cars

VW has launched its latest advert ahead of the US Super Bowl this weekend.

The advert is a follow-up to last year’s Little Darth one which we lampooned to reveal the Dark Side of VW’s environmental claims. It still riffs on a Star Wars theme and throws in a cute dog for good measure, but is there any mention of supporting ambitious climate laws?

Our VW campaign has passed a significant milestone, as the Jedi ranks swell to over 500,000. That's an incredible half a million people demanding that Volkswagen gets behind the sort of climate laws we need to save our planet.

So thank you for signing up, recruiting your friends and keeping up the pressure on VW - it's been absolutely amazing.

VW has been ignoring our requests for a meeting, so we've paid a visit to its exhibition stand at the Brussels Motor Show.

Or, to be more precise, dozens of polar bears (including the majestic Paula Bear) have invaded the prestigious Autosalon 2012 event to protest about the impact that Volkswagen and the rest of the car industry is having on our climate and the Arctic.

The phalanx of stormtroopers we sent to the hush-hush car lobby meeting today have certainly had an effect. Even though it seems we were expected, their presence created a disturbance in the Force for the car industry bosses who had to walk past them, although for some it was all too much.

Today the Dark Side has come to Brussels, where the world’s biggest car companies are gathering for a shadowy meeting where they will decide whether to block a key European climate law to clean up our engines.

Despite claims that they are eco-friendly, car makers are notorious for getting in the way of regulations that will bring down CO2 emissions from their vehicles. They've spread myths about how reduction targets will affect their business, but time and again they've been proven wrong.

Voting has closed in our film competition to expose the true face of Volkswagen, and we now have a shortlist to present to the judges. Did your favourite make it into the final 12?