h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I believe that in the UK it's forbidden to show a car being driven 'in an aggressive or fast manner' in any tv ad because it's reckoned that it encourages people to do just that, which of course is a dangerous thing to do with a car.

Makes sense to me - all those folks who say that what you watch on tv and in the movies, or what you play on your pc doesn't affect your actions are being quite naive, are denying the obvious... and are usually working in tv, movies, or the pc game business.

I've come to the conclusion that there aren't any such restrictions on car advertising here because almost every tv ad shows just how aggressively and fast you can drive this wonderful brand new car. Of course, there's always the obligatory small print - either 'Professional driver, closed course', or 'Obey all speed limits', or 'Drive responsibly', but if you're going to show people what a car can do, and then tell people not to do it... what's point of showing that the car can do it in the first place?

So, in the past couple of years I've seen ads where a driver sits in his car watching the sun go down, then drives down a very long, straight stretch of road, faster than the rotation of the earth so that the sun comes back up and he can watch the sunset again. ::MESSAGE:: Drive this car fast!

I've seen an ad which at first depicts a computer-simulated (but very realistic) tornado travelling down a road, as far as a set of traffic lights. It stops at the red light, upon which it turns into a shiny new car driven by... the Warner Brothers Tasmanian devil. It sits there for a moment or two while you're given the stats - 0-60, how many horsepower, how much faster than all other cars in its class, until the light changes. Taz looks at it, and says "Green", upon which he floors it and it turns back into a tornado. ::MESSAGE:: Drive this car fast!

I've seen an ad where a black-painted car gets faster and faster - so fast in fact that the paint begins to strip off it. When it comes to a halt, it's no longer black, it's silver. ::MESSAGE:: Drive this car fast!

I've seen an ad where a silver-coloured car gets faster and faster until it's going so fast that it begins to glow red from the friction. When it comes to a halt you hear the 'ticking' noise that metal makes when it cools down ::MESSAGE:: Drive this car fast!

I've seen an ad where a car gets faster and faster (are you sensing a pattern here?), then drives into a tunnel. When it comes out of the other end it flies past the camera, there's a few seconds of silence.... and WHOOSH! A great gale of leaves, litter, branches, even a roadsign flies out of the tunnel in the car's slipstream. ::MESSAGE:: Drive this car fast!

But tonight really put the lid on it. A car is driving through fog. It gets faster and faster (yeah), until it simply cuts a swathe through the fog, parting it like the Red Sea. ::MESSAGE:: Drive this car fast in fog!

Well, that prooves it: I really don't watch much TV any more, because the only ad I recall ever seeing is the one with the tunnel, and that was just a few days ago. Oh yeah... I think I saw the one where the car turns from black to silver one time, but that's been some time ago.

But I wholeheartedly believe that the types who produce movies/TVshows/games/ads who claim that they have no effect on the viewers are just rationalizing, so they can continue to come up with more and more outlandish movies/TV shows/games/ads. The more you're exposed to a message, good or bad, the more it affects you, like it or not.

For that matter, the same thing applies to music (most notably rap, if you can even call that music ), as well as the erroneous concept that celebrities are not role models. Of course they're role models - the reason people (particularly kids) admire them is that they wish they could be like them in some way. Their lifestyle, unless it is completely private and never publicized in any way (a ludicrous idea in this information craving world) will affect those who idolize them, particularly the young and impressionable.

There is the rule that everyone in all car adverts looks happy. Now this happiness is not because they are driving their new car, it is because they are driving it down an empty road.

Don't sell us a new car, we're not interested. Please sell us an empty road instead!

i've got scads of empty roads... you just have to know where to find them (and this is probably a bit far for you to travel for just an empty road... scenic tho)

i understand what you're saying, gosho, but i have to say i disagree to a certain point. there's one other thing all those ads have in common: sex appeal. driving a car fast is sexy. think james bond.

you didn't mention the ad where the car is driving down the road very fast before it's cut to a shot of a guy daydreaming at his desk. message: blow off the boss' time by fantasizing about driving a new car very fast while sitting at your boring desk at your boring job. all of this of course follows the same school of logic that makes beer companies advertise that their product will get you into the most happening parties in town with the most beautiful girls on your arm. but in reality people don't buy budweiser hoping that the supermodel comes free with the purchase of the six-pack, they just want to relax, and maybe get pleasantly drunk.

i personally don't mind a bit of fantasy in the advertising i'm subjected to, actually i prefer it to the 'dumbing down' that american society has demanded in recent years. there are many aspects of american society that disturb me, advertisements featuring fast cars isn't one of them.

i don't drive fast because i see fast cars on tv. i drive an F150?thread="smiley - tongueout" title="tongueout" class="smiley" src="http://www.h2g2.com/h2g2/skins/Alabaster/images/Smilies/f_tongueout.gif"/>

what an uncanny link that turned out to be

Mmmmmmmm,

Prolly not a good link considering the subject of this thread I wonder if there's a way to link that one back here by means of one of those 'non'-links like F1 or U2 or C4

The real problem is why car manufacturers actually keep building cars that will go twice as fast as is legally permitted. What's the point?



Mind you, I'd quite like one of those new 900bhp MG X Powers....

And I'd love an AC Cobra, but it ain't gonna happen

i might get my 65 mustang ragtop one of these days tho, and that's enough to sustain me for now.

Just perusin'

Reminds me of when I was staying at lady Scott's and I saw 2 car adverts one with a car being driven right up to the edge of an aircraft carrier and another where for some unexplored reason it was in the water with some sharks swimming around it and...this I couldn't believe....a little message flashed up at the bottom to the effect.


"This isn't real. Don't try to do this."


My jaw went numb from hanging open too long.

then perhaps you can understand the 'dumbing-down' i referred to earlier.

Gosho - my dream car is a Cobra too ...

If one day * goes off into a day dream *

Only dont expect me not to drive it fast, really fast ...

* makes mental note to start taking the bus the day LHG gets her Cobra *

I've just fired this off to Cadillac:

I've just seen your tv ad which portrays a Cadillac being driven at speed in fog, travelling faster and faster until it begins to cut a swathe through the fog. Despite any small print you may put on the screen, such as "Professional driver, closed course", you can be sure that there are people out there who will see that and think that it's safe to drive this car, any car, at high speed in fog. To believe otherwise is naive - the pile-ups we often see on freeways during reduced visibility is proof that most drivers don't slow down when they should. If someone does just that and drives their car into a tree, well that's one less idiot off the roads. The chances are though that they're going to take with them some poor innocent sap who was simply trying to get from A to B, and add that person to the road fatality statistics. The people who dreamt up this ad campaign (which includes several other ads depicting Cadillacs being driven at speeds unsafe for any public road) and the people who OK'd it must be adults... what on earth were you thinking!?

What are you saying about my driving GD?

I will let GD explain !

I'm with you on the Mustang, Broe...


Mine doesn't have to be a ragtop, though - just as long as it's red, and not a fastback!

I have to Mrs Blimey-O just called from Kerbey Lane so I guess the protest must be over. We're going to eat at KL before going to see the Spankers. Hope you're all around tomorrow - it's been almost like old times here today

Enjoy your food and have a nice... spank...