Super Bowl demonstrated that simple lines could have very clear targets. Take the Polestar 2 ad there. It said “no dieselgate,” “no “dirty secrets,” “no empty promises,” and “no shortcuts,” Any doubts that the Swedish company was talking respectively about Volkswagen and Tesla?
The “no dieselgate” sentence is a direct reference to Volkswagen’s biggest scandal in years. It was when the company lied about the NOx emissions in its diesel cars. “No dirty secrets” seems to talk about that as well, even if it could be applied to Tesla’s “systemic racism” at Fremont as well. After all, Tesla tried to dismiss the DFEH (Department of Fair Employment and Housing) lawsuit before it was presented.
Anyway, Polestar’s main target was Tesla. “No empty promises” could apply to anything, but it seems particularly fitting to all the “self-driving car” pledges Elon Musk made since 2015 without meeting them. Or the Semi, the Roadster, the Cybertruck, the $25,000 EV, the high-speed tunnels under cities… The list is long.
The reference to “no shortcuts” is recent. Thanks to CNBC, we know it refers to eliminating a steering ECU (electronic control unit) from vehicles made at Giga Shanghai to ship them without the chips they needed. If Tesla ever sells a “self-driving” car software, those without this ECU will not be able to use it. To be fair, Volkswagen also took a shortcut with the cheating software instead of really cutting NOx emissions in its diesel cars.
There are at least three other sentences in the ad that could target Tesla and Volkswagen. “No conquering Mars” is self-explanatory. The Polestar 2 ad also mentioned “no greenwashing” and “no nonsense.” The first can refer either to Volkswagen promoting diesel cars as a sensible way to cut carbon emissions (while emitting more nitrogen oxides than it should) or to Tesla posing as an environment protection champion while breaking emission laws in California with its Fremont factory.
The “no nonsense” sentence seems to refer to the Tesla Optimus, AKA Tesla Bot. That’s the robot Elon Musk promised at the Tesla AI Day and which had only CGI and a thin person dancing with a robot costume on stage. The flying Roadster and the Boring Company could also fit here.
By the end of the ad, we realize that Polestar used the “no” as a clever way to refer to the No. 2 – or the Polestar 2 – as a product that opposes all those things. It is confrontational, for sure, but it certainly helped place the Polestar 2 as a different sort of EV than those Tesla and Volkswagen sell. For those that pledged never to buy from any of these companies, Polestar presented the Polestar 2 as a fitting candidate for their garages.
Google News