Ads challenge SUV drivers to master the beast
Yes, guys, no longer do we need to drive an Urban Assault Vehicle in order to feel as if we are in control. No longer do they need to compensate for shortcomings in other areas by driving something that can be mistaken for a rolling instrument of Death. No longer do we need to drive something that gets 8 MPG (highway) in order to feel like a man.
‘Course, it not like any of these reasons for driving an SUV are bad things…right?
This has got to be one of the silliest wastes of money I’ve run across in quite some time, but if it makes a few loons feel better about themselves, where’s the harm? It’s not like they’re actually going to change any minds with this lame attempt at propaganda.
NEW YORK - State attorneys general announced a $27 million ad campaign today designed to coax SUV owners to drive safely by challenging them to “master” the vehicles.
The campaign, funded through a settlement with Ford Motor Co., is targeted at men ages 18 to 34, a group of drivers who are disproportionately likely to be involved in SUV rollovers.
“Research shows … men in this group would not respond well to lectures or to threats, so we knew we had to take a novel approach,” said Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist.
The campaign, unveiled at a news conference at the Central Park Zoo, features a monster named Esuvee that resembles a woolly mammoth with headlights.
In one 30-second spot screened for reporters, men ride the beast as they would a bucking bronco while a voice-over intones, “Anybody can ride an Esuvee, but not everybody rides it right.”
“What we want to do through this campaign is to remove the halo that SUVs now have … the halo effect that makes young men particularly feel that they are invulnerable or invincible when they are behind the wheel of a sport utility vehicle,” said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
The campaign, which will also include print and online ads, is the result of a 2002 settlement between the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and Ford, which the states charged with deceptive ads promoting the safety of SUVs.
No, we don’t respond well to lectures, but who in the hell came up with the bright idea that we would respond to a wooly mammoth with headlights?
Being a good, card-carrying Liberal, I should be embracing my fellow tree-huggers and expounding on the evils of SUVs. While I agree that SUVs are not exactly the most environmentally-friendly modes of automotive transportation, is this not the home of freedom of choice? I suppose this is where I part ways with my Liberal brethren. If you have the means and the desire, why shouldn’t you be able to drive something the size of a road grader? If someone sells it, you want it, and you can afford it, why not?
Look, I understand that SUVs aren’t as environmentally friendly as some other types of vehicles. This is still (nominally) a free country, and freedom of choice is still a basic American right. If you hate SUVs, then don’t drive one. That is your choice. Just don’t delude yourself into thinking that a wooly mammoth with headlights is going to change the mind of any right-thinking male.
Yeesh…someone actually got paid to come up with this insult to our collective intelligence??
