Electric vehicle startup Polestar, which is set to go public this year, used its first-ever Super Bowl ad to indirectly shoot rivals including Tesla and Volkswagen.
The 30-second spot, titled “Without Compromise,” is simple and straight to the point. It features images of the company’s Polestar 2 electric vehicle with the word “No”, followed by words and phrases aimed at other traditional Super Bowl commercials and automakers.
The words that follow “No” during the commercial range from general terms such as “epic voiceovers” and “dirty secrets” to “dieselgate” – referencing an old diesel emissions scandal with Volkswagen – and “conquer Mars” – a critique of Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk, who plans to land humans on Mars by 2026.
The commercial ends at “No. 2” and then “Polestar 2”, the company’s all-electric performance car.
“The Super Bowl is an iconic event and I am thrilled to bring Polestar’s message to such a wide audience,” Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said in a statement. “We are a young and ambitious brand. We believe in ‘no compromise’, for our design language, our sustainability efforts and the performance of our cars, and we wanted to share that ethos with this ad. This is the ideal place to further increase our brand awareness in the United States and beyond.”
Polestar is controlled by Volvo Car AB and its owner Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. In September, the company announced an agreement to go public in the first half of this year by merging with a US-listed blank check company backed by billionaire Alec Gores. and investment bank Guggenheim Partners for an enterprise value of $20 billion.
Here is the ad: