We Love EVs' - BASF SE | Clapboard Ad Archive

BASF SE’s We Love EVs campaign, created by Rothco | Accenture Interactive for the automotive market in 2021, positions the brand as a critical catalyst in the evolution of electric mobility by spotlighting its innovative approach to more sustainable battery materials. Eschewing narrative drama, testimonials, or emotive symbolism, the work embodies what Clapboard’s taxonomy identifies as FORMAT#1—Demonstration: a focused, product-centric device that transparently articulates how BASF’s material science advances directly benefit electric vehicles and, by extension, environmental progress. The campaign’s creative signals an understanding of the market’s increasing demand for authenticity and transparency in sustainability claims, anchoring its messaging in the concrete reduction of CO2 emissions and quantifiable improvements to battery technology, rather than broad environmental platitudes or brand self-congratulation. By mapping BASF’s technical know-how to societal imperatives—cleaner air, lower emissions, and shared responsibility for a greener future—the campaign avoids generic eco-marketing and instead asserts category leadership through factual demonstration of value delivered inside the automotive supply chain. The absence of human actors or lifestyle vignettes underscores the campaign’s strategic simplicity: BASF is the invisible force powering progress behind the scenes, connecting the dots between chemical innovation and the transformative promise of electric vehicles at scale. This positioning naturally aligns the brand alongside peers such as Covestro, Lanxess, Solvay, DuPont, and Clariant, yet distinguishes it by concentrating on battery material sustainability as both a market necessity and a differentiator. The film format’s directness dovetails with the expectations of B2B audiences—manufacturers, suppliers, and regulatory stakeholders—as well as increasingly technical B2C advocates, building credibility and trust through transparency and single-minded benefit exposition. The use of the #WeLoveEVs hashtag amplifies the campaign’s reach into digital channels, facilitating engagement among a community already invested in the electrification journey. The campaign earns 58/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. In reframing the conversation around EV sustainability from aspirational to actionable, BASF’s campaign signals a maturation in automotive brand storytelling, where proof of performance now supplants mere promise.