Date:         Sat, 6 Mar 1999 16:26:23 -0500
Reply-To:     "G. Matthew Bulley" <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "G. Matthew Bulley" <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Subject:      Bulley manifesto against SUVs/marketing, Few Vanagon words

Hope this generates some thought, and positive discussion; albeit, not
specifically Vanagon thought.>>>>>>>>>>>

All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 1999 Bulley-Hewlett & Associates --
Forward this message only in its entirety: keep this "copyright" portion &
signature in the message. Thanks.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Summary-- Using brainwashing fear tactics, SUV marketers are suckering the
public into buying expensive, dangerous, environmentally-unfriendly
vehicles that far exceed nearly any driver's REAL needs.

2,336 words--Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 9th

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It is a market-driven economy.

Auto companies produce only the vehicles they can coerce people into
buying, and from which they can make the most money. Right?

Welcome the SUV, now even BIGGER. Ugh.

We all know that SUV's don't fall under the federal COLA standards, so
automakers don't have to worry about SUV's abysmal fuel mileage. SUV's
aren't regulated as passenger cars, but as trucks, so manufacturers don't
have to spend a lot of money when their lumbering product spews far more
emissions than a passenger car. SUV's don't cost substantially more to
produce than passenger cars, but you can charge a lot for them, so there
are far greater profit margins. Sounds like a great product for the
automaker, yes?

Unfortunately for the consumer, tires and other maintenance items cost more
for an SUV than on a passenger car. The lifetime cost of fuel and
maintenance items can be several times multifold what it would be for the
owner of a passenger car. Lifetime emissions are geometrically higher than
a car. Impact on the environment initially to produce these behemoths is
greater than for a car.

But worst of all, in crashes with passenger car drivers, an SUV driver is
SUBSTANTIALLY more likely to kill the occupants of the other vehicle. The
general mass, chassis, and bumper systems of an SUV-driver's vehicle land
squarely in the window area of most passenger cars. This is compounded by
the fact that the handling and braking of an SUV in panic/emergency
situations is notably poorer than most any passenger car. Research
concludes again and again, it is far more difficult for SUV drivers to
avoid an accident, and when these drivers are involved in an accident, they
frequently kill.

So why would anyone with a good conscience feel good about driving an SUV?
Because the general population is a flock of sheep. And skillful marketing
shepherds are herding them over a cliff. I'm not saying that we are all
stupid, I am saying that, as humans, we respond fairly predictably to
certain stimulus, and SUV marketers are using this to market an evil
product.

Allow me (once again) to be the devil's advocate, and debunk the SUV
desire. SUV marketing REALLY gets under my skin because *deceitful*
manipulation techniques are used.

'Deceitful' because SUV marketers employ what is called an "insinuated n
eed" technique to move these expensive heaps to market. That is, the NEED
doesn't actually exist in the real world. It is fiction.

Marketers make you experience the need through repeated, convincing
examples of people just like you, successfully resolving a problem. The
problem often discretely centers on protecting the person from a feared
outcome; for example, an SUV plowing through deep snow, protecting the
occupant from getting stuck. After seeing their ads over and over again,
you begin to perceive the problem (getting stuck in the snow) as real in
your life, after all, you have seen someone just like you facing this
problem many times... You feel the need to resolve the problem, as if it
were real. Then, if all goes as planned, you buy the product to protect you
from the snowstorm that might trap you.

Reality Check... None of us wants to get trapped helplessly in our vehicles
in a snow storm. Horrible thought. However, despite a hundred years of
automobile usage, trillions and trillions of driven miles, thousands of
horrible snowstorms worldwide, only a handful of people have ever ACTUALLY
been trapped in their vehicles in a snowstorm. There is no REAL threat to
your safety that a vehicle can solve. The odds of it happening are slim to
none, if you have any common sense, and stay off the roads when dangerous
weather threatens.

But to watch SUV ads, you would be convinced that the threat is REAL, and
ever increasing. No matter who you are, your life is in jeopardy without
their product. Families just like yours are having to slug it out daily
with Mother Nature, but they are winning because they bought the New
Ford/Chevy/Lincoln, etc. Fake need, skillfully reapplied in every ad.

The insinuated need marketing technique of the SUV leverages three primal
human emotions that few can resist:

(1) fear of loss / insecurity
(2) the fear of failure
(3) fear of oppression / lack of freedom.

I would wager, people desperately trying to calm these two fears are the
driving force behind the vast majority of SUV purchases. Can we blame them?
We all have these fears. But will a truck solve them?

The need for security----------

Among many other considerations, as the baby-boom generation ages, most are
coming to the pinnacles of their careers. They have some money, some
"toys", growing families, and a lot of responsibility. They have a lot to
lose. Being cultured in the "me" generation, this population, in
particular, is highly sensitive about personal loss; many would drive a
10-ton dump truck if they believed it would protect them, and their assets.

Further, as their bodies age, they have become increasing sensitive to
their physical (bodily) insecurity; feeling threatened by bad weather,
other vehicles, and the general unpredictability of life. Fertile ground
for mental manipulation.

Marketers exploit this insecurity by leading people to believe that "an SUV
will keep you safe from all harm or loss". Carefully watch the images in
the commercials. The vehicle is portrayed miraculously coping with a
location or condition that few of us have ever SEEN or would ever choose to
drive in: hurricane-force rain, knee-deep muddy ruts, firestorm on the
mountain (in the new GMC ads), blizzard, floating icepack, desolate
deserts, deserted jungles, driving through a functioning steel smelter.

Now ask yourself, in my _____ years of driving, have I EVER encountered
conditions like that, and had NO ALTERNATIVE but TO DRIVE through it? I
didn't think so. You probably never will. It is an imagined threat,
conceived in a marketing office for an evil product.

Sadly, some SUV-buying-sheep so fully believe the marketers claims that
they go out in the most horrible weather anyway.  Then we see them on the
11 o'clock news...rolled in a ditch, or down an embankment, or roof-deep in
the swollen creek. Is it the owners fault for believing his SUV would make
him invincible? Baaaaaaaaaah. Baaaaaaaaaah.

Unless you are one of an infinitesimal handful of remote-rescue workers,
open-range farmers, huge trailer-pullers, and hermits, I would propose that
a well-suited passenger vehicle is far more than sufficient to protect you,
entertain you, pull your load, and transport you for the type of driving
you will do throughout your entire life. Don't you think? You don't need an
SUV now, and you never will.

"But I've gotta large family, & dogs, etc..."  Get a
Mercedes-Audi-Passat-Volvo wagon, or a minivan, (restore a nice older
Vanagon). Plenty of room in those.

"But I want a recreational vehicle...I like camping." Again, an AWD
(Subaru, Volvo, Audi) wagon is great for this. Rescuing an older VW Syncro
Westfalia is even better. There are many vehicles that address the need for
space, luxury, towing, and comfort without seriously endangering others, or
the environment.

The fear of failure or lack of achievement---

Even more disingenuous, marketers will have you believe that by purchasing
an SUV, you will no longer live your somewhat unremarkable life, you will
have a new, better, remarkable life.

If you believe them, when you buy an SUV you will suddenly be taken out of
your common, work-a-day grind. You will take Tuesdays off, and be an
adventuresome solitary fly fisherman in Montana, or a renowned polar
explorer, or your family will live in a remote ancient cliff dwelling,
instead of your suburbia frame house (new Chevy ads). Ridiculous. More
subtle "insinuated need".

No matter WHAT you have achieved in life, most of us have some nagging
frustration deep within us, that, although we dreamed it in our youth, we
aren't on the path to being a polar explorer, mountain adventure guide,
President, Pope, or developer of the cure for cancer, (or maybe something
much more humble). In some way, you have failed to achieve some dream. That
is humanity.

Marketers lather this irrelevant insecurity into a desperate, effervescent
NEED to relieve the imagined frustration of being a relatively common Joe
or Jane. They show us pictures of high-achieving folks in their SUV's
Discovering, Adventuring, Trooping, Exploring, Roving in Expeditions to
Denali, Tahoe, and the Yukon. Buy their crummy SUV station wagon, and
you'll achieve that elusive dream, you will BE that ___________, you always
thought you should be.

Don't fall prey; it is a lie. I assure you, you are probably achieving a
gracious plenty in your life. Do you really think you will achieve
significantly more by driving one of these horrible land yachts?

The fear of oppression--

Finally, and maybe most frequently, marketers deceive you with promises of
a more relaxed, calm, and empowered life.

They know that your calendar is so crammed you are just now finishing your
thank you notes from Christmas. They know you are in some way powerless in
your life, and dream of telling your boss, customers, stock holders, board
of directors, etc. what you REALLY think. Again, that's humanity.

They would have you believe, instead of playing by the frustrating rules
all week, then doing laundry and yardwork this weekend, if you buy their
truck, you'll be free to tell your boss, customers, stock holders, board of
directors, etc. to shove it. Then you and your family will enjoy peaceable
weekends wistfully churning through undiscovered streams and woods, safe
and alone, in your SUV. Right?

You think a truck will clear up some free time, and transform your suburban
commute into a roll through remote Wyoming? Clue; only you can control your
free time, and your life. Your vehicle cannot.

Buy an SUV and you'll be more stressed trying to navigate and park your
unwieldy hulk in unforgiving, regular car-sized lanes and spaces. You'll
eventually long for those comfortable, brisk, "car-like road manners" that
only a car can give. You will be embarrassed to have to help your
passengers CLIMB into your vehicle. Your massive, sun-blocking, high-bea
m-glaring, lane-hogging barge will irritate other drivers, many of whom may
choose to irritate you in return.

How often do you see a truly "laid back", relaxed person climbing out of
their SUV? If you think an SUV will relieve stress, look at the appearance
and demeanor of many SUV drivers. What do you think? Wanna be like that?

Now, I realize, some fortunate readers live in those pristine areas of our
world where there are few people, wide-open highways, and enough time in
the business day to throw a line in the pond at lunch time. Most of this
country's population does not. We live in cities and suburbs, and enjoy our
fleeting forays into that pristine world when fortunate enough to scavenge
the time.

City or country dweller: there is an ominous problem with SUV's that should
concern all of us. The increased toll on our physical atmosphere from SUV's
will eventually make those "pristine" areas of our world increasingly
impossible to find. Marketers forget to tell you: you better take pictures
on your drive through the woods, because all the junk coming out of your
road barge is killing the woods...

For example, the top half of Mt. Mitchell here in NC is an ugly stand of
dead and dying firs; it is nearly deforested from acid rain that sweeps in
from the Ohio/Missouri/Mississippi River Valley. This isn't due directly to
the filth streaming out of gas-guzzling SUV's, but adding highly-polluting
vehicles to a troubled environment doesn't help anything. Unfortunately,
more than fifty percent of the new vehicles sold in the USA last year were
SUV's & light trucks...

Further, as formerly pedestrian counties with HUGE populations (China,
India, Brazil) begin to drive (in primitive, highly-polluting vehicles),
our planet's air is faced with greater challenges. The coming decades hold
interesting dilemmas for those who want to both breathe and drive
combustion-engined vehicles.

Do you still want that SUV? You're killing me.

Statistics imply that we each have a significant traffic accident
approximately every seven years. If emotional security is your concern,
imagine the emotional drain you will feel if your simple traffic accident
crushes some family's mother, or son. Could you live happily-ever-after
knowing that IF you had driven a reasonable vehicle, a family might still
have their loved one?

Your choice in vehicle affects other people. Will you kill someone in your
next accident? Think seriously about THAT before you buy an SUV.

What really set me off this morning is the thought that Ford is now
producing an SUV whose mammoth steel engine is so gargantuan, it takes an
inordinate amount of time/energy to overcome the engine's thermal capacity
in cold weather. Think about that...the SUV's engine block is so huge, it
makes necessary the idea and added cost and weight of a "thermal
capacitor". Is this progress?

If Terex (the company that makes 100-ton Titan dump trucks for the
quarry/mining industry) comes out with a 3-story-tall SUV, will you want
one? Have marketers succeeded into tricking you to believe you would need
one?

Don't be a sheep. Now you know what marketers are doing. Think carefully
about your needs, and the clean air in the world around you. Before you
drive your truck through someone's car window, shouldn't you look at
alternatives to SUV's instead of blindly following the flock?
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Like most of you, I love our VW Vanagon. Simple. Low bumpers that don't
kill others. Very efficient for their capacity and ability. Low pollution
output (when properly maintained). Not terribly expensive to maintain or
put tires on. Honestly addresses a verifiable need without endangering
others or our planet.

I respect your opinions: if you have to flame, P-mail me. Don't further
pollute the mail list...unless of course, you need to call me a sexist,
racist, ultra-right-wing, liberal, inbred, conspiracy-theory-believing,
manifesto-writing, indigent, reactionary, hypocritical, flag-burning,
apple-pie-in-the-sky-Reagan-worshiping, militant, hippie-headed,
Bible-toting pulpit thumping sing-a-song-of-six-pence-freaky
whack-o...then, by all means, do so on the list.

G. Matthew Bulley
Bulley-Hewlett & Associates
Cary, NC     USA
www.bulley-hewlett.com
(888) 468-4880 toll free