Smart cars often get a bad rap for being small and scrawny-looking. People relentlessly criticise the cars and usually no amount of marketing spiel is ever enough to convince detractors they’re misinformed — until Smart raised its game with some bird crap-related mathematics.
A few days ago, a Twitter blogger suggested droppings from a single bird could destroy a Smart car. But Smart responded, showing him the error of his ways by explaining it would actually take 4.5 million avian poos to bring about a Smart’s demise.
“Saw a bird had crapped on a Smart Car,” tweeted Clayton Hove. “Totaled it.”
Smart countered: “Couldn’t have been one bird, @adtothebone. Sounds more like 4.5 million. (Seriously, we did the math.) pic.twitter.com/aLYScFR3.”
Indeed it had done the math. Smart’s infographic estimated it would take 4.5 million pigeon craps to wreck one of its cars. Just in case Hove happened to be talking about another type of bird, the company also included estimates for turkeys (360,000 craps) and emus (45,000 craps).
It appears Smart calculated the number of bird poos required based on the weight of an individual crap from each bird rather than its acidic content or stench. Its infographic stated a Smart car’s Tridion safey cell can withstand 9,000lbs of pressure. By our own, admittedly terrible, maths, this means a single pigeon crap weighs in the region of 0.004lbs (1.18 grams). A turkey crap weighs 0.025lbs (11.3 grams) and an emu crap weighs a quite astonishing 0.2lbs (90.7 grams).
This isn’t the first time Smart has attempted to counterpunch negative commentators with clever, self-deprecating responses. In the past, the company has responded to its detractors with tweets involving Smart cars and ginger women, and a Smart car with cartoon wings flying over a pothole.
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