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The new SUV PSAs esuseekay
While I am not an anti-SUV zealot like some around here, I'm not particularly thrilled to see them in a place like Brooklyn. But even I realize that a new SUV-safety PSA making the rounds is symbolic of everything that is wrong with SUV culture.
In the first commercial of this campaign, which first aired during the Super Bowl, a combination of a tauntaun, a beast from Where the Wild Things Are and a Range Rover -- an esuvee, of course -- comes hurtling out of a rodeo gate pitching to and fro, its driver hanging on for dear life. Noise is made about how it "is not a car" and can be "difficult to control," but the ultimate conclusion is that an esuvee can be driven safely. While nominally hinting that SUVs are unsafe, the unmistakable impression that these commercials leave is that SUVs are totally fucking badass and one is left breathless with the desire - no, need - to get one. When I first saw the Esuvee ads, I couldn't tell if they were a collective effort by "light truck" manufacturers to pitch their product or a not-quite-right brainchild of a group like the folks that put out the excellent "truth" anti-smoking spots (or maybe the typically misguided efforts of the Ad Council).
As my brother noted, the spots resemble the work of the tobacco, liquor and gun lobbyists ("Merchants of Death") as portrayed in Christopher Buckley's hilarious Thank You for Smoking. Though Buckley's book was fiction, these superficial "public service" ads have been the stock-in-trade of the tobacco industry for years. No surprise, then, that the ad campaign is nominally produced by the Federal government, but was financed by the settlement of a lawsuit against Ford for deceptive advertising about SUV safety.
In the final accounting, Ford's punishment for airing a blatant dishonest advertisement was the compelled airing of a well-disguised dishonest advertisement. Well done, Ford! You win again.
Posted by Charles Star on 04/06/2005 | Permalink
Comments
holycrap!
those are PSA's?? i totally assumed (no partial assumption for me!) they were part of some detroit ad campaign.
they make esuvees look awesome.. and i happen to be one of those SUV-hatin, bike ridin', fools.
this sucks.
Posted by: el serracho | Apr 6, 2005 3:07:38 PM
i've got nothing wqrong with SUVs per se.
i have a problem with SUVs being the #1 selling car in the country. like the graffiti i read today on the barricade in front of that monstrosity being built on Astor Place: "think more, consume less"
Posted by: hornsofthedevil | Apr 6, 2005 10:26:46 PM
Maybe, hopefully, these seem crazy because we don't understand the SUV mindset. Maybe these PSAs speak to those who have SUVs about safety in such a macho, brute-force style, that there's just no way we can understand them! See, they are so good that we don't even know. Heh.
Posted by: Steve Lambert | Apr 7, 2005 4:05:03 AM
Still praying for gas to go to $8 a gallon. That should cure the US of this odd SUV scurge. One other thing about the PSAs: in those I've seen (including the billboards), there's no mention to harm caused to OTHER drivers - all the focus is on the safety of the SUV driver. Typical - it's why these idiots buy them in the first place.
Posted by: Jim | Apr 26, 2005 9:25:26 PM
