Badvert of the Month: Audi Q3
Company: Audi
Model: Q3
Location: Tabloid Newspaper
Boosting up sales with fake nature shots
In this advert, the Audi vehicle is portrayed amid a scenic forest clearing. However, contrary to what the ad depicts, it is most likely that the car will be driving on narrow street roads or stuck in traffic jams on congested roads. SUVs are most often portrayed surrounded by beautiful landscapes but the reality is far from this idealised picture. With a growing popularity for large vehicles in the UK - SUV sales have doubled over the last ten years - these end up filling much of our public space in towns and cities and breaching safe pollution levels, with knock on effects on the environment and health.
Cheating emission tests & breaching pollution limits
Following the so-called “Dieselgate” scandal, German car manufacturer Audi admitted in 2015 that around 2.1 million of its own vehicles had been installed emission cheating devices. Audi was fined £700 by German prosecutors for breaching diesel emissions rules. Former Audi boss, Rupert Stadler, has also been charged for fraud over the emission pollution scandal. He is accused of having known about the cheating devices being installed on Audi’s cars but didn’t do anything about it. Even after these scandalous revelations were made, the car manufacturer is still bluntly advertising for highly polluting diesel cars that breach as much as twice the new European emission targets - set at 95 g of CO2 per kilometre - with this model advertised here fluctuating between 153-209g CO2/km.
“Greenwash” of the year
In 2010, the Audi A3 TDI model was awarded “Green car of the year” at the Los Angeles Auto Show by Green Car Journal despite the vehicle producing carbon emissions in the range of 115-147 CO2 grams per kilometre. This model is a compact five-door hatchback with a 2 litres turbodiesel engine fitted in. Given its fuel saving efficiency of 50% compared to other similar models, this car is considered to be a “clean diesel”. In fact, there is nothing clean in a diesel-powered vehicle. Diesel engines are favoured over petrol cars for their seemingly reduced carbon emissions. However, recent analysis from the NGO Transport & Environment reveals that emissions from diesel vehicles might actually exceed those of gasoline cars given their greater embedded emissions resulting from refining the fuel and being driven over longer distances given diesel’s cheaper cost. Diesel vehicles release fine Particulate Matter and Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) which are particularly harmful to human health and contribute to 36,000 premature deaths per year in the UK (more than those related to tobacco and obesity).
Company background: Audi
Audi is a German car manufacturer, and a member of the Volkswagen Group, officially founded in 1969 in Bavaria. In 1932, an engineer and two other manufacturers created Auto Union which later was acquired by Volkswagen. It was not until the launch of its Audi F103 series and a merge between Auto Union and NSU Motorenwerke that Audi took its present day form. The company’s logo is popularly associated with the Olympics symbol, after Berlin was chosen to represent the Summer Olympics in 1936. In reality, the four interlinked rings represent the four companies that merged to form Auto Union in 1932. In 1986, the news website CBS’ 60 minutes ran a piece on the new Audi model 5000 accusing the car of accelerating unexpectedly. Following the accusations by CBS, Audi’s sales took a massive hint and returned to their pre-1986 sale levels only 20 years later.
The German car maker has close partnerships with sports, such as sponsorship deals with many football clubs, skiing, golf, sailing and polo competitions as well as regional hockey teams. In 2009, to celebrate its 100th anniversary, the company organised the Audi Cup - a biennial two-day football tournament with four teams competing against each other.