Cow's That? Honda Moooove with the Hybrid Heifer

WEST SUSSEX, England - August 3, 2006: Honda’s Civic Hybrid has been churned into a cow for an appearance at Fruitstock, the innocent festival, this weekend. Hoofed have thought it?

Honda is attending the London event to inform and educate festival-goers on cleaner driving.

"We’ve created a Hybrid with grass before," explains John Kingston, Environment Manager for Honda (UK), "and the next logical step was a cow car. When I first herd the idea in the office, I thought, ‘what a load of bull’, and told the person who suggested it to ‘pull the udder one’. But on reflection, it was probably the best moos I’d heard all day, besides – no-one came up with a heifer idea."

The Civic Hybrid, nicknamed Clover, will be joined by another car on the Honda stand that explains how Hybrid technology works in basic terms. Research conducted by Honda earlier this year, suggested three out of four people don’t know how a Hybrid car works, while one in two had never even heard of the term.

"We’ve got no beef with consumers who don’t understand hybrids," continues Kingston. "We’re here to help and to chew the cud on all things green. Better that than hide behind confusing technical descriptions. And we make no apologies for milking the idea – if it works I’ll certainly be giving the person who came up with it a pat on the back. I just wish I’d had a steak in the plan from the start!"

After Fruitstock, Honda’s ‘Cow-look’ car will be loaned to innocent drinks (the organisers of the festival) for one year following its appearance at the festival to help spread the word about cleaner cars.

Clover will graze on the ‘Meet innocent’ Stand at Fruitstock, while the ‘Hybrid explained’ car is on the Honda stand.

Fruitstock is a free festival for all the family – people can listen to summery music, buy delicious food at the farmers’ market, enjoy a free yoga lesson or massage; and there’s plenty for the children to do in innocent’s dedicated kids’ area.

Fruitstock is open Saturday and Sunday, 5-6 August, from 12pm to 9pm, in Regents’ Park, London.