July 24th, 2007

Will European Ad Trends Help Green CAFEs in U.S.?

Nope, I’m not talking about Starbucks or other coffee-serving cafes. I’m talking about corporate average fuel economy standards (CAFE).

The Wall Street Journal reports today that as high gasoline prices and climate change weigh more heavily on car buyers’ decisions, Europe’s premium auto makers are tweaking their ads to cast themselves in a greener hue.

This should be no suprise, as made obvious by the increasing importance in the business world, as indicated in earlier blog posts here, of getting a green message across to consumers. WSJ reports that the new emphasis on alternative energy and low carbon-dioxide emissions also reflects the pressure Europe’s premium car brands are under from environmental groups and European Union regulators to tone down their emphasis on power and speed — or at least reconcile those traits with the theme of environmental stewardship.

So why can’t we get that message across to the U.S. auto industry, which constantly lobbies against any increase in CAFE and has much higher CAFE than Japanese and many European auto makers? Should we be looking at how the auto industry advertises its cars so that U.S. auto makers aren’t pushing Hummers and big SUVs, but lower emission vehicles? Can the ad industry make efficiency and sleek design of vehicles like hybrids the cool in car buying?

If you don’t have a subscription to WJS online, but would like to see examples of the ad themes, check out Environmental Leader’s post on the topic at European car makers’ green messages.