On a recent Hitch ride I took, a man in my neighborhood picked me up early one morning on my way to work. I had stood outside for a solid ten minutes waiting for him, so the chill was bone-cracking cold. Seeing how cold I was, he was very embarrassed that he couldn’t figure out how to make the heat work since the main service panel was a touch screen. Some of the nobs below the service dashboard would change things, but he still wasn’t getting heat. I told him I would have helped him if I could read Chinese, and he again mentioned that he was really so sorry, that this was his wife’s new car.
As were were merging into traffic, I told him, “Really, it’s not a problem, I’m more worried about you watching the road than looking at the screen.” He laughed and said he was an experienced driver, but then he finally stopped worrying about the heat.
As we continued down the road, I noticed a label on the dash in Chinese that included PM 2.5. When I pointed to this and asked him about it, he turned on the filtering function for me (though the air was beautiful that day).
Called Xinshang, this car with seemingly-super-power air-filtering-functions turns out to be manufactured by BYD, the world’s leading manufacturer of electric cars. They’d be a perfect buy for families during these red alert days (or spoiled breaks) when the air prevents most from wanting to venture out.
BYD just recently announced Leonardo DiCaprio as their brand ambassador, and he’ll be promoting the brand in China through 2017.
My suggestion for an ad campaign would be DiCaprio driving a Xinshang through the streets of Beijing during a red alert day with a crazy egg air monitor and happy, carefree children in the backseat. I wonder if he’ll pass the infamous China paper driving test on the first try?
Photos: Vanessa Jencks, BYD Official Weibo Account
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Email: vanessajencks@truerun.com
Twitter: @vanessa_jencks
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