Stop the (Car) Wash: Wherefrom Calls Out Mercedes for Greenwashing in Latest Campaign
Sustainability review platform Wherefrom has released a creative response to German automotive manufacturer Mercedes-Benz AG, highlighting the campaign blatantly greenwashing by associating their brand with the beauty of nature.
The creative rebuttal, created by 10 Days London, challenges the reality of the Mercedes campaign. The original Mercedes campaign shows close up shots of beautiful nature from the veins of leaves to honeycomb to a rose, using a circle to capture the Mercedes Brand symbol.
The eye-catching campaign reads “Nature or Nothing - the New Electric Vehicle generations - it’s already here", signed off with Mercedes EQ. You may have seen these adverts being celebrated all over LinkedIn. However, this is the tip of a rather large melting iceberg, and is a huge exaggeration of Mercedes' green claims, literally associating the company with nature itself - in effect, greenwashing. Mercedes is currently being sued for not taking enough action to tackle their contribution to climate change*.
In the new “Nothing or Nature” campaign response, the posters have been inverted to show a more realistic representation of Mercedes' contribution to climate change. Instead of the beauty of nature, the campaign shows the actual effects of climate change - drought, flood, wildfire (an unprecedented amount of which we are seeing in the world right now) - to make people think twice about the use of green within advertising. The electrical storm image remains the same because it actually demonstrates the increased frequency of storms associated with climate change. Jolyon White says, “It is moronic that this was even included in the first place.” Furthermore, the sub copy was changed from “The new electric vehicle generations - it's already here” to “Climate change. It’s already here.”
Greenwashing is still a substantial problem in the advertising industry. A recent European Commission report revealed 42% of companies' "green" claims are exaggerated, false, or deceptive*. Furthermore, according to the UK advertising watchdog, in the past 12 months, 16 advertising campaigns from household brands in the UK exaggerated their green credentials* and were unable to substantiate them.
Companies and countries are slow on the uptake to change, so people are resorting to legal action in order to make them react more substantially to the problem. In fact, there has been a increase in litigation against companies not doing enough to tackle climate change - from 22 cases in 2020, to 193 last year*.
This is not the first time Wherefrom have taken an anti-greenwash stance. On Earth Day this year, Wherefrom launched Stop the Wash, a song containing over 100 slogans, using natural copyright to prevent corporations from using these slogans to greenwash by threatening to sue them if they use any of the lyrics/slogans within the song.
The “Nothing or Nature” campaign was created by 10 Days London.
Adam Williams, co-founder of Wherefrom, comments: “One of our reviewers contacted us via Stop the Wash. Transparency is extremely important and this is a clear case of greenwashing. We want to encourage any car manufacturer to be more transparent and not resort to greenwashing.”
George White, strategy director and co-founder at 10 Days, adds: “This is greenwashing 101 - equating Mercedes to the beauty of nature and leading consumers to believe Mercedes isa green company, which alas is not the case. It is a huge contributor to climate change. Creative agencies should take a hard look at themselves and take responsibility as the originators of the greenwashing ideas.”
Find out more about greenwashing at www.stopthewash.com.
