At this point in our lives, I think we have all given up on the notion of truth in advertising.
We gladly accept beer commercials that promise beautiful women to an overly chummy group of young men who choose a particular brew. We’re OK with seemingly healthy people talking about how a drug helps them cope with a debilitating disease. We can deal with chain restaurants hawking an “authentic” experience.
But a new set of ads has come along which pretty much demands we stand up as a nation and swat the executives in charge on the nose with a rolled up newspaper.
Auto commercials have long promised how quickly we could go from zero to 60 as if any of us had that opportunity on a regular basis. Usually we’re just waiting for the guy in front of us to stop looking at his cell phone so we can go when the light turns green.
That kind of promise may have had some truth to it even if the feature didn’t relate one bit to the way normal people drive. The car manufacturers have gone way beyond that stuff now.
First it started with drivers on a “closed course” driving like the Fast and Furious guys. Then they showed us how we could drive like normal in bad weather, again ignoring that the other drivers would never facilitate that kind of behavior.
Now they have gone completely off the deep end. I have seen a car commercial a bunch of times recently which shows a truck careening down a mountain and executing tricks like it had entered the Olympic snowboarding competition. All the while, the ad throws up a bunch of disclaimers of how the truck could never do these things.
Another commercial – I have no idea if they are for the same truck because I try not to pay close attention – shows a truck helping a plan land without front landing gear. The words on the screen again point out that this is not possible.
Based on the popularity of the Kardashians and Jersey Shore kids, we consumers don’t have a lot of credibility, but do companies really think they can sell us something by bragging about benefits we won’t get if we purchase their car?
I can get the beer companies stretching the truth. A certain kind of beer won’t help you find a pretty girl, but occasionally a blind squirrel finds an acorn after a few drinks. And locally-owned restaurants do provide a better experience in my opinion, but I have had a great time eating at a chain place.
So those commercials exist in some realm of reality. If all you can show me is tricks I could never pull off in your car or truck, why should I buy your stuff? Especially if you think I’m dumb enough to be mesmerized by a snowboarding truck.
Well, that can happen, but you’ll just get me mad when I find out that I can’t take the truck to a ski resort to try that trick myself. That’s just mean.
The irony is most of the driving shown in these commercials would get the common person arrested.
Oh, and big trucks and SUVs with big tires and such without a speck of mud on them, either on TV commercials or in real life…. also a big pet peeve.
Those too, especially since they will be used to drive to the shopping center and kid’s soccer games!
The ones I hate are the truck/SUV ads that basically say “You can mow down all sorts of pristine backwoods in this truck!”