Giving and getting at Volvo

Nathan points out that Volvo’s much-promoted campaign ("Who would you give a Volvo to?") has a surprising flaw.

The brilliant part of the campaign is that by challenging people to think about a car as a generous act (as opposed to a selfish one), they subconsciously get us thinking about safety at the same time we associate being selfless with their brand of car.

The surprising part? They’re not actually giving away a car.

Is that selfless?

You can go to their site and enter your story, etc., all very web2-ish, but at the end, that’s it.

No one actually gets a car.

It can’t be that they can’t afford it. It must be on purpose. I just don’t see it…