Kermit the Frog and Escape Hybrid: Match Made in Heaven?
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 01.31.06
It's not easy being green, and perhaps no one knows this better than Kermit the Frog. Perhaps that's why he's shilling for the Ford Escape Hybrid during this week's Super Bowl. Ford has picked Kermit to promote their bastion of green-ness in a spot that will cost a reported $2.5 million for 30 seconds, money Ford hopes will be well spent in painting its entire brand, non-hybrids included, as a choice for environmentally conscious buyers to one of the biggest television audiences ever. After announcing big layoffs last week, we figure they need all the positive press they can get. Jalopnik already beat us to the punch on the Ford Expedition-Miss Piggy joke, so we'll just leave it at that. via ::Jalopnik, ::Superbowl Ads: Ford Escape Hybrid & Toyota Camry Hybrid
Random comment: I wish more websites would use typekey On topic comment: I really hope this helps ford our economy is going down the crap shoot fast and I think our auto industry refacing itself would help
"Ford hopes will be well spent in painting its entire brand, non-hybrids included, as a choice for environmentally conscious buyers..."
Doesn't Toyota also do this? Pay no attention to the SUV's on the lot we're green.
Ford is getting pretty green, they have over a million flex fuel vehicles on the road. Mostly Taurus and Ranger models. They are testing a flex fuel Escape hybrid which if E85 is used emits 25% less CO2. They have more hybrids on the way in the form of the new Fusion. Also if you go to the Rouge river complex to tour the F150 plant you can see the lovely green roof they installed on the plant, They use rain water in the washrooms of the visitors center too.
I hope you post this because I seem to be one of the only voices that doesn't think all of Detroit is evil. Just GM as they haven't sold one full hybrid yet and seem stuck in the past. Chrysler isn't fully Detroit anymore but they need to get on the ball. How about selling the Smart cars in the US, they do in Canada!
Hybrid monster is still a monster.
It let you destroy the earth and say
"I am green".
if you need a car buy small one!
It's unfortunate that Ford and other American auto companies are playing catch up to the foreign market in the development of the so called, fuel efficient vehicles. True, Ford has new lines of hybrids but while Ford is introducing, Honda and Toyota are refining. They're cornering the market! Meanwhile Ford sadly has to create a commercial to basically justify their down sizing and generate some hope for future enthusiasm in the consumer. The leaders of Ford and GM should seriously fire whoever is in charge of consumer interest, if they haven't already. Because the craze for better energy efficient vehicles could be seen years before the 9/11 tragedy; the increase in fuel cost we inherited as a result; and now the decline in sales from our country's super powers, we call Ford and GM. If Ford wants to win this battle, they will need to bring out the guns and begin introducing the first h-cell technology they've been developing. If they can master that, they will have their competitors licked.
"If you want a car buy a small one" - Exactly
Hybrid SUVs only put mpg back to where normal cars where 20 years ago!
"If you need a car buy small one!"
That is not always possible. I am looking for a vehicle to seat 6 (combining familes of 2 kids each) ... the only hybrid that seats six is the Hylander and it only gets 30 mpg and is 35-40k! I would love a 6 seater hybrid min-suv/wagon but there are none that I know of.
Thanks for saying what I was thinking Patrick. It would be nice if the auto industry gave us an efficent "people mover" but what we get are SUVs and minivans that aren't that efficent.
That's so cute!
That photo Ford has makes it look like the SUV is going to run over Kermit. The driver couldn't possibly see the little guy...
Do you know that Ford copied BMW with using Kermit for a TV Commercial?
Check out the real cool original from 2005:
http://www.bio-planet.com/bmw-kermit.html
The E scape Hybrid is as green,as Kermit,and thats definitely Environmentally and ecologically.
OK it's a small SUV. Remember, you can get both...fuel economy and practicality. It doesn't have to be a compact to get good FE. Bill Ford is big on the environment. It's a step in the right direction. Diesel and flex fuel veh's are up and coming also. Especially bio-diesel.
Dependance on fossil fuel needs to change, and Hybrids are the start of a new energy future. Rare Earth Elements are vital to alternative energies and currently 95% of these strategic metals are imported from one mine in China. No north American supply exists. Where will these metals come from ?
A Toyota Prius for example contains over 45 lbs. of rare earths in the nickel metal hydride battery and the neodymium rare earth magnet motor.
A new North American supply does exist, and they can be found at: www.gwmg.ca
Anyone following this thread may be interested in my article "Motor cars and the end of days" a tragicomic look at Kermit the shill:
http://www.nplusonemag.com/kermit.html
its just a small green frog who cares any way if a car nearly r does run over it i dodgy