That Damn Ram Challenge
What we have here are four groups of grunting set-extras billed as actual contestants on a pseudo-reality show set in a hostile environment. They are labelled: Military, Cowboys, Contractors, and Firemen, which made me think of the Village People. Presumably each pair reflects a well-researched segment of the American truck-buying population who might just get so excited by these commercials that they'd actually buy a gas-guzzling Ram truck, something that many will have trouble affording.
Remember, during this same period Chrysler has also been desperately trying to persuade GM to buy them. Step back from the flash and fury here and you'll see a metaphor for the challenges faced by US auto industry; you'll see these ads as a story about what's happening not in the desert but in Detroit.
Quick, jump in an oversized American-made truck, see how fast it can go downhill without crashing, next tow a heavy trailer (pensions?) along hair-pin curves without tumbling down a hillside, and then go try to build and cross a makeshift bridge without dropping into a deep gully. During this race to the finish, you're running out of time and trying to avoid disaster. The media in helicopters hover above you, following your every move, waiting to move in. Even if you make it, the group that finishes last is eliminated. It's like we're watching a dream sequence from a movie about a US auto industry exec! Wake up, wake up!
To place a bet this size selling the wrong product at the wrong time is like pushing all your chips to the middle of the poker table and bluffing with a pair of threes. Is there any way any of the auto companies win? Do you and other US taxpayers want to add your own money to their pile? Never Back Down? Never Surrender? How is this for a new slogan: "Hold On!" It's better than "Fold."
The oddest thing about the Ram Challenge reality-ad is the warning that accompanies it: "Chrysler, LLC, Dodge and its Agencies insist that no one attempt to replicate the activity on this site." No, few of us have this kind of budget, even if such "stupid fun" somehow made sense for anyone to want to do.
Perhaps Dodge and its Agencies should go back and look at this Depression-era truck ad also produced at a time when it was equally tough to sell cars. This is back when car companies could look their customer in the eye and speak with some honesty about their products.
(image from Adclassix.com)
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The 1930's were hardly a heyday for truth in advertising, but you're right: those old forthright ads touting functionality rather than some kind of male-fantasy extreme-testosterone "lifestyle" are a real breath of fresh air.
Certainly if our elected officials decide to bail out the morons at the Big 3 I want to see an end to the screaming ads. In fact, if Ford, GM & Dodge promised a moratorium on the whole "built tough/kick ass/real man" marketing campaigns I might send them some of my own money!
There has never been a "heyday for truth in advertising".
No offense to Dale or any commenter, but tirades that unearth double entendres in advertising seem pretty stale.
With the bailout, our tax dollars will flow to the jackasses in this video and the bigger jackasses who thunk of it.
OK - I understand the comparison to the GM flameout vs. Ram YMCA Challenge, but have you stopped to consider that the decisions behind producing these commercials were probably made around a year ago? Have you also considered that the engineering process that produces these vehicles began *several years* ago?
Stopping that kind of momentum is hard - some would say, in GM's case, impossible. So yes, the "challenge" is stupid, but it's stupidity was planned out a long long time ago.
- mike
This is reflected in the owners on the road. More often than not, when someone is riding my ass and being overly aggressive it's someone in a Ram truck. Seems as though they're always weaving through traffic, when they're not waiting impatiently to weave through traffic.
These damn ads have been assault me in my minimal television-watching time and I'm already so God-damned sick of them.
It still baffles me how in this world climate with decades-old environmental concerns and soaring oil prices how American auto manufacturers still expect our attention to the pressing problems with big trucks and SUVs to be instantaneously distracted by the scrotal dangling of brawn-over-brains auto design.
I feel for the millions of U.S. auto-workers, but I can't suppress a venomous hope that these companies crash in flames and never return, eventually bringing about a phoenix of new auto-makers who actually care more about how much we're all paying for gasoline than about masculating the driving public.
Burn, baby burn.
#5 - The decision to run the ads was made right now.
@Sweater: Perhaps. But oil prices were already high several years ago. Was there any indication that they weren't going nay higher?
I love "stupid fun" and can't imagine why anyone would dislike it.
pork musket@10: I love stupid fun, too. Like watching the US auto makers go out of business.
Well Bill Ford tried to make Ford go green for year, was ignored by his managers, and booed by his shareholders. He was unable to convince anyone that creating small, efficient vehicles was the wiser path - because up until earlier this year American automakers made their money on SUVs, Pickups, etc.
The economy crowd tended towards foreign cars, so the argument was that if you want to be profitable and keep your employees in jobs, you need to stick with what your market tells ya.
I wonder how many people on here would choose an American built hybrid over a foreign one (of course even those distinctions are blurry these days).
I would have to agree with mike above, I'm not completely sure what type of time horizon / sunken investment is necessary for a automobile factory but we are likely talking about a siginificant amount of years. I also doubt they can or care to retool a manufacturing facility like that to adapt to fluctuating oil prices. Which are back down again because large institutional investors and hedge funds needed to get money back on the books to compensate for loses in mortgage backed securities and credit default swaps.
The automobile industry is clinging to the ship because their is little other debris in the water. They have been significantly mismanaged. It didn't help much that congress and the president subsidized a boom in consumer expenditure on SUVs and trucks by providing tax incentives for them a few years back. If we want more efficient vehicles / greater use of public transit we need to push the price of oil and legislate real increases in fuel economy standards as well as avoid perverse incentives.
Sweater, the engineering process that produced these vehicles began about 50 years ago. The fundamental design of pickup trucks hasn't changed significantly in that long. They've borrowed a few design elements from 1970s land-yacht cars, but otherwise not much has changed. That's one reason the automakers love selling them -- the design costs are rock-bottom. And since US vehicle buyers equate size with value, they're willing to pay top dollar, so these vehicles are far and away their most profitable.
Actually engineering vehicles to make more efficient use of fuel and space? Not in this country. Look to Japan for that.
The comparison may seem absurd at first glance, but let's look at a Ford Ranger pickup versus a Honda Fit minicar.
Compared to the Fit, the Ranger (a truck!) has only 24% more payload. Its bed is 1cm wider and 27% longer than the Fit's rear cargo area with the seats folded.
However, the Fit will take you 82% farther on a gallon of gasoline while the Ranger produces 83% more CO2 per mile.
So much for Yankee ingenuity.
...and has anyone considered that fuel prices have tanked recently? Filled up for $1.84 last weekend just off of I-25 in CO.
I'm betting on truck sales going up. That's how cynical I am of the mentality of the average American consumer.
The point being: we're a short-term consumer public buying products that have really long term development cycles. Trucks you see today were developed long before last summer's fuel prices. Those trucks were on the drawing board when GW was elected a second time.
Anyone want to tell me that they're surprised by these products when they were birthed in a climate that produced that? ;-)
why, oh why do the wicked, wicked unions make them run those ads??
Ah, the old truck-penis inverse proportionality theorem in video form. These ads aren't something that grew out of a spur of the moment decision in some marketing department though. They're just indicative of a mindset in the larger society. I too, however, would prefer less pointless machismo and more pragmatism.
Disclaimer : I like trucks, but I get by just fine with a small truck. Those Rangers are like bricks from a dependability standpoint, and even the V6 can yield mileage near 30 mpg if driven patiently (patience, there's something else I wouldn't mind seeing more of).
"...like pushing all your chips to the middle of the poker table and bluffing with a pair of threes. Is there any way any of the auto companies win?"
If your opponent (whoever that is in this scenario) has a pair of twos.
I could care less. They make crap cars geared towards a crap lifestyle, and they manufacture the bulk of the vehicles overseas. Good bye and so long.
It's like all the crying done as media companies suffer and go out of business. You've been screwing people - artists especially) for years and you expect us to feel bad whilst you flush yourselves further down the terlot? I do feel bad for the autoworkers. They're getting screwed. But they've always made more money than me anyway so...
My cousin is a carpenter and he refers to Dodges as "Contractor Trucks". Appararetly they are very popular with "contactors", guys who show up in clean boots, pressed jeans, a polo shirt and a hard hat that's never been used to protect. They come around, yell at the lead guys on a job, try to shoot the breeze and look tough and they're off to another site with a 2 hour lunch squeezed in.
Their trucks are invariably huge, loaded for bear and spotless. The most work they get is hauling their boat around or the kid's jet ski.
Every member of my family in the trades have driven Chevy's they take damn good care of and would sooner set on fire than drive like those idiots in the ad.
We will dance on their graves.
This is what Obama should do.
1. Hold an auction for the purchase of ONE of Detroit Three. Whoever offers the best price + incentives gets purchased by the US government.
2. Fuck the other two companies.
3. Go "offline" for two months to retool. During that time announce a process the new organization will follow. First: fire everyone. Everyone needs to reapply for their positions. All new positions are civil service - all new unions. Hire the abundantly available auto workers.
4. Issue a DARPA-style "Grand Challenge" to redesign four low-cost, high value vehicles - a large car, a small car, a truck, a van, with a $1 million bounty for each design. Give real hybrids a 25% advantage. Hold the finals on live TV within 6 months. Aim for the new cars to be available for purchase in Detroit in one year.
5. The message for the new cars is - invest in America. As long as American cars are shit, there is no patriotism message which is viable.
6. No franchises. No deals. No shipping. Everyone has to come to Detroit to buy their car. See America!
I seem to remember about 6 months of TOYOTA TUNDRA commercials with similar nonsense. "Big oversized American trucks" actually do work a great deal of the time. I have one as a matter of fact, it gets used to haul firewood.
The big 3 target these advertisements straight at the people who are buying their products. The same way Honda uses those frilly "everything in the world is okay when you drive a Civic" commercials. I have friends with Civics, sure enough, they put the same gasoline in their cars as the rest of the world, they pay far-above-average prices for maintenance, and some of them vote Republican.
Nissan, Toyota, even Honda have pickups that they advertise as tough, go-get-em, rigs, it's just way more fashionable for people to say, "Oh, there's another crappy American truck!"
"Big oversized American trucks" actually do work a great deal of the time.
Yeah! Yeah! I see a lot of them working every day, hauling one twit from home to a parking spot at an office spot. With an occasional side-trip to Costco.
I put the same gas in my Civic as the rest of the world . . . just a hell of a lot less of it.
The problem is that vehicles costing between $15-25K sell at a small profit for the foreign companies and generally sell at a loss for the American companies (see: UAW wages). At high enough volume these could potentially be profitable, but with overall US demand plummeting that's definitely not the case right now.
So, the only vehicles these companies have a chance of making a buck on these days are trucks, SUVs, sports cars, and luxury vehicles. It would simply be suicidal for the "Big 3" to be pushing small cars right now. Maybe there's a way to market the trucks in a way that's less annoying to us hipsters who won't buy them anyway, but I doubt anyone in Detroit is worrying too much about that right now.
\former big3 employee
Most narcotraficantes in Mexico drive Rams, burning rubber in the back country. I once hitch-hiked with one coming out of Copper Canyon, with hundreds of hairpin switchbacks, spitting gravel. 4 1/2 hours of literally white-knuckled terror, holding on in the pickup bed, saying my prayers.
As someone that's Michigan-born, I'm very torn on this. If the Big 3 go under (or even one of them), the state is fucked - utterly.
On the other hand, the Big 3 are all run by arrogant dinosaurs - complete morons, big men stuffed into big suits without a damn brain in their fat heads. The writing has been on the wall for them for decades, but the only plan was to make SUV's until the Rapture. These top-heavy behemoth car companies deserve to die, unquestionably. The greed-mongering unions that brokered impossible sweet-heart deals for uneducated simpletons deserve to fall.
The state of Michigan was foolish for putting all its eggs in Rick Wagoner's basket, but I'm not convinced that Michigan deserves the true consequences of its bad decision: it'd be the equivalent of being hosed down with napalm for making a shady business deal. Is punishment merited? Absolutely. But should annihilation be the payment? I don't think so.
too late, bush buggies all around
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-94484
Anybody notice Dodge Rams have been inserted into the "Terminator TV series?
Episode "Goodbye to All That" featured the truck big time. First, John and Derek load a ton of weapons and gear into the spacious cargo features. Then Derek makes a point of checking the onboard GPS, proclaiming that John hasn't talked since Anaheim or wherever. Then they drive into the military school with the Ram so full screen and shiny that fans noticed the cameramen reflected in the body work!
Only thing we didn't get to see was a Terminator blowing the damn thing up.
Well, it was worth it because Dodge paid for the episode, so it ran 53 minutes instead of 45.
I think trucks are for people that need trucks and people that use trucks. These people may just think that they are a touch more rough and tumble than than city folk that can get by a days work in a 2wd sub compact. The fact that Doge exploits this is common sense advertising, they don't need to sell the city folk. The advertising is a bit overboard maybe but Im not in advertising. If dodge needs someone to buy a truck I think they are on target. If I'm going to get a truck I want one thats badass, just like some people want a computer that is somehow badass.
Yeah the Japanese companies make gas guzzlers too. Just ask any Xterra driver. The damn things are about as serodynamic as a cinder block. But Japanese companies ALSO MAKE SMALL SENSIBLE VEHICLES.
We aren't hating on American car companies because they are American. We aren't smirking at them because we want to see Americans loose their jobs.
We're just pissed off at the arrogance and the relentless driving stupidity of the execs. Those guys aren't going to end up on the street. Sure, they might have to choose between the summer house on the Vineyard and the little spring break cottage in Boca, but they won't really suffer.
And who in hell didn't see it coming? Even those turds saw it coming. They just wanted their glittery bonuses ASAP. Fuck it, their employees and the taxpayer and the rest of us will absorb the damage, not them, never the rich.
And the ads gall because they appeal to the same sort of stupid macho heaven-forfend-you-do-anything-to-prove-you-have-a-braincell demographic that so loved Bush and all his bullshit.
We do not hate America. And we think trucks have their place. We hate stupidity and greed.
http://www.financialpost.com/small_business/story.html?id=960811
"Chrysler, LLC, Dodge and its Agencies insist that no one attempt to replicate the activity on this site."
They really have no idea of the type of person this kind of thing appeals to. This is 'Jackass' for complete morons.
HOWEVER. The advertisement that is featured is typical of Dodge and -to a larger extent- the Chrysler Corporation and its affiliates during the middle third of the twentieth century for their reputations for delivering 'cutting edge' automotive technology.
I'm a hapilly married heterosexual yet I want to have sex with every single one of those guys and the trucks.
I wish I could find a link to have you guys listen to today's Diane Rehm show, which was in part about the Big Three, and the factors leading up to their current situation. A lot of the backlash against the Big Three, both on this site and in general is based on outdated information and incorrect perceptions. I have learned that trying to correct either without print evidence is worse than futile, so in an effort to educate and let people make decisions with something other than emotions, I'm going to provide some links.
The first deals with common myths about the Big Three, most of which have been enumerated in the above comments and post.
http://www.freep.com/article/20081117/COL14/811170379
This is an article about the Big Three, and a general reaction to this whole situation by a reporter. It ran front and center on the Detroit Free Press on Sunday.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008811160459
From the Diane Rehm show today, one of the experts said that every job in the Big Three generates or supports between 7 and 10 other jobs in the US. That's huge. The financial companies that were bailed out earlier this year didn't have nearly as large a direct impact on the job market, and they were even more culpable than the Big Three in their predicament (One of the driving factors in the Big Three's current situation is that since the credit crash, it's incredibly hard to get credit to buy a new car, any new car).
As for the comments about the Fit and the Ranger, the Ranger has a significantly larger factor of safety built into the vehicle. I have personally overloaded a Ranger to roughly twice what it was rated, and it handled it without issues. Not only that, you get more ground clearance, and optional four wheel drive. Those are features that are absolutely necessary to me, and a significant portion of the population. You can't fit 6 sheets of plywood or drywall in the Fit. You can't tow 2000 pounds with a Fit. Believe it or not, there are still people who use vehicles at or above the rated capacities, and for more than just commuting to work. Even the "cheap" vehicles like a Ranger or a Fit will cost you more than $10,000, and in many cases, it's completely impractical to buy a second vehicle.
All that being said, I do think those ads are asinine.
Hey Genius!
Gas is down to 2 bucks a gallon.
Consider the environment and alternative energy totally forgotten.
For those not wrapped up in the economy, its a brilliant time to buy a big rig.
I got to wondering about the question, how many Dodge RAM pickups would it take to carry the auto industry bailout?
From some hasty web searches it looks like a million dollars in ones weighs about 2200 lbs. The payload capacity of the highest Dodge RAM 6000 SUX Folsom Street Fair Special Edition (actually I can't remember the model number) is a bit over 11,000 lbs., or $5 million taxpayer greenbacks. So, it would take 5000 of the largest model Dodge gas-guzzler to carry the public's bailout of these idiots.
Where I live (and I'm going straight into demographic profiling), Mexicans, who do all the actual labor in this area, generally drive tiny, practical pick-ups. Huge pick-ups are mostly driven by ancient, thrawn retirees who need a stepladder and a nurse to get into the driver's seat. You could eat off the bedliners because they've never held any cargo. They're favored because the tiny and weak but rich people who buy them are trying to compensate for their inability to drive. In a brilliant perversion of practical thinking, drivers who couldn't pull a Geo Metro into a parking space, feel safer trying to park a tank. We should require a contractor's license for anyone purchasing a big truck.
@#36 posted by Antinous
A blue-collar friend of mine complained about the same thing -- how trucks were becoming the vehicle of choice for the upper middle-classes, driving up demand and thus the prices, and forcing those who actually use them to purchase older, tired high-mileage trucks.
Now, coincidentally, those same upper-middle-class folks are trading in their trucks in droves, and the blue-collar middle class can finally get them at a reasonable price. Except most of them don't want a truck anymore.
BTW, I recently read that the Ford F150 is the best-selling vehicle in America ever. Wikipedia doesn't back me up on this, but places it a respectable #2.
Interesting way to look at it.
I suspect the American auto industry will never learn, and will go down in flames because of it. GM threw all its money into an honorable attempt at electric cars that was perhaps too involved and expensive for the market, and nowhere near ready when the market suddenly needed it. I think at this point the market needs a good cheap plug-in hybrid or super efficient compact, but it's probably too late for GM now.
At the time the VW type 1 (Beetle and Karman Ghia) arrived in the US they were completely the opposite of American made cars and were hugely popular: cheap, easy to care for and easy to fix. The US auto industry needs to rethink everything it does or it's done.
I broadsided an F150 a few years ago in a much smaller car. Don't buy one unless you normally wear bubble wrap when you drive.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the tax code still let you write off the entire purchase on full size trucks over a certain weight in the first year instead of depreciating them over five years? I know a man who bought an F350 over a smaller vehicle just because this was the case.
Bush and Co. created a real-dollar short term incentive for buying large vehicles, and a real payoff for the oil industry.
Truthful or not, I love the '34 Dodge ad! I adore the sweeping fenders, and I really like headlamps that weren't integrated into the body. Such a pretty truck. And they really are durable, as evidenced by the one in my dad's garage. I'd pick a '34 over one of those newfangled ones any day. Of course, I drive a Prius when I'm not riding my bicycle, so my opinion may not carry much weight in the truck discussions.
Look, I'm a lifelong Angeleno, an Obama voter, take public transit to my white-collar job (reviewing environmental documents) every day, and for when I do drive I have a VW Golf. So these ads are obviously not for me.
But this post was just ugly, hateful, and condescending. Look, some people like to buy trucks, and this ad seems tailored to those people. Just accept that those people are not you. Why not try looking for common ground instead of just filling yourself with contempt?
suppose it was an ad pushing tobacco to teenagers?
Wow, I love how NO ONE flames, or mentions who started the action crazed mini movie features...
Oh wait, that's because they aren't American, and most of you think they probably make good cars.
BMW.
Remember back oh, probably 10 years at this point, BMW had the BMW film series via the web. Now it wasn't so much reality tv, but it certainly used the car in a non conventional way. Who power sides or drifts or does burnouts in the middle of a city? In a 5 series none the less...
But I'll digress..
I love GM, and I think trucks have a place in our society (everyone except me has a truck of some form). But frankly GM can fail and I'll live with that. And whoever said a Fit was close to a truck...WTF. Can you put a king sized mattress into a Fit, no? Or a couch? Or a fridge? Mulch, dirt, sand, pine needles? OH WAIT, NO. Cause you need a truck. Sometimes the simplest, oldest tool is the best.
suppose it was an ad pushing tobacco to teenagers?
Nobody needs tobacco, except those who are already addicted. Some people need trucks. Others just like them, and I'd certainly rather see more people driving more fuel-efficient cars. I'd also rather see regulations in place (carbon tax, more public transit, etc.) that incentivize smaller cars or, preferably, alternative modes of transportation.
But that's rather here nor there; Dale's post is all about hating on blue-collar men. I don't relate to those guys at all and I would probably disagree with a lot of them on several subjects. But the hatred of the "other" seen here --- commenters joking about penis size, saying that this makes them sick, etc. --- is disgusting. Be better than that.
The point is --- you can disagree with people without showing contempt for them.
nope, there's a swipe at them perhaps but all the hating-on is directed at the truck makers.
over and above the gauche Village people advertising, there is the great stumbling block that US trucks are rubbish.
Oh I kow they have awful emmisions and MPG stats, but they are awful bits of engineering.
If you want a truck buy a Toyota HILUX.
Folks: I'm a girl, and a discriminating truck driver (art stuff kinda warrants it), and a native of the Detroit area.
As much as Michael Moore may have skewed many facts in his favor for "Roger and Me" (namely, that Roger avoided him- and Roger eventually granted Michael a meeting, ruining this premise), Moore's portrait of Flint Michigan and the total economic devastation that the auto plant closures had- imagine that now, on the entire southern half of the state.
Michigan is my home, and it's people are good.
The business that are supported by townsfolk who for generations have gotten their paychecks from the Big-3... they don't deserve this. The families who could give a shit about Flickr, Twitter, O'Reilley or any of the other Web hoo-ha, but are proud multi-generation contributors to Ford, Chevy, Chrysler, etc... they're not the ones who sucked the cocks of Oil corporation lobbyists for the last 20 years, but they're the ones who will be punished.
Folks have gotten screwed pretty hard, already, with the automakers nixing and scaling-back on promised pensions, and HARD.
Oh- and Michigan doesn't really have "mass transit," so please don't get all cosmopolitan-uppity on folks about that point.
Double-Oh: I've never driven a hybrid in snow, and frankly... you couldn't pay me or most folks back there to, either.
have those oil companies put some of the past few year's obscene profits into building Toyota plants in Michigan. And ditto the Hilux - even in snow. Good enough for Hokkaido.
Responding to folks who praise Japanese automakers for their innovation and the fact that they make trucks too, one word: Unibody.
Structurally, American trucks are the only ones made of all steel (I'm not throwing cinderblocks or robots into a truckbed made of fiberglass- sorry), and with frames that can withstand major stress. It's just not the Japanese car-makers market to vest that kinda money into the research *or* manufacturing.
There's a Nissan commercial from maybe 10 years ago, that shows a truck falling from the ceiling and landing on the ground to demonstrate it's toughness... and the body-flex is just downright frightening.
Making American trucks is also EXPENSIVE, because of the multi-layered manufacturing processes involved, that Toyota and Nissan skip. These processes yield superbly stronger vehicle bodies, which trucks (that are purchased to carry heavy loads) need. Also, Toyota and Nissan lack lower-end tourque in their motors (last I checked) and don't offer Diesel or duallies.
In rural areas and for folks who do use trucks as trucks- these are all crucial needs.
Please don't bag on folks 'till you understand them a bit better. Some are ignorant fucktards, but most I honestly don't think are.
Regarding the comment on Bill Ford: that person was spot-on.
Ford's board of directors should be hung by their balls.
Ford was the first automaker to offer "hybrid" vehicles, with it's flex-fuel program that started at least 9 years ago. Sure there's nowhere to buy Ethanol... but it was a great start. Bill Ford tried so freakin' hard, and got shot-down by all the old farts with their petro-fellatio fetishes.
Ford's marketing department also sucks big balls for not being more aggressive with it's green efforts, years ago. Nobody remembers the Ford "Smart" cars that were fully electric, and those also went dead- thanks to a major lack of hoo-ha comparable to what the Prius got, when it was released. The "Smart Car" would have never gone as mainstream as the Prius did, for purely functional reasons- but they could have survived.
Ok, that's all.
Double-Oh: I've never driven a hybrid in snow, and frankly... you couldn't pay me or most folks back there to, either.
Assuming they've got the tires for it, what would be the problem?
It's hard to believe that adverts like this still air in a society that has reached peak oil.
Nice analogy. In the UK butt ugly 4wd's such as these are often called "Chelsea Tractors" because, they are more often than not owned by city dwellers and seldom, if ever driven off road. Spray on mud springs to mind. Here, the real country workhorse is more likely to be a battered old Toyota or land rover than some ridiculous shiny fashion statement driven by a city type insecure about their sexuality.
Man up! - buy a second hand car, or better still, don't buy a car at all.
Has anyone at all stopped to think that while alot of people don't need trucks, there are still alot of people that do need trucks, like say tradespeople, farmers, etc., some of the people these ads are directed to? Just because a Dodge Ram isn't for you doesn't mean no one wants one, so why shouldn't they advertise it, it is still in the top 10 best selling vehicles, so obviously people still do want it. There will always be a market for trucks, and thats never going to go away, because you just can't haul a cattle trailer with a midsize car.
“All filmed from a safe distance”. It's a distance I'm happy to keep.
Never mind the car. As I understand it, these ads are about wastefulness as a virtue. As a way of life. An American Way Of Life, AWOL for short.
And this is after the Econocataclysm. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. One day, you may have a nostalgia for this.
No worries folks, those "damn rams" will be all but extinct "dead rams" in a year or so as the fate of the great auto makers is sealed by the dollar collapse and rising costs of oil production.
The real question will be, what will all the surplus testosterone be used for when the jobs, ads and trucks are gone?
NINA
Honestly, my heart goes out to the people who have been universally fucked by the big three and the US gov. in Michigan and all the ancillary plants that supply US auto. Be it dooming the industry by the feckless management,as you say Sucking PetroSatan's Cock, or the Gov allowing the companies to swindle workers out of their pensions.
But my biggest fear is....no change.
The Big 3 get bailed out and learn NOTHING.
All that does is rescheduling the fucking of a life time, when the situation calls for action.
As for US trucks being all that.
Get a HILUX and save yourself a fortune.
all these mammalo-centric sexual metaphors for oil company abuse. Wouldn't it be more fair and accurate to refer to having your spine ripped out by ravening jaws and watching yourself being eaten live, entrails first? While their buddies dance on your spawn-bed?
"Who power sides or drifts or does burnouts in the middle of a city?"
Hey, who are you and why have you been watching my commute?!
nina,
FYI - quite a few of us think that sucking cock is a good thing, so you might want to select a less homophobic metaphor. I think that 'taint sniffing' is still a safe bet.
I wish some exec or advertising dude from Dodge would pull a Daniel Ellsberg and release documents showing what happened to these pickups after they were driven over "log roads" and all the other stunts we're warned not to duplicate. Were they written off as totalled after all this? Have they been crushed at the same junk yards where the electric cars all went to die?
@Antonius No homophobic intentions, with the metaphor- and I regret that it caused you offense. Sucking cock on a hottie you have no business interests with is one thing; favors of any kind that influence un-ethical decisions but are looked past, because the gratification was oh so nice... those I hate. To be equally evil, I'm happy to throw females into the sexual-favors equation, to level the playing field among all (tho the auto industry doesn't have hardly any women in leadership positions).
@Error404 When was the last time you crawled-under a truck in a showroom, to look at the quality of it's welds, or at the underbody construction? In 10+ years at looking at Toyotas, I've only seen machine welds, and mostly unibodys. Both are crap.
I drive a 2002 Ford Ranger 4x4 which gets 22mpg freeway (unloaded), runs like a champ, has been rear-ended 3x with no damage beyond the bumper (which I'm fine with bein' dinged; the rear-end-er's cars were totaled). She also carries heavy-loads beautifully, and handles very well in the snow.
I'm also tall, and Japanese cars have much smaller cabs... which for long road-trips (what I use my truck for most of the time), suck for ergonomics.
Maybe I'm an eternal optimist: believing that a bailout MUST happen to save Michigan, but also MUST have consequences for the executives and union bosses who put FOLKS in the position to lose everything, that they have.
@adamnvillani Driving in the snow and having tires with decent traction is just one part of the equation. Hybrids have a rotten power-range, most of them have ABS (which sucks in snow and ice and causes more danger than it prevents), they're way too low to the ground, and the weight distribution I'd imagine to be COMPLETELY whack. The latter is the bigger concern. Even weight across both axels is a must, for proper control in ice and snow.
Drive a Volvo in the snow, then drive any hybrid. You'll feel the difference. Their built for gas mileage alone, not for the 10,000 other considerations that automobiles need to factor-in to be safe and efficient.
this fire needs gasoline
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/WallStreet/story?id=6285739&page=1
Antinous, while I certainly agree with you that in general the term is disparaging, I don't think Nina means sucking cock is bad. Not to put more than words in her mouth, but she probably enjoys one now and then herself. Hopefully, she just means sucking those particular corporate bloodsuckers cocks was a bad decision.
Some people spend $4000 on a few minutes of free fall.
Some people spend more on gas so they can ride above traffic and haul stuff occasionally.
What's wrong with that?
You folks are arguing about the validity/truthiness of a television commercial. Get a grip.
you're a week late and way off the actual discussion
Pushing all-in with a pair of 3s is a pretty decent move in some circumstances. If you're pre-flop, late position and nobody made a serious move (a few players limped in, most folded), plus you're short stacked and left with maybe 10 blinds left... I mean, you probably have the strongest hand at the table, as nobody else is likely to already hold a pair, and your opponents with Ace or figures will need to flop them to beat you.
If you wanted a good poker analogy, going all-in with the 'dummy's straight' going first would have been a better one. That would be the lowest possible straight, i.e. on a flop that has 7 8 9 and you holding 5 6. That's the sort of bonehead move that newbies pull off all the time.