Mercedes-Benz's invisible car stunt - FT.com Agency: Jung von Matt Client: Mercedes-Benz Territory: Germany Verdict: 4/5 How do you hype a car whose main feature is that it emits no carbon while at the same time avoiding all the green clichés so often emitted by the advertising industry? To show off its redesigned hydrogen fuel cell technology, Mercedes-Benz has attempted to illustrate nothingness with a clever publicity stunt featuring a seemingly invisible car. The stunt, which forms the basis of a 90-second internet ad, involves the "invisible" Mercedes B-Class F-Cell car popping up in and around Hamburg. The footage reproduces the technical spectacle while also showing viewers how it was achieved. Engineers matted one side of the car with LED lights, in effect forming a car-shaped television screen. On the other side of the car, a video camera was placed and configured to transmit the view to the LED side. Once on the road, a side profile of the car makes it appear invisible to baffled passersby, who first look stunned, then amused. The invisible car trick recalls the frozen tundra-set chase in the James Bond film Die Another Day. But by capturing the invisible to promote the invisible, the ad makes a lot more sense than any forgettable Bond plot. As a bonus it also distracts from what is arguably the B-Class F-Cell's main weakness: its aesthetically-challenged body.