This review of Keith Bradshier's
The High and Mighty says it very well.
His book devotes at least one chapter to how the SUV was
both designed and marketed to appeal to be an intimidator and appeal to vanity. A great deal of effort was put into that.
This commercial should be no suprize - there are plenty of others that are nearly as explicit. The appeal is emotional and nothing to do with utility.
They make the commercials because they sell. If the appeal is something like an appeal to be like a 350-pound wrestler, maybe with roid rage, some of that is going to carry over to they highway. My roadside observations tend to support what Bradshier is saying.
If you don't like that image, don't get upset - just don't do it.
[quote="Article on Bradshier]According to market research conducted by the country's leading automakers, Bradsher reports, SUV buyers tend to be "insecure and vain. They are frequently nervous about their marriages and uncomfortable about parenthood. They often lack confidence in their driving skills. Above all, they are apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in their neighbors and communities. They are more restless, more sybaritic, and less social than most Americans are. They tend to like fine restaurants a lot more than off-road driving, seldom go to church and have limited interest in doing volunteer work to help others."
He says, too, that SUV drivers generally don't care about anyone else's kids but their own, are very concerned with how other people see them rather than with what's practical, and they tend to want to control or have control over the people around them. David Bostwick, Chrysler's market research director, tells Bradsher, "If you have a sport utility, you can have the smoked windows, put the children in the back and pretend you're still single." Armed with such research, automakers have, over the past decade, ramped up their SUV designs to appeal even more to the "reptilian" instincts of the many Americans who are attracted to SUVs not because of their perceived safety, but for their obvious aggressiveness. Automakers have intentionally designed the latest models to resemble ferocious animals. The Dodge Durango, for instance, was built to resemble a savage jungle cat, with vertical bars across the grille to represent teeth and big jaw-like fenders. Bradsher quotes a former Ford market researcher who says the SUV craze is "about not letting anything get in your way, and at the extreme about intimidating others to get out of your way."[/quote]
I know not that many in the general population drive a Hummer, but what vehicle has more visibility? It's out of proportion. It's in the toystores, TV, billboard vehicles, radio DJ vehicles, etc....
Some might not care about this, but when the rest of the world sees some [b]civilian[/b] Americans strutting around in a militaristic vehicle in the media again and again, it does not exactly send a good message about this country. Wouldn't we rather distinguish ourselves more from North Korea?
[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Jong-il"]
Kim Jong-il[/url] would make a perfect fit in a Hummer (even though he has a large collection of Mercedes-Benz). Not saying anyone is like him....he is "like nobody else".
Pathetic Hummer TV Ad
