When Polestar’s TV commercial added a VO the brand took a giant step backward.
Polestar, a truly new brand to enter the EV market, came into the US television media with a sleek sophisticated image. The smooth lines of the white car interwoven with clean, modern lines of architecture. The brand looked like a contemporary and perhaps exciting new competitor in the electric vehicle space. Maybe a new startup to rival the Tesla brand which turned electric cars mainstream. Maybe an alternative that would make being a Polestar owner just as cool (or cooler) than the Tesla tribe. The website is sleek and engaging. The prices are more like the early Tesla prices – high. But hey, something new. A new rival. A new opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new brand. To be an early adopter as the early Tesla buyers were.
Things were looking interesting and exciting. The TV commercial “Pure Design” was beautifully shot with just a futuristic music track. No voice over, no script. Just eye candy. But then, Polestar decided to add a script to the spot for the Polestar 2, and that’s when it all went wrong – for me.
If you’re going to add a script, then tell me what makes this new brand of electric vehicle different, unique, better, and worth the dollars to put it in my garage. But the script went back 40 years “If you just set out to build an electric car that’s all it will ever be, an electric car.” Really? That’s how you want to introduce this new brand? That’s your opening line? It continues, “But the Polestar 2 is something more. Every detail designed to be quietly distinctive.” Wait, that’s all you have to say about this new brand? Then the death blow, “Polestar 2, the way electric cars should be.” OH COME ON. Seriously!?! That line has been used for every line of products since it was first used back in the 50s. …Maytag, the way refrigerators should be. …Diary Fresh, the way milk should be. And on and on. This script is a total cop-out (to coin another old expression). This spot is so out of character for the rest of the Polestar brand. Their Super Bowl ad had no voice over, just text that promised No voice overs. No catch phrases. No empty promises. No blah, blah, blah. (Literally that’s what it says, No blah, blah, blah). And then this spot shows up and breaks all the brand promises. What a disappointment. Luckily the newer model commercials have gone back to just sleek visuals and futuristic music – which feels like the true brand.
As a side note; the new BMW electric car commercials are elegant and perfectly on-brand with BMW. And it even uses a line about how an electric car should be, but in the BMW context and that makes all the difference. To paraphrase it says: BMW makes sure every BMW perform the way it should. That builds the trust in the BMW brand without making a statement that every car should be like their car. If that were the case every car would look like a BMW, and we all know, variety is the spice of life!
I don’t know where this Polestar 2 commercial came from, but it should be removed from the Polestar portfolio of commercials. To me it just pulls the brand down instead of lifting it up.