A Highway to Greenness

During the past few decades, the automotive industry seems to have taken some steps towards sustainability by increasing fuel efficiency and developing hybrid and ‘emission-free’ powertrains. Despite these developments, the industry is still often accused of greenwashing since many brands still don’t plan to cease the production of internal combustion engine vehicles nor to stop collaborating or lobbying with fossil fuel companies, even when their line-up is ‘fully electric’. And when it comes to batteries, there lays the problem of mining rare-earth metals.

We decided to investigate some of the communication strategies that car brands adapt to make their models appear more ‘eco-friendly’ in their video advertisements. More specifically, we analysed 30 internal combustion engine (ICE), 30 hybrid electric (HE) and 30 battery electric (BE) models – a total of 90 different vehicles – to see if the producers present the vehicles differently according to their propulsion.

Firstly, we focused on the landscapes surrounding the advertised models and the overall narratives. At the same time, we checked upon model descriptions to find out if the same rhetorical devices were used. Through these three research questions, we gained some understanding of the adverts we had collected, together with a series of curious and unexpected findings.

The outcome is presented in a publication named A Highway to Greenness. Formula (Pangram Pangram) was selected for the main titles, captions, and visualisations, as well as the diagrams, tables, and page numbers. Suisse Works (Swiss Typefaces) was chosen for subtitles, main copy, and running titles.

The publication was made as a student project at Politecnico di Milano – School of Design, and issued in a print version (20×27 cm, 64 pages). The open access digital version is available via densitydesign.github.io.

View more photos and scans on Behance.