Outlawing the gas guzzlers
Column: Reading this will make you smarter
Leah King, Staff Writer
Issue date: 3/7/05 Section: Lifestyles
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As I was watching "Alias," my favorite TV show, last Wednesday night, I noticed something about the commercials. During every commercial break, there were at least two commercials for trucks - not small or mid-sized trucks, but giant, gas-guzzling, I'm-driving-this-because-I-have-something-to-prove trucks.
In a mere hour, I saw truck advertisements from nearly every manufacturer out there, from the classic Ford, Chevy and Dodge to the newer full-sized trucks made by Nissan and even Honda.
The target audience is probably the 18- to 35-year-old crowd because ABC's Wednesday night programming is most watched by that age group.
I would have thought my age group would be more interested in cars, especially fuel-efficient cars, like foreign cars and hybrids. The advertisers do not seem to think so, and that tells me one thing: if companies are advertising, that means people are buying. If people are buying, that probably means young adults in the South think trucks are cool.
This is a tragedy.
College guys do not need four-wheel-drive trucks, soccer moms do not need to drive Suburban XXLs, and civilians do not need Hummers.
If you drive a truck or otherwise a giant, gas-guzzling vehicle and you have not used that vehicle for something legitimate in the past six months (hauling kegs does not count), odds are you do not need your vehicle. In fact, you could probably drive a mid-sized car and still do everything you did in your truck while saving thousands of dollars each year on gas costs alone.
I know what you are thinking: "There have to be some people who really need trucks; otherwise they would not be driving them."
That is true. There are people who really need trucks. Those people are farmers, construction workers and tow-truck drivers, not college frat boys, business people and soccer moms.
I have met people who refuse to ever drive anything but a truck, but the specifications do not stop there. Some people actually think driving anything less powerful than a four-wheel-drive V-8 truck is un-American. However, most of these people have no practical use for a truck.
In a mere hour, I saw truck advertisements from nearly every manufacturer out there, from the classic Ford, Chevy and Dodge to the newer full-sized trucks made by Nissan and even Honda.
The target audience is probably the 18- to 35-year-old crowd because ABC's Wednesday night programming is most watched by that age group.
I would have thought my age group would be more interested in cars, especially fuel-efficient cars, like foreign cars and hybrids. The advertisers do not seem to think so, and that tells me one thing: if companies are advertising, that means people are buying. If people are buying, that probably means young adults in the South think trucks are cool.
This is a tragedy.
College guys do not need four-wheel-drive trucks, soccer moms do not need to drive Suburban XXLs, and civilians do not need Hummers.
If you drive a truck or otherwise a giant, gas-guzzling vehicle and you have not used that vehicle for something legitimate in the past six months (hauling kegs does not count), odds are you do not need your vehicle. In fact, you could probably drive a mid-sized car and still do everything you did in your truck while saving thousands of dollars each year on gas costs alone.
I know what you are thinking: "There have to be some people who really need trucks; otherwise they would not be driving them."
That is true. There are people who really need trucks. Those people are farmers, construction workers and tow-truck drivers, not college frat boys, business people and soccer moms.
I have met people who refuse to ever drive anything but a truck, but the specifications do not stop there. Some people actually think driving anything less powerful than a four-wheel-drive V-8 truck is un-American. However, most of these people have no practical use for a truck.
