Mercedes Creates ‘Invisible’ Car For Its Latest Marketing Campaign

We can only imagine a life in the world of marketing. A life in which we picture groups of creative-types huddled around a vast, bleach-white meeting room table darting ideas off each other, reminding every other person that thinking ‘outside the box’ is key to success. For every dozen or so marketing campaigns that crash and burn under their own ridiculousness - think Coca Cola's entire launch and subsequent withdrawal of 'New Coke' – there comes along one every so often that is so well thought-out it demands attention and ignites discussion.

Exhibit A: Mercedes’ marketing of its latest fuel cell car, a project that has led the team behind it to make the vehicle ‘invisible’ on one side. Propelled by Mercedes’ claims that the new F-cell car produces zero emissions – which “means it’s invisible to the environment”, as the car manufacturer’s advertisement puts it – the team behind the inspired marketing campaign went about placing LED panels each consisting hundreds of individual LEDs over one side of the car, essentially creating a make-shift LED display. A Canon 5D Mk II camera, meanwhile, was mounted to the opposite side of the car facing outwards in order to record video of everything behind the display.

Credit where credit’s due to the minds behind it, the camouflaging effect that comes from the technique really is quite remarkable to see. Take a look at the video below to see the ‘invisible’ car take shape and, moreover, the amount of onlookers having to do a double-take as Mercedes’ latest creations passes them by.