Left Column...
Left Column...
As you sit in your car in the middle of yet another traffic jam in almost any major city and stare at your white knuckles, think about those beautiful car advertisements.
Obviously, Ford and Toyota and General Motors are never going to show you where you will really spend all your time in their glorious automobiles. But just because it's obvious doesn't mean it doesn't deserve a round of good old fashioned outrage.
The ads show the beautiful cars-- almost always perfectly, minty clean-- cruising all by their lonesome selves down endless stretches of awe-inspiring roads that channel through hills and valleys, mountains and rivers, prairies and open plains. What is most astonishing about these scenarios is that there are never any other cars on the road. Nobody. Nowhere. No trucks. No cars. No ugly, fat, disgusting, gas-guzzling Winnebago's. Nada. What a wonderful driving experience. You bet.
It's like when they show anorexic models eating diet yogurt. Right. You'll look like that someday. Some day if you manage to kidnap Kate Moss and transplant your brain into her body.
Nobody is surprised if car companies want to show their products in the best light. We probably generally laugh to ourselves and continue to wait for the normally scheduled program to resume. But why should we put up with this crap? Why are we so damn passive? Why can't we muster a little righteous indignation for the outright fraud perpetuated on the consumer by these ads.
Let's not mince words: these ads are indeed a fraud. They are filled with lies and distortion. You will never ever get to take the drive that is being offered to you. It doesn't exist anywhere in the civilized world anymore. Why not? Because every idiot on the planet wants that driving experience so they are all stacked up behind each other on the freeways grinding their teeth and wondering why everyone else doesn't just get off the road.
Copyright © 2001 Bill Van Dyk All rights reserved.
