Picture from Seat.com
But not as dull as SEAT, who say on the one hand “The spirit of competition comes with a price: responsibility. SEAT has always been acutely aware of this in regard to sustainability and protection of the environment” and on the other hand urge idiots to drive all over the landscape in a girly ‘SUV’ like the Altea Freetrack. What they find to do with their gripping hand we can only speculate.
The irony is that, the way things are shaping up, Nature is going to be anything but dull as climate change tightens its grip. Freetrack owners may find themselves wishing they’d bought one of these:
The Coffee House 
The marketing fellows obviously are beginning to think (an unusual concept);
‘I know, in order to get our client noticed and create a little controversy let’s piss off all those people who have begun to think about making changes to their indulgent lifestyles and try and tempt them back’. And the boss says, ‘WELL DONE Rupert, you’re a bloody genius. Lets celebrate at Conran’s latest restaurant with lunch!’
Obviously the TV programme producers are having the same brain wave. See details below of an email The Coffee House received recently of behalf of Channel Five;
From: Rakhee Hindocha (rakhee.hindocha@northonetv.com)
Medium risk You may not know this sender. Mark as safe | Mark as unsafe
Sent: 24 October 2007 16:39:45
To: environmentdebate@hotmail.co.uk
Hello
Apologies for emailing out of the blue, but I discovered your website on a list of the 100 best green bloggers and wondered if you might be interested in taking part in a new programme for Five that we are making which is looking at serious consumer issues, but often in a light-hearted way so viewers don’t switch over!
Each programme (in the series of six) will look at one big item that will run throughout the show.
One of these items is public transport vs. the car. Our presenter, Dom Joly, wants to present a green campaigner with a challenge: he is prepared to ditch his car (something he is very attached to) and try public transport if he finds evidence that commuting will replace the ease of owning his own car. If this is the case, he’ll hand over his keys and admit defeat, but if it isn’t, the interviewer will have to come Monster Truck racing with him – or take part in another un-environmentally friendly past time as a forfeit…
The piece is intended to look at the issue of car vs public transport in a funny way whilst underlying the facts about each. It will allow the green campaigner to put across his/her point of view.
In terms of time commitments, it will be about 2 days filming.
The show is expected to have an audience of 2million viewers per episode and will be on air in March.
I wondered if you might be interested in taking part or knew of anyone that would?
Please do get in touch if you have any questions
I’d rather roast my bollocks over an open fire.
Wow, you guys are getting approached by a lot of people lately, huh?
ASA have guidelines against pretending cars are environmentally-friendly when actually, y’know, they’re cars. Volvo have already had a slap on the wrist for claiming to design with the environment in mind, I wonder if we can’t grass SEAT up too.
“I’d rather roast my bollocks over an open fire”
And it would probably make more entertaining viewing, although it might need to be scheduled after the watershed.
“pretending cars are environmentally-friendly when actually, y’know, they’re cars”
I suppose there’s a distinction between the car and how it’s used. The greenest, most frugal car can still make a mess if you drive it where you shouldn’t. It’s a bit like the old “Guns don’t kill, people do” argument.
We also had an agency based in Belgium contact us recently on behalf on Toyota. They suggested we might like to highlight a link to ‘cutting edge’ ideas sponsored by Toyota. They consisted of a number of short films showing environment related projects.
The Editor of The Coffee House failed to see the need to highlight this rather cunning advertising stunt. 🙂
Oh we did, did we? You kept that one as close to your chest as the Jolly to Paris, Matt.
Dom didn’t get a personal invite. 🙂
Awesome looking blog!