Greenpeace protest or VW ad? Twitter can’t decide

Greenpeace activists dressed as stormtroopers chose London's uber-trendy Old Street as the venue for their latest protest this morning against German car manufacturer Volkswagen. Their Star Wars-themed protest was a hit with London's media types who flocked to Twitter to announce that they had witnessed the demonstration.

However, such are the levels of irony and marketing sophistication at work in the part of London known as 'silicon roundabout' that many people appeared to think the protest was actually an elaborate marketing stunt by the German car company rather than one against it.

The protest was designed to highlight VW's environmental record and the Star Wars theme of the campaign is a reference to an advert by the car company, which features a child dressed as Darth Vader.

The charity hopes to turn VW away from the 'dark side', but the significance of imperial stormtroopers in Old Street appeared to confuse some. Tim Dillon was one of several people who got the wrong end of the stick. He tweeted: "VW had Star Wars troopers on Old Street this morning, move along, move along."

BBC Radio presenter Ian Ramsdale owned up to his mistake, and admitted: "Cycling by I thought it a VW promo but it was a Greenpeace attack."

Student Abi Hill thought the campaign had been misjudged. "Stormtroopers on Old Street may be not the most effective campaign when everyone thinks it's a massive advert for VW, not a protest against," she tweeted.

However, Greenpeace's decision to stage the protest in London's technology hub did ensure that it dominated the Twittersphere. Old Street, Stormtroopers and #vwdarkside all became trending topics throughout the morning. The charity will be relieved that a #greenpeacefail hash-tag did not catch on. ·