In a commercial for the Jeep Liberty Renegade, a man steers his sport utility vehicle over a jagged, frozen landscape. Encountering a stranded seal pup, he raises a spear into the air and brings it down with a menacing thrust.
Surprise: He isn't aiming for the baby seal after all. He's making a hole in the ice to reunite the helpless pup with its mother.
"The new Jeep Liberty Renegade. It gives you the power to conquer nature, as well as the ability to protect it," the voice-over says.
Yes, gas-guzzling, ozone-eating, car-crushing SUVs can make the world a better place -- if you believe the new crop of ads that aim to give the vehicles a kinder, gentler, safer image.
More Report on Business Stories
The seal ad "shows the other side of things, that SUVs . . . can be friendly to the environment when used responsibly," says Paul Fleet, a spokesman for DaimlerChrysler Canada.
The seal community may be convinced, but winning over biped mammals of the subspecies Hateus SUVtius could be a taller challenge.
Critics have been giving the SUV a rocky ride. First came the damning book, High and Mighty, which labelled SUVs "the world's most dangerous vehicles" for their tendency to roll over and to kill occupants of cars unlucky enough to get in their way.
Then there was the "What would Jesus drive?" campaign that criticized SUVs as un-Christian. More recently, U.S. ads have linked fuel-thirsty SUVs to supporting terrorism.
With a backlash threatening to dent SUV sales, auto manufacturers are fighting back with ads that try to rehabilitate the vehicles' tarnished image. Chris Travell, vice-president of Maritz Automotive Research Group in Toronto, says his firm has noticed a shift in advertising tactics.
"Whereas the traditional positioning of the SUV has been, 'I can conquer nature, nothing will stand in my way,' there is a movement afoot to reposition the vehicle in a somewhat different light" that includes making SUVs appear more environmentally friendly, he said.
While the trend is "refreshing," he says it's too early to tell whether the new breed of ads will lift sales.
Rescuing cuddly animals is a popular theme. Last year, DaimlerChrysler aired a spot in which owners of a Jeep Grand Cherokee saved a group of deer from hunters. The ad didn't make out as well as the deer, however: The company yanked it after hunters complained.
Subaru, meanwhile, ran a commercial for its Outback that depicted a couple stopping their vehicle in the forest to gaze at deer. The moment was spoiled by an inconsiderate driver in a larger and noisier SUV who scared the deer away. "Imagine a sport utility designed to find harmony with nature," the voice-over said, referring to the Outback.
Another Subaru spot, for the Forester, showed a girl and her mother driving into the forest to release a rabbit into the wild. But Subaru pulled the spot after animal rights groups pointed out that the rabbit was a domestic breed that would have been eaten by predators.
More SUV ads are stressing safety, too. A U.S.-produced spot for Volvo's XC90 describes it as being "guided by conscience." As the vehicle drives through rain-slicked city streets, messages flash on the screen highlighting its "roll stability control system" and "pedestrian impact zones."
"You think about conscience, that little voice that says you have a responsibility to people -- the people who drive your SUV, the people who travel in it, even the people outside of it," the announcer says, as the camera focuses on a woman riding a bicycle close enough to the XC90 to inhale its not-so-safe exhaust fumes.
SUV ads used to be all about climbing over rocks. But for luxury SUVs, in particular, that formula no longer works, says Tony Miller, creative director with Volvo's Canadian ad agency, Sharpe Blackmore Euro RSCG. Volvo's ads stress safety and on-road performance, not off-road capabilities that are rarely used.
"Every year, there are more and more entries into the luxury SUV category and that is forcing agencies and car companies to think of a different way of selling those vehicles," Mr. Miller says.
Lower-priced SUVs are also stressing safety. A spot for the Suzuki XL-7, for instance, highlights the vehicle's crash-test ratings. The XL-7's target consumers "are people with small families . . . so crash-test safety is important to them," says Manuel Glaze, group account director at Grey Worldwide in Toronto, Suzuki Canada's ad agency.
But it isn't just SUV ads that are evolving. So are SUVs.
With sales of large, truck-based SUVs sliding amid rising oil prices and fears of a U.S.-led war with Iraq, the auto industry is looking to smaller, "crossover" sport utes to pick up the slack.
Crossovers, the fastest-growing vehicle category in the United States last year, offer the roominess of an SUV but are built on a car platform that provides better fuel economy and handling.
Ads for the new Nissan Murano crossover show where SUVs and their marketing may be going. One spot in Nissan's "Adventures in on-roading" campaign depicts a guy in his Murano searching used book shops for a first-edition copy of a Kurt Vonnegut novel. Another depicts a couple hunting for antiques.
There is not a boulder -- or a baby seal -- anywhere in sight.
jheinzl@globeandmail.ca
17