In this intensely awkward commercial – awkward for the stomach churningly bad acting and contrived ‘viral’ intention – Mercedes does the same thing as two other car companies in recent memory (blogged about here and here).
The ad suggests that urban cycling is an adrenaline filled, semi-legal sweatfest of danger and chaos — compared to the sweet, groovy-jazz, butt-warmer experience of driving an overpowered car on a busy freeway. Both images are fallacious and stupid.
Are we starting to see a pattern yet? Set up the sustainable transportation Straw Man and knock him down! Draw on all the stereotypes that have been crafted by a culture unfamiliar with anything but the dominate single-occupant-vehicle mode of thinking, and use those to scare people back into their cars (or keep them from ever leaving).
In some ways, it’s actually kind of exciting to see sustainable transportation – public transit, walking, carpooling, cycling – as the new focus (albeit the ‘bad guy’) in car ads. It shows that there really is a movement happening, a sea change of interest and concern among people everywhere. It means that car companies are – surprisingly – taking seriously the perceived threat of people choosing transportation alternatives. I suppose what riles me about these ads most is they set up a false dichotomy – it doesn’t have to be car OR bike, car OR bus, etc. An intelligent marriage of both is by far the more realistic and responsible expectation of both sides of the argument.
As the always quotable Mikael @ Copenhagenize (Denmark’s Bicycling Ambassador) says,
Unless we start learning from the car industry’s marketing brilliance, as they once learned from the bicycle industry, the battle is lost before the foot hits the pedal. Marketing urban cycling for regular citizens like we market every other product – positively. At every turn.
Begone fearmongerers and nanny-state PSAs. Let’s sell this properly. For more liveable cities, for the public health, for The Common Good. (link)
