Remember Nissan’s latest 2011 Leaf commercial

Asking the viewer to imagine a world where everything from your cellphone to your microwave oven was powered by gasoline, the 60-second advert played essentially questioned why many people would choose electricity over gasoline to power their homes - but not their cars. 

It even manages to wail on its nearest plug-in rival, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, for being a plug-in hybrid rather than a pure electric car. 

Now Nissan’s automotive partner Renault has released a video detailing how it made its own version of the same advert, unveiled the same time as Nissan’s. 

2011 Nissan Leaf Ad pokes Fun at

2011 Nissan Leaf Ad pokes Fun at

Centering in on how the creative team behind both version of the advert decided to portray a bizarre world where everything was gasoline-powered, the video itself is fairly predictable and doesn’t really offer the viewer much more information. 

What it does do however, is give you some close-up shots of the various props which were made especially for the adverts, complete with smoke-machines, hidden stage-hands and wide-angle behind-the-scenes shots. 

Plug In America Public Service Annoucements

Plug In America Public Service Annoucements

With three different firms now all unimaginatively advertising their electric cars in essentially the same way, we’re just about ready for an electric car advert that doesn’t use the gasoline-powered joke that Plug-in America came up with back in November last year. 

Instead, we think it’s time for automakers to move away from the cute polar bears, gasoline-gags and find a slightly less cliched way of advertising their electric cars. 

With regard to Renault’s behind-the-scenes video? 

If you’re the kind of person who rushes to replay that DVD complete with director commentary, you’ll want to watch, but if not you can probably pass. 

Next advert, please.

[Renault]