Selling the Love of Diesel

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It's arguably the most brilliant engine company in the industry, so much so that it decided decades ago to build more products -- motorcycles, scooters, cars, generators, lawn mowers, snowblowers, boat engines, and the like -- to provide surer markets for its wonderfully efficient engines.

Honda, which now sells three hybrid vehicles, says it has no plans to roll out any more, that it's not marching to Toyota Motor's (TM) strategy of a hybrid for every Toyota and Lexus it markets. Honda is so green and frugal it has for years turned down its frustrated American colleagues who want Honda to offer a V8 engine for the Honda Ridgeline pickup and Acura RL luxury sedan. Nothing doing. Honda's V6, go the responses from Japan, is plenty of performance for anyone. So, it's significant that Honda is bringing diesel to the U.S. (see BW Online, 9/15/05, "Hybrids or Diesels? Probably Both").

But it's better than that. Honda really knows how to market diesel. That's right. Whereas I have heard ridiculous solutions for making diesel more acceptable to U.S. buyers -- such as adding fragrance to the fuel to make it smell like fresh basil or just-cut switchgrass -- Honda has a track record for successfully advertising diesel the old-fashioned way. At last year's International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France, the top award went to Honda U.K. and its ad agency, Wieden + Kennedy London, for a TV ad for the Honda advanced diesel engine, the 2.2i-CDTi.

A CELEBRATED ARRIVAL.

The ad, first run in 2004, has Garrison Keillor -- host of National Public Radio's Prairie Home Companion and presumably an icon of liberal environmentalists -- crooning through a 90-second animated ad about why hate can sometimes be a positive emotion. "Hate something, change something" is the theme for Honda's diesel commercial, which takes the viewer on a journey through an optimistic animated world of "positive hate." The ad is viewable at www.honda.co.uk/grrrgame/.

The film reflects the story behind the creation of Honda's first diesel in a unique way. Kenichi Nagahiro, the company's chief engine designer and inventor of the celebrated VTEC engine, hated the noise, stink, and dirt associated with diesel engines. When asked to design Honda's first diesel, he refused unless he was allowed to start from scratch.

The animation features cute bunnies, pretty flowers, and rainbows -- all typically associated with positive imagery -- and show their dislike of dirty, noisy, smelly diesel engines by destroying them in exchange for something better. They celebrate the arrival of Honda's new diesel. Throughout the spot, Keillor sings the original folk song, "Can hate be good?" And he sings it in the key of "Grrrrrrrrr."

CHICKEN RUN.

The fact is, diesel engines are fun to drive. The new crop of turbo-diesel engines boosts the horsepower of the engines. That, combined with the fuel economy and low-end torque delivered by diesel vehicles, should be enough to tempt anyone. And here's a kicker: Diesels can run on all sorts of fuel.

There are, for example, a legion of devoted and quirky diesel owners who run their cars on recycled cooking oil they harvest from take-out Chinese restaurants and KFC outlets. No kidding. It really works if you know what you're doing. Nothing says fun to me like running your car on what smells like General Tso's chicken (see BW, 9/19/05, "It's Easier Being Green").

Anyone contemplating marketing diesel to a reluctant American public needs to gas up a Volkswagen Jetta TDI or Jeep Liberty Diesel at the local Hong Kong Gardens, and go to school on this great Honda ad from London. For all the terrible advertising we see, especially in the auto category, Honda has shown what a wonderful ad can accomplish. And for nasty old diesel -- who'd have thought?

David Kiley is a senior correspondent in BusinessWeek's Detroit bureau.