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To the casual eye these images look like any other violent crash test photos of a Fiat 500. But look closely and there is a very noticeable difference. Instead of a human, a French advertising agency came up with an ingenious way to showcase the 500's five-star crash rating. It replaced a plastic human crash test dummy with an animated panda, walrus and penguins.
The innovative, award-winning campaign has been a hit overseas and could be adopted locally. Fiat importer, Ateco Automotive, believes it would work well in Australia.
Spokesman, Edward Rowe, says the company was "very interested" because the campaign fitted perfectly with the message the company wants to push with the 500. "That it's not only a safe car but also friendly to the environment," he says.
The panda clip was one of four Fiat ads to win categories at the recent Cannes International Advertising Festival. Fiat's French agency, Marcel Paris, put the animated panda behind the wheel for a 35-second ad, accompanied by music from a Queen song Save Me. It shows a chunky panda surviving a frontal crash test involving the small Fiat as an ingenious solution to the cars-versus-environment debate.
The tongue-in-cheek tagline says "Engineered for a lower impact on the environment". A penguin and walrus were used for the print ads.
Fiat also won the prestigious Grand Prix award for its ecoDrive ad, which was designed by the AKQA agency in London. Launched by Fiat at last year's Paris Motor Show, ecoDrive is a free-of-charge tool available in Europe that helps drivers understand the impact of their driving style on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
The winning animated ecoDrive ad is designed to educate drivers about their driving styles but also reinforce Fiat's environmental responsibility. Owners of cars equipped with Fiat's Blue&Me entertainment and communications system can plug in a USB and allow ecoDrive to record details information about the owner's driving style and economy.
Once entered on to a computer, the system displays the car's detailed environmental performance, including its CO2 emission levels for each trip. ecoDrive will then give a score out of 100 to show how efficiently a car is used. The system can even suggest ways to improve economy by changing driving habits.
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