Polestar 2. 100% Electric - Ads Review
Swedish automotive company Polestar released an ad for their new all-electric car, the Polestar 2, and rocks. Leveraging environmentalism for advertising can be a polarizing move. Get too moral about it, and half of your audience shuts off. Polestar nailed this ad by using a real influencer, telling a story, and acknowledging both sides of the issue. Take a look and then I’ll break down each element.
Real Person
The power of this ad starts from the first word. It’s spoken by a real person who has done something amazing. Karen Nyberg, who spent six months in outer space. It’s pretty incredible, and rare. Polestar didn’t get some chippy celebrity with plastic surgery who flies on their private jet every other week to make people feel guilty about about the importance of environmentalism. They got an astronaut, who has seen the earth from space, to talk about how the earth amazes her. This is a real competitive advantage for Polestar, and I think more brands should do this. Ditch the celebrities. Find real change-makers, and interview them.
Storytelling
Right after you realize it’s an astronaut speaking to you in her real voice, you get caught up in the storyline. Nyberg is sharing her experiences and her revelations that she had on a space shuttle, looking at the earth from outer space. This is another great choice by Polestar here. Instead of lecturing consumers about why they should feel bad about driving a gas car, they invite viewers into a storyline.
It’s clear that the editor is piecing together sound bites from a long-form interview. This helps the voice-over catch on the ears of viewers right off the bat. We’ve begun to tune out scripted voice overs, as they’ve been part of ads forever. But since the rise of podcasts in our media consumption, this sort of long-form, casual tone is something we enjoy. Stories have a way of sneaking past the watch dogs of politics, and even though Polestar is making an environmental proposition here, the storyline helps them do that with their entire audience.
Acknowledging Human Progress
This ad isn’t out of touch with reality. It acknowledges human progress. A lot of people thought it was pretty cool that Greta Thunberg minimized her carbon footprint by sailing across the Atlantic ocean to give a speech on environmentalism, but it’s hardly practical. This ad understands that people only have one life. And if given the choice between maximizing their experience on earth, and saving the planet for future generations, people will choose to maximize their experience. With this storyline, Polestar asks, why not both? And it’s a great question. Why not both? Why can’t we maximize our human experience, while also preserving our home?
Closing
At the end, Polestar quietly introduces their new electric car as a great solution to maximizing experiences, and saving the planet. This ad caught me the first time I saw it, and I knew I had to break down what made it so special. Thanks for reading!
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