Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2000 17:43:17 -0400
Reply-To: Matthew Bulley <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Matthew Bulley <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Subject: (slightly off topic) stupid, sprawl-inducing car ads, VW Campers,
was: Car commentary
Stu--
Don't even get me started on the disingenuous auto ads. SUV ads are the
worst... like Nissan's half-witted "Cricket " ad, showing a bunch of
sports-dullards, "harmlessly" tearing tire-trenches in a green space, using
their Nissan Asthma-Makers to play polo to The Who's "We Won't Get Fooled
Again". Ironic.
Another few more years of tailpipe & tire crap from these vehicles, and
they will need an oxygen mask just to climb into their asinine conveyances.
Now who got fooled? ...like that $30k vehicle is EVER going to do
anything more than putter at 20 mph along the blazing asphalt. Bah!
In the interest of not being hypocritical, we own a self-contained VW
Westfalia Camper, which is relatively large, and gets relatively poor
mileage (20 mpg). The difference: it comes out of the barn only when we go
camping, about once a month. I haven't driven a car in three weeks, which
is now typical. My daily transport now has laces. Urbanism in Mount Olive
is working...
As for the ads... I often imagine a Vanagon Camper ad in parody of
the ludicrous SUV ads: A couple of SUV blockheads are tearing around in
the forest until they get to a clearing by a pristine lake. They are
followed a bit more civilly by two families in VW Westfalias. The SUV
dullards are whooping it up until the VW Campers pull up...
Looking across the peaceful lake, at the fading afternoon sun, one SUV
driving moron calls to the other: "Now what... (are we to do for an
encore)?"
"Go home, I guess..." the second SUV driving moron says, since their
colossal gas-guzzlers can't do anything more than get them to and from
places. As the SUV's fade from view, the VW Campers, with their retractable
tops raised, show kids playing cards on the upper bunks, Moms relaxing and
reaching for a cold one from the fridge, while Dads stirs up some supper on
the stove.
As the sun sets over the lake, they are whooping it up like the SUV folks
were...now back to your regularly scheduled program. Have a great weekend.
G. Matthew Bulley
Bulley-Hewlett
Corporate Communications Counselors
www.bulley-hewlett.com
Mount Olive, NC USA
877.658.1278 tollfree
If you received a small "winmail.dat" file with this message, my apologies.
Microsoft thinks that everyone should receive this stupid 'instructions'
file with a mail message, whether you use Outlook97 or not. I have done my
darndest to shut it off, but may have failed. As my punishment, I am going
back to work now.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sirota, Stuart [SMTP:SirotaS@PBWORLD.COM]
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2000 3:09 PM
To: CNU@LSV.UKY.EDU
Subject: Re: Car commentary w/ passing allusion to sprawl...Grist
Magazine...19may00
> Cars were equated with freedom, and ads of the period showed happy
vacationing > families riding in roomy sedans, with the uncrowded
interstate
stretching out in
> front of them.
.and little has changed since then. There's a new commercial out now for
the new GM credit card that has my vote for "Most Infuriating and
Misleading
TV Ad of the Year". The song, "Our Day Will Come" plays in the background
while a young professional man and woman commuting on a metro train stare
longingly at a red convertible Camaro driving along side them on a parallel
freeway. There's not one other car on the road with the convertible as it
free flows down the highway. Like that happens during rush hour every day!
But what kills me is that the general public doesn't see the absurdity of
this ad and this helps reinforce the perception of "mass transit is for the
less fortunate".
A savvy transit agency marketing person should produce a parody of this
commercial by showing young attractive people on the Metro flirting or just
relaxing and socializing while traffic on the parallel highway is stuck at
a
crawl. Then cut to the couple in the car as they look enviously at the
train
as it blows by.
Stu Sirota
