I am of a couple of minds myself with ads like these. On one hand, I am utterly delighted that members of Producer Class royalty are even represented on TV. Cars are insanely difficult to make well and not surprisingly, the folks who make them well are highly accomplished people. Considering that such people are almost never seen TV for any reason whatsoever, it is nice they got a few seconds on a Superbowl ad.
But then, there is the jingoistic horse shit. The problem with American cars is that there are other folks who strive to do those difficult jobs well, too. There some guys at Mercedes that design superb brakes, some guys at Volvo still designing safety systems, and folks at Toyota still making advances in durability and build quality. ETC.
And while I enjoy the accidental class analysis in such ads, at the end of the day, this is about moving more tin. I want back the amount of time I have wasted in life being hectored to buy something I have absolutely no interest in and have no intention of pissing away my tiny pile of money on.
Yeah, there have been some ads that have done a good job featuring highly skilled labor (GE featuring generator and jet engine turbine manufacturing a couple years back, for example), but I'm also bothered by the b.s. patriotism and manipulation of the ads. I was pissed about the Coke ad not because they were singing "America, the Beautiful" in multiple languages, but because they felt the need to wrap themselves in the flag by singing it in order to sell some pop. But it was better than the NFL having millionaire players and billionaire owners reciting the badass parts of the Declaration of Independence. WTF does that have to do with a football game?
I am of a couple of minds myself with ads like these. On one hand, I am utterly delighted that members of Producer Class royalty are even represented on TV. Cars are insanely difficult to make well and not surprisingly, the folks who make them well are highly accomplished people. Considering that such people are almost never seen TV for any reason whatsoever, it is nice they got a few seconds on a Superbowl ad.
ReplyDeleteBut then, there is the jingoistic horse shit. The problem with American cars is that there are other folks who strive to do those difficult jobs well, too. There some guys at Mercedes that design superb brakes, some guys at Volvo still designing safety systems, and folks at Toyota still making advances in durability and build quality. ETC.
And while I enjoy the accidental class analysis in such ads, at the end of the day, this is about moving more tin. I want back the amount of time I have wasted in life being hectored to buy something I have absolutely no interest in and have no intention of pissing away my tiny pile of money on.
Yeah, there have been some ads that have done a good job featuring highly skilled labor (GE featuring generator and jet engine turbine manufacturing a couple years back, for example), but I'm also bothered by the b.s. patriotism and manipulation of the ads. I was pissed about the Coke ad not because they were singing "America, the Beautiful" in multiple languages, but because they felt the need to wrap themselves in the flag by singing it in order to sell some pop. But it was better than the NFL having millionaire players and billionaire owners reciting the badass parts of the Declaration of Independence. WTF does that have to do with a football game?
ReplyDelete