Clean diesel featured during the Superbowl? Great, right? Not so great when it's BMW touting its clean diesel solution and implying that every other diesel vehicle on the road, including trucks, is belching thick black smoke.


As BMW describes in its own press release, the "Changes" commercial "takes a playful jab at America's misperceptions of diesel and highlights BMW's Advanced Diesel vehicles as a cleaner, high-performance, efficient alternative. The ad, set to David Bowie's iconic melody 'Changes,' depicts a truck driver bellowing black smoke, an older-model diesel vehicle sputtering up a hill, and pedestrians surrounded by clouds of filthy exhaust. In the spot, the BMW 3 Series Advanced Diesel makes a grand entrance highlighting its smooth, clean, efficient performance and powers away leaving them all in its dust."

That's right, not only the truck, but also the trucker, is shown bellowing black diesel exhaust.

Too bad BMW didn't deal with those "misperceptions of diesel" in a way that elevated clean diesel in general, instead of just its own product.

Diesel technology has made such strides in the past decade. New diesel trucks today put out exhaust so clean, you can put a white hankie over the tailpipe and know it will stay white. So clean, that in some EPA non-attainment areas, the air going into the engine is dirtier than what's coming out the stack.