to be more aware of 'our' impact' and 'we' need to act now, rather undercut the basic thrust of many pieces, though.

Or maybe there are different 'we's' around. The 'we' haves and the ''we' haven't yets, because it's not like, you know, practical, as such'?

"Any colour, so long as it's green"?

This certainly twitched my eyebrows somewhat. From The Times.

BMW "makes cars that are much more fuel-efficient than the likes of the hybrids built by Japanese manufacturers"

Well, that statement made my eyebrows reach the top of my forehead! If that's true, why the German consumer rush for the Pious et al?

They reckon that its down to a "colossal failure of marketing by the German auto industry".

The consumer survey final point is a real WOW:-
Within ten years ...."more than a quarter of people say that they will not have a car at all and 50 per cent say that they will have some kind of environmentally friendly vehicle: a hybrid, an electric car, a hydrogen-fuelled car or an LPG-powered car."

So its all about consumer perception then. The big question is just how much that perception is driven by marketing? Or, perhaps, how much is marketing driven by consumer perception?

Who's greenwashing who? If the Advert says it's green, then is it always so? EnviROI answers on a postcard please.

Addendum:
And on the same day that this story appears, BMW announce plans to radically reduce the CO2 emissions across their vehicle range. Details on Motoring Reuters. And other additional gizmos to reduce fuel consumption - details at What Car.

Maybe the first salvos in a new marketing effort to overcome their previous 'colossal failure'?