The boys in blue are coming, or in this case, the boys in green as Audi launch the new Audi A3 with a creative campaign – centring on a fictional authority called the Green Police – aired during last night’s Super Bowl.

In marketing terms the campaign is a big deal when you consider the Super Bowl provides advertisers with the prime chance to reach an enormous audience in one hit (last year’s event was seen by 151 million people). On top of that, according to advertising trade press, a 30 second spot this year cost between $2.5m and $3m. Meaning a considerable slice of a brand’s marketing budget – even a brand of Audi’s stature– goes into their Super Bowl spot(s).

Over the years, the Super Bowl has become an occasion for mega brands to unveil their latest product or announce a new direction, and for advertising agencies to show off their creative muscle. It seems Audi’s green police campaign went down a treat with American audiences as USA Today’s Ad Meter – a focus group led survey – shows that the campaign gained an average score of 7.35 (out of 10) making it the joint 4th favourite ad shown during this colossal event.

10 most popular
Advertiser	Description	Sec.	Qtr.	Score
Mars Snickers	Octogenarian actors Betty White and Abe Vigoda play in a casual football game.	30	1st	8.68
Doritos	Dog with bark collar rules.	30	1st	8.27
Bud Light	Man builds a house out of beer cans.	30	1st	7.91
Anheuser-Busch	Clydesdale’s friend.	60	4th	7.82
Coca-Cola	Sleepwalker going through rough terrain gets cold Coke.	60	3rd	7.36
Audi A3 TDI	Audi diesel pleases green police.	60	4th	7.35
E-Trade	Talking baby tries to explain to jealous girlfriend why he didn’t call.	30	3rd	7.34
Budweiser	Teamwork helps beer truck.	60	2nd	7.29
Bridgestone	Guys have an unexpected passenger: a killer whale.	30	1st	7.24
Monster Worldwide	A woodland beaver has exceptional musical talent with a fiddle.	30	1st	7.19

But just who are the Green Police? The Green Police are caricatures of today’s Green Movement; dedicatedly striving to help turn everyday consumers into environmentally responsible citizens and by any means necessary! Employing the skills of an anteater to sniff out contraband and sifting through domestic waste for misplaced recyclables.

The Green Police certainly don’t take any prisoners, but their reasons are noble; inspiring naive (or just downright lazy) consumers towards finding green enlightenment – or through fear of getting cuffed at their local supermarket!

Either way, the ad is doing a great job cementing Audi’s “Green” credentials in the States and winning over new fans by not taking themselves too seriously. Interestingly, Audi have chosen the Audi  A3 TDI to front the campaign, which was recently awarded the 2010 Green Car of the Year Award at the LA Auto Show by Green Car Journal. Suggesting that the A3 TDI’s outstanding fuel efficiency is the standard to which Audi is now setting its sight with all their exclusive models.

What do you think? Does the idea of the next Q7 model having a CO2 output of 99g/km seem feasible, or the stuff of fantasy?

And off course we saved the best for last, here it is this year’s Audi Super Bowl Ad starring the new highly efficient Audi A3 1.6 TDI.