Selling the Electric Car

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“It’s not saving the environment,” groused Rush Limbaugh on The Jay Leno Show last month. The conservative commentator was talking about the electric Ford Focus ST, which he was about to drive for the show’s Green Car Challenge segment. (Celebrity guests are timed racing around an obstacle-laden track behind the soundstage.) Limbaugh’s remark interrupted Leno introducing Ford and noting the benefits the technology has on the environment. But for the automaker, things worked out in the end: Limbaugh finished his drive and pronounced, “I like the electric car.”

Whether Limbaugh relished the ride or just the fact that he ran over Al Gore’s cardboard image (one of the obstacles) not once, but twice, he played his part well in a classic marketing tactic to stimulate consumer interest: the good old-fashioned test drive, in this case one broadcast to a national TV audience.

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