Badvert of the Month: Ford, the snow thief
Ford “winter hero” advertisement in the Swedish national newspaper, Dagens Nyheter.
The article was first published in Swedish on Badvertising Sweden blog here
On the third page of the Swedish national newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, Ford had an advertisement with the heading "Winter hero". The heading is a reference to Ford’s ongoing sponsorship of the Swedish national skiing team, who were triumphant at the World Ski Championships in Planica, Slovenia. To highlight the strong ties between Ford and the Swedish ski successes, Ford uses the national team's logo in the ad.
Climate change’s impact on the World Ski Championships are clear to see. Snow drifts and ten-degree heat are an existential threat to the long-term survival of winter sporting events like the World Ski Championships. The snow cover in the northern hemisphere is rapidly decreasing as a result of rising global temperatures - and there is no doubt that the combustion of fossil fuels is the main cause of this slow tragedy.
Ford Motor Company is one of the world's largest car manufacturers and sells approximately four million cars a year. According to the company's own report, the emissions of carbon dioxide from operations were roughly 350 million tonnes in 2020. This corresponds to more than five times as much as Sweden's national emissions.
In addition, Ford knew what consequences the emissions of carbon dioxide from cars would have on the planet back in the 1960s, but continued to scale up the production of polluting vehicles while lobbying governments to water-down regulation. The sheer scale of the company’s environmental impact gives Ford's slogan - "Bring on tomorrow" - a more cynical undertone.
In the recent report, The Snow Thieves, New Weather Sweden and Badvertising calculate that the emission of one ton of carbon dioxide leads to a reduction of the snow cover by approximately 2.5 square metres. We can therefore estimate that the emissions from the so-called "Winter hero" Ford in 2020 were responsible for the snow cover to decrease by approximately 875 million square metres, or 875 square kilometres, in just one year.
Ford also implies that the car they are advertising, the Ford Kuga, is an electric car. “No matter what your winter adventure looks like, we have an electrified car to get you there.” But the Kuga is actually a fossil-powered car with an electric auxiliary motor, a so-called plug-in hybrid. Despite the ubiquity of Ford’s green advertising claims, less than four percent of the company’s vehicle sales are electric cars.While the financial value of Ford's sponsorship of the national skiing team is unknown, the question for the whole team must be: is it worth it? The Swedish national team is being used as a billboard to promote the sale of more cars - cars that are directly responsible for reducing snow cover and undermining the future of all winter sports.