Is This Greenwashing? Zipcar Ad
Zip Cars, or Zipcar, if you haven’t heard of them, are sort of like rental cars but they are parked in various parking spots throughout cities. You sign up for a zipcar account and you can reserve them online. When you need one, you just go to the nearest parking lot that has one of these and you can check it out for a couple hours or a day or whatever. It’s kind of cool because then you don’t need to own a car if you rarely use one. You can just pay for this as you need it.
The advertising though is clearly using the green marketing approach. We see a car driving through tall green grass, implying that Zipcar, that if you “Drive Differently” you are saving the environment. This is where I’m torn, because I’m not sure exactly the goal of Zipcar with this ad. Are they just a rental car? Are they asking you to drive less, are they asking you to not own a car, but just use theirs when you need to? What are they suggesting? I’m not sure.
July 13, 2010
I’ve seen these in my city. They’re basically just a service that allows you to rent a car for a short period of time, and then you have to return it to that location. It spreads the cost of car ownership across the community, instead of concentrating it in one person’s hands. The service isn’t “green” per se, but it enables people who don’t need to use a car very much to have access to a car, without purchasing one.
July 16, 2010
This is a great idea. You can just use it when you need it rather than driving your car everywhere.
August 10, 2010
Zip cars are widely used in Washington DC, I used to passed by two stands for them when I walked to the mall, that was only about 4 minutes away. Good to see that they’re really catching on at least in an urban setting
August 15, 2010
Love this new idea! This can greatly help mother earth by reducing the pollution. It’s a great because you can drive without really buying a car.