Cars and Society
Why have we been buying big comfy cars with too many options? Causing all those environmental woes? Consumers want these rich cars for the same reason they want big new houses and kool short-term fads. Corporate marketing and branding! And they are continually at work.
Commercials often sensationalize a car model by showing it driven at extremely high speeds on highways, mountain roads, city streets and even in parking lots. They are sending the wrong message. Speed can look exciting but speed is costly and speed kills. But those exciting commercials apparently sell cars.
Automobile commercials are amongst the noisiest on TV and can interfere with the family conversation if they are not muted. But the invasive clamor attracts attention and the results are increased sales.
Advertisements often exaggerate the product and underestimate the cost to lure and snare buyers.
The marketing pressures to sell more expensive autos will not let up even though they may become more fuel efficient. Other perky features will be promoted and become standard in newer models to keep prices rising over the coming years.
Cars have played a major role in our current social makeup and are owned by most families. That they are important and useful is undisputable, however too much of the overall product is undesirable for society as a whole. They are a major polluter of our cities and the world, exacerbated by their larger than needed size and power. Why do consumers who only use their cars a few hours per week need ‘luxury’ transportation? Persuasion.
Around 1960 I was out to purchase my first new car. Having a long drive on weekends, I had set my mind on a particular smaller car to economize. There were only a few sub-compacts available and they were not that small. In a dealer’s showroom I was intent on completing a deal but I was continually steered to other larger models. It took awhile until I realized that he would not sell me the smaller car! The salesman and I both became irritated and I left.
Slow Forward 48 years >> A while ago I walked through a new car show in the local mall. All were higher priced and mostly larger in size, even as interest in pollution and the environment was spreading.
On TV during the previous oil crisis a spokesperson from the Automobile Association was defending why they aren’t marketing more smaller cars. “People couldn’t just sell their cars and buy smaller ones.” The TV commercial which immediately followed the newsbyte was for a flashy full size SUV.
Consumers buy these cars because the manufacturers want them to. But this necessary means of transportation needs a review of its design, effects, marketing, and use. The average person does not need luxury when spending only a few hours a week in the car. Nor does the car require fast speed and polluting power to drive at the speed limit.
The car needs to take a less negative and a healthier place in our society.
What the heck! Are corporations major shareholders in government??
“We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.” - Albert Einstein
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