--- title: Charli XCX Clarifies the Impact of Her Latest Music Video description: Charli XCX wants to make it clear that even though a car is burning, they did it with the environment in mind. canonical: https://time.com/5698673/charli-xcx-white-mercedes/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-10-11T18:07:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:00:48.879Z og:title: Charli XCX Clarifies the Impact of Her Latest Music Video og:description: Charli XCX wants to make some things clear about the video for "White Mercedes" og:url: https://time.com/5698673/charli-xcx-white-mercedes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Charli XCX Clarifies the Impact of Her Latest Music Video twitter:description: Charli XCX wants to make some things clear about the video for "White Mercedes" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Charli XCX Clarifies the Environmental Impact of Her Latest Music Video > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=56be00b1-0927-4a17-bb22-4d0521b30991&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 11, 2019 6:07 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 11, 2019 6:07 PM UTC Don’t worry: that car you see burning in pop star [Charli XCX](https://time.com/5422391/charli-xcx-1999/)‘s latest music video for her song [“White Mercedes”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKBCLHAq1do)? It’s all environmentally sound. On social media, the English artist clarified the behind-the-scenes situation that went into the making of the video, noting that the “black smoke and heavy fire” were made by “special effect liquid” that ensured that toxic things weren’t actually burned. “The car itself was completely emptied,” she noted. “Even the white paint we put on the car was organic and made for easy removal.” Charli XCX was driven to share this statement after she said she saw comments made by her fans concerned about the environmental impact. But of course, the real [talking point](https://jalopnik.com/charli-xcx-must-think-were-idiots-1838945592) about the music video is that people have noted that none of the cars featured are actually a white Mercedes, despite the clear directive in the song title. Charli recently released her third album, _Charli_, which features artists including [Troye Sivan](https://time.com/5375715/troye-sivan-2018/), [Lizzo](https://time.com/5568320/lizzo-music-album-review/) and [Christine and the Queens](https://time.com/5401145/christine-and-the-queens-interview/). Long a beloved figure on the pop circuit, this latest release has helped put her more prominently in the pop mainstream — although she’s been a fixture there for years for those who’ve been paying attention, after writing songs like “Boom Clap” and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy,” and this summer even helping put Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello on top of the charts with “Señorita.” > [](https://twitter.com/charli%5Fxcx/status/1182697531593154562) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5698673/charli-xcx-white-mercedes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5698673/charli-xcx-white-mercedes/"},"headline":"Charli XCX Clarifies the Environmental Impact of Her Latest Music Video","datePublished":"2019-10-11T18:07:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:00:48.879Z","description":"\"I'm seeing the comments about air pollution\"","url":"https://time.com/5698673/charli-xcx-white-mercedes/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5698673/charli-xcx-white-mercedes/","name":"Charli XCX Clarifies the Environmental Impact of Her Latest Music Video"}}]}] ```