Nissan Leaf website is totally for the kids

Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, Hatchback, Nissan, Toys/Games, Electric

Nissan Leaf website for kids - Click either image for high-res gallery

How do you teach children that electric cars can be fun to use and good to drive? By explaining that they work pretty much just like any other car except that you "refuel" at home. At least that's the tactic that Nissan has taken with its "An Electric Vehicle In Our Home" sub-site, which features a cartoon family, backed by annoyingly peppy music enjoying their new electric car (a Leaf, natch).

The extremely irritating mini-site is designed to show how quiet the car is, how you can use it to go shopping, go visit grandpa, etc. It also has two "Nissan dealer representatives" who look an awful lot like a dog and a giraffe in suits. It's also a tremendously subtle site, with blink-and-you'll-miss-it lines like, "Electric vehicles are ... a choice for a future in which cars, the earth, and our kids can co-exist in harmony." Problem is, it also has some awkward moments, too, as seen in the screencaps above.

While we certainly applaud the educational effort, the execution is a bit cloying and occasionally overly simplistic to a fault - for instance, the cartoon parents conclude that if they care about the environment and the future, then they should probably choose a 100-percent electric car. That may be a suitable message for a site championing EVs, but what does this say about the buyers that choose all of Nissan's other vehicles? Also... "Thud"? Something has gotten lost in translation...

Gallery: Nissan Leaf web for kids

[Source: Nissan]

Nissan Leaf website is totally for the kids originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 10 Dec 2010 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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