This ad agrees with me (hat tip to DRx) -- the car, not so much. I think this kind of ad would be especially effective at selling cars based on their gas mileage (in other words, small cars). You could target your competition by making their cars be the ones driven by the egotists. Never mind that anti-status is just another form of status (a way of saying you are better than someone else). The human propensity for self-deception would make short work of that little unpleasantry and the result might be that high gas mileage would become the new status symbol. The other beauty of this kind of ad is that it cannot be turned around to sell big cars.
Anti-status status 7
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Posted 11:50 AM on 20 May 2006
by Biodiversivist -
Posted in
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My real name is Russ Finley. I live in Seattle, married with children. Suffice it to say that although I am trained and educated as an engineer, my passion is nature. I very much want my grandchildren to live on a planet where lions, tigers, and bears have not joined the long and growing list of creatures that used to be. In an attempt to minimize the workload on Grist editors responsible for turning my submissions into intelligible articles, I will also be posting on a seperate blog called Biodiversivist, which will contain articles in addition to those submitted to Grist.
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amazingdrx Posted 4:00 am
21 May 2006
Saw a huge, obscene stretch hummer limo out in front of a prom party at the Duluth convention center last night. Teens seeking status.
I was there for a John Prine concert. He revived his Vietnam era anti-war song.
Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore
© John Prine
"While digesting Reader's Digest
In the back of a dirty book store,
A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
Fell out on the floor.
Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped it on my window shield,
And if I could see old Betsy Ross
I'd tell her how good I feel."
Chorus:
"But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more."
"Well, I went to the bank this morning
And the cashier he said to me,
"If you join the Christmas club
We'll give you ten of them flags for free."
Well, I didn't mess around a bit
I took him up on what he said.
And I stuck them stickers all over my car
And one on my wife's forehead."
Repeat Chorus:
"Well, I got my window shield so filled
With flags I couldn't see.
So, I ran the car upside a curb
And right into a tree.
By the time they got a doctor down
I was already dead.
And I'll never understand why the man
Standing in the Pearly Gates said..."
"But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
We're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more."
Commenting before the last chorus: "I wrote this song in 1968, and put it on the mantle in 1975. I revived it by a special request from the president. He doesn't know it, but he asked for it."
He did his new anti-war song too. To thunderous roaring applause!
"Have you ever noticed, when you're feeling really good
There's always a pidgeon, that'll come shit on your hood
Or you're feeling your freedom, and the world's off your back
Some cowboy from taxas, starts his own war in iraq"
"Some humans ain't human, some people ain't kind
They lie through their teeth, with their head up their behind
You open up their hearts and here's what you'll find
Some humans ain't human, some people ain't kind"
http://www.lyricsdir.com/john-prine-some-humans-aint-human-lyrics.html
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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bookerly Posted 5:21 am
21 May 2006
I am always reminded, though, of the song my grandmother taught to me.
Bicycle Built For Two.
Some things never change.
(I remember going to a John Prine concert (with the great Steve Goodman as opener) where he was so out of it, he couldn't remember the words to his songs. Fortunately the audience could, so we sang them to him while he played along.... (smile)).
The only problem with anti-status is that it only attracts the few, and we need to attract the many.
patrick
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amazingdrx Posted 5:30 am
21 May 2006
On the second verse. I sung out "Broken hearts and dirty windows.." when he paused, but was too far from the stage for hearing.
He kept time tapping on his guitar and laughed, and said "A senior moment" the audience laughed and he resumed.
The crowd was everyone on their feet to get the encore.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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Biodiversivist Posted 5:48 am
21 May 2006
1968--The Tet offensive escalated the Vietnam conflict into a war. We had been told that we were winning until that day.
That same year Ehrlich's "The Population Bomb" hit bookstores. The biggest threat to the planet wasn't global warming, it was exponential population growth. It is the fate of prophets to be stoned in their own time--word of warning to Al Gore.
1974--The price of oil went through the roof. I was in Purdue's engineering department and the energy balance of ethanol made from corn was being hotly debated. I helped build a solar collector to dry soybeans and won a gold medal in an art contest with a watercolor titled "My Rotary Engined, Hydrogen Burning, Pinto Car."
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Help acquire and protect ecological hotspots, give to a conservation organization: http://www.saveourbiodiversity.com
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caniscandida Posted 7:22 am
21 May 2006
On the ad: There will always be a kind of coolness that comes from tossing the megaphone out the window, that is, making it clear that you do not care what other people think.
As for what motivates all those others with megaphones to buy the vehicles they buy, I am clueless. Apparently lots and lots of people make their choice based on size, expense, assumed sex appeal, as means to enhance their status. But I for one have no insight whatsoever into the minds of such people.
In the Newsweek of May 22, the same issue with Fareed Zakaria's essay that David brought to our attention a few days ago, there is a depressing Business article with the headline, "Griping About Gas Prices ... in a New SUV / Crisis? What crisis? Fuel use rises, Escalade sales soar." And there is a graphic showing that in April, Escalade sales were up 127%, while Honda Accord Hybrid sales were down 69%.
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amazingdrx Posted 10:54 pm
21 May 2006
Maybe that is due to the 6000 dollar "rebate" or "free" gas the auto companies are using? Going bankrupt faster to unload the gas guzzlers?
But how would bankruptcy benefit US auto companies? Well, here is how.
It gets them out of their pension plan obligations. Most of the industry is already outsourced to low wage, no environmental or safety regulation countries, but bankruptcy gives them the excuse they need to move all production offshore.
Will they still feature "buy american" sales campaigns? Hehey.
Honda and Toyota actually invest here by building auto plants in the US. And that may even continue if national healthcare is instituted and the "no-child-left-behind" Bush bankruptcy of public education is halted.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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Rob Posted 5:04 pm
02 Jun 2006
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