Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2000 20:03:10 -0400
Reply-To: "Horace K. Sawyer" <firestream@MINDSPRING.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Horace K. Sawyer" <firestream@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject: Re: (slightly off topic) stupid, sprawl-inducing car ads,
VW Campers, was: Car commentary
In-Reply-To: <01BFCCBA.09A73680@mbulley.vtc.csc.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
BRAVO!
or in southern dialect:
"OH HAIL, YEAH!!!"
H of K
Esq.
At 05:43 PM 6/2/00 -0400, Matthew Bulley wrote:
>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
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