There Are Like a Billion Things Wrong With This Commercial
Nov 5th, 2007 by Max
Have you seen that horrible Ford Hybrid SUV ad? It is the worst thing ever. It is so bad that I put it up on the Internet for you to watch.
Here are some questions I’d like to pose:
- Why is that horrible smug girl so oddly thick?
- Why is the dad totally cool with dropping his horrible daughter a block off from the theatre? She is such a spoiled jagoff. Also, I’m almost positive she is going to see a play, not a movie.
- What city has a “part of town” where “people are riding bikes and driving hybrids and stuff”?
- Why hasn’t a terrorist organization attacked that city yet?
- Why haven’t I attacked that city yet?
- How is it that the dad, who you would think should be applauded for not needing to advertise his efforts for environment, comes off as such a miserable person? “I don’t know what a hybrid-hybrid is.” It’s probably a hybrid that manages to get better gas mileage than a Honda Civic from the 1970’s. I bet you wish they made a hybrid toupee.
- The daughter saying “Why didn’t you ever talk about that before?” Oh my god, guys. Come on. A daughter that wishes her dad was as much as an insufferable prick as her friends’ dads “from that part of town”? Too much. (But don’t worry, dear, he is.)
- Who is this ad targeting? Assholes who hate people with Priuses but who still kinda want to spend more for a car? Or assholes that hate the environment but love ironies? I just don’t know. “Never thought I needed to talk about how much I should kill myself.”
- Why couldn’t this ad please go on for five more seconds and end like this video:
“Of course this is a hybrid. It says so in really big letters on the back. And your mother and I discussed it over and over and over again when we bought it. Remember? We just bought it a couple of months ago? Don’t you remember? The car’s still shiny. And you were in the room a dozen times when we talked about it. And you even mentioned that you were all for it because you’re a teenage girl so you of course mentioned how it was such a great thing and that all of your little girl friends would notice. Don’t you remember?
By the way, honey, what’s your fallback school again?”
Glad to know I wasn’t suffering through this ad alone.
This commercial had me convinced that my next vehicle needs to be a Hummer. And not one of the cutsey H2’s either. I want an ex-Army converted gas-guzzling, lean mean definitely-not-green machine that I could drive into a parking space already occupied by a Prius and not notice until I climbed out onto the mangled wreckage.
I wonder if the people in “that part of town” enjoy paying taxes for gas-guzzling, inefficient public transportation.
The ex-Army converted hummer is NOT a gas-guzzler.
They burn diesel or JP4.
I am going to throw a gallon of gasoline on top of a huge pile of leaves and set the whole thing on fire just to offset the “good” that these smug self satisfied lemmings think that they are doing.
Better yet, I am going to find that hybrid hybrid, poor a bag of gasoline soaked leaves on top of it, set it on fire, and then roast hot dogs over the resulting bonfire while smoking a pack of cigarettes and drinking a Budweiser.
Just an FYI to all of the lemmings that have bought the whole global warming crap, here are a couple of clues that you have been suckered:
1. Al Gore is your scientist in chief.
2. That one degree over the last 50 years that is so often cited doesn’t come with a margin of error. Real scientists always include a margin of error with their findings–even pollsters include a margin of error.
3. The heat capacity of CO2 is an order of magnitude lower than the average heat capacity of the atmosphere. That means that the more CO2 the more efficiently your atmosphere vents trapped heat.
4. Greenhouse effect means that the convection cycle is shortened so that air has less time to cool and as a result holds on to its heat. The effect of CO2 is that it absorbs infra-red radiation and converts it into heat. Well so does the entire surface of the planet. Anything with carbon in it absorbs IR radiation.
The dad and the daughter and the people behind this ad are idiots.
From now on anytime I see a hybrid, it automatically gets the finger whether driven badly or not. Asshole behaviour gets the finger, owning a hybrid is assole behaviour, thus the finger.
You guys are all dumb.
We’re all gonna die!
I thought it was a great commercial, mostly because everybody who I’ve ever met with a Prius makes such a huge fucking deal about how great a person they are. Much like a recent-ish episode of South Park…
Thanks, guys. I haven’t laughed like this in years.
I have a dilemma regarding hybrids.
If they made one with power and the same cost as a regular truck (ain’t gonna happen, I know), I would want it to get better gas mileage and save on my wallet.
But then I would probably get invitations to join the Al Gore fan club.
Tough to reconcile!
i sat through that ad too and thought “how stupid is this?”
glad i am not the only one. if i ever see that smug little
Tree-spiker-to-be again, i will throw a brick at the TV.
Unless the commercial comes on during a football game. then i will kick the cat.
damn this is funny.
and that whole greenhouse effect thing… it’s what keps us alive. othrwise it would be about -100ºF. oh wait - that would be the ice age people were worrying about 20 years ago.
“tree-spiker-to-be” priceless. that little snob is going to be one high maintainance little princess when she grows up.
That little trend follower is going to be one little high maintainance princess when she grows up.
Oh, C’mon folks. The commercial is absolutely idiotic. And yes, one does have a desire to shake the girl for sounding like a snot.
But not all of us who care about conserving fuel are a**es. After all, conserve is a part of conservative. The problem is not a desire to conserve, but a desire to talk about it, to pat yourself on the back, to look down on the poor schmuck in a pick-up, etc. It’s idiotic.
As far as that little girl in the commercial - I’d strike a real blow against global warming and tell her to bike to her movie or whatever she’s going to. Kids nowadays need more exercise, anyway!
Good grief, Charlie Brown! Thank goodness for the TV remote which I can only assume is what saved me from seeing this piece of work before now.
Drips with condescension. Reeks with false piety. Staggers one with the hippocrisy (mispelling intentional, how can two purported greenabees be so porcine?). Stulifies with the total absence of production values–looks and sounds like a home movie.
But then why not? Ford and other US auto makers went out of the business of making and selling high quality cars years ago. All they have left to sell now is their political correctness. But they can’t even do the old “buy American” schtick since they are all partnered with one or more foreign auto makers now. Besides, in these days of political correctness, it is politically incorrect to bank on Americans responding to claims of American excellence and exceptionalism.
Thus, the one virtue of the ad: it is perfectly consistent with the corporate identity that Ford has assumed.
It’s a brave new world and soon we’ll have Billary unless the Prince of Green, AlGore hisownslelf, decides to get reallllllllly serious about saving mankind from itself and enters the fray. Since he no longer needs to invent the internet, what is stopping him? I can hardly wait!
It’s a commercial,they are actors.You are supposed to be smart enough to filter out the b.s. in the world by now if you can use a computer or read for that matter.Set fire to yourselves so there will be more of everything for the intelligent people.Budwieser is crap beer anyway…..
Hilarious stuff… but when I first saw the commercial, I thought the dad should say, “Well princess, if everybody rides their bikes, why don’t you get off your fat a__ and pedal on down there? And you could ask those vegans to choke on a pulled pork sandwich for me, too?”
When I moved up north in 2000, I got a place within walking distance to work. Not for the environment’s benefit, but for mine — short commute and less $ in the tank. Anyway, I loved getting into “discussions” with people who drove hybrids. They couldn’t deny that ACTUAL FUEL USED was more important than MPG… I used a total of ZERO gallons of fuel getting to work over the past few years, while they used thousands of gallons… and it just PISSED THEM OFF when they realized the guy with the four-door truck was “more green” than they were!
NOTE: Whenever I go shopping, to the movies, etc., I always try to park nose to nose with a Prius or other hybrid… just to be an A$$!
Don’t be a-holes. Why do you so blithfully assume that ALL priuses are owned by toofu consuming, tree hugging, global warming ignoramuses? $20.00 refills for my prius somehow seems superior to the $90.00 fuel fill-up for my jeep grand cherokee. Sure, the prius is a hybrid, but it sure doesn’t drive like one.
I love my Prius, but not because I am an environmental jerk. Because it has cut the cost of my daily 78 mile round trip to work in half and because it is comfortable and roomy. I drive it everywhere. The environmentalist wackos have it all wrong. I just would rather use my cash on a night out with my wife or visiting my family than buying gas.
I agree that the Ford Hybrid commercial is all about snobbery. But, that doesn’t mean that the hybrid concept is wrong. It just means that Ford, as usual, is doing it for the wrong reasons (it also explains why I bought my last Ford in 1978).
I seem to have raised my children right! My 10 year old daughter loves for me to pick her up from school in my late father’s 1978 Lincoln Continental, talk about carbon footprint!!!
P.S. I would not swap it for 10 hybrids and free gas. With this much steel who needs an airbag!!
“With this much steel who needs an airbag!!”
LOL my next bumper sticker for my Land Cruiser and Expedition, thanks!
For what it’s worth, when it snows on my mountain, you won’t see any hybrids on the roads.
N.
There’s a great “Dilbert” strip where Dogbert, the green consultant, advises a client to ram his SUV into hybrid cars. This will stop them from using fuel altogether, and, after all, you can’t save the earth unless you’re willing to make other people sacrifice.
Okay, guys. Full Disclosure: I drive a Prius. BUT, I bet it’s the only one around with an NRA sticker displayed prominently on the back. You should see the double-takes and head scratching when they see that. I bought that Prius not as any symbol but to MAKE money. My company reimburses 49 cents per business mile. So, about 75 business miles pay for a tank of gas that gets me 400 miles. And, I really drive 150 - 200 business miles a week. It’s money in the bank and I ain’t no liberal tree hugger.
I heard hybrids also solved world hunger, stopped all wars and curred AIDS. I think everyone should get a lifted diesel truck and mod it just for more smoke. So massive injectors with some crap tuning, and massive side pipes aimed at car windows. Then when you see a hybrid, gun it and surround them in a black cloud of doom.
@ People here who’ve said they own a Prius. Why, if you really wanted a hybrid car, didn’t you buy a Civic, Highlander, Camry, Accord or an Altima they can all be purchased as a hybrid. Is it because no one notices them and apart from a little badge on it’s ass people won’t know it’s a hybrid?
You can laugh at me all you want for owning a hybrid, but I’ll be laughing all the way to the bank. I pay twenty bucks a month for gas and I ride it like MJ rides underage–never mind.
Why pursue actual virtue when manufactured virtue is just a test drive away?
I am a relatively recent convert to Christianity and am bemused at how popular culture (as this ad reflects) equates conspicuous consumption with virtue.
Ironically, the highly profitable green industry is a lot like religion complete with guilt (not driving a hybrid), ritual atonement (recycling), indulgences (carbon credits), eschatology (man-made global warming), and pope (Al Gore).
I must admit, it’s somewhat appealing to think that we can achieve sanctification through buying green. It’s a lot easier than actually humbling oneself to serve God and others with our time, money, attention, and sometimes our very life itself.
After many years of pursuing various false avenues like the Church of Green, Christ changed me and got me involved in missions work in Africa - specifically Uganda. In Uganda, there is genocide, AIDS, orphans, civil war, child soldiers, malaria, starvation, child sacrifice, etc…there is so much to do there - just a little bit of money and time saves lives. Yet, most of America and the West simply move to the other side of the road and “walk past” the plundered and beaten Africa like most did in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Yet, to my surprise, about 8 out of 10 who were in Uganda to help were Christians…not superhero types, just “average guy/gal” Christians who may or may not recycle regularly, but are simply compelled to give and give and give of themselves, their money, and their time…some have even paid with their lives. The UN was barely noticeable there and I met no one from secular NGO’s like Peace Corps. This is not atypical in Africa.
Turn up at the dozens of soup kitchens, shelters, etc… in your hometown tomorrow morning and you’ll find the same. They don’t advertise this, they just do it. Because, the reward we seek won’t come from other men who notice what we drive, wear, or buy.
Well this hybrid truck is a deal, just like the posters here say.
Lets say you can buy a Ford Escape XLS (Manual) for $18,770, or an Escape Hybrid (FWD) for 25,075.
Your mileage difference is 22 City, 28 Hwy for the XLS, and 34 city, 30 hwy for the Hybrid.
Lets say you’re going to put 150,000 miles on your car before you sell/trade/junk it (not a bad average) and you’re doing 50/50 City & Highway (I do more Highway, but you might not).
XLS
75,000 miles City at 22 MPG = 3409 gallons
75,000 mile Hwy at 28 MPG = 2679 gallons
Hybrid
75,000 miles City at 34 MPG = 2500 gallons
75,000 mile Hwy at 30 MPG = 2206 gallons
XLS total, 6088 gallons; Hybrid total, 4706 gallons.
Hybrid saves using 1382 gallons over the life of the truck. And only costs $6305 more to buy. At a ppg savings of $4.56 per gallon of gas saved.
Nice savings, as soon as gas is over $4.50 you’ll be saving money. Until then you’ll have to drive that vehicle much more than 160,000 miles before you even hit the break even point. And given a normal vehicle’s lifespan, you’re losing money on that deal.
This math is presuming you don’t have more in maintenance costs due to a more complex mechanical system… but that will be saved for another day. Maybe a day in which you haven’t already lost all your savings and paid more than you “saved”.
Unless of course you got a Hybrid tax credit, in which case you’re still not any more efficient (the truck didn’t cost more to make) you’re just passing the detriment of the profit/cost margin on to everyone else. And we’d like to find a way to thank you for not paying your share of taxes and passing the cost onto others for your purchase… but we can’t find the words.
Maybe little precious wants one block of buffer between her friends and Dad because he looks and acts more like Grandpa …. Mommy’s fourth husband is gonna be alot cooler and hipper !!
Thank you Gekkobear for doing the math. I’m not sure why the people above are talking about how financially wise they are for buying a hybrid. (Except for the guy who get reimbursed for work, sounds like he’s found a nice angle, heheh..)
If hybrids actually made economic sense, then they wouldn’t need the tax breaks and all the guilting people into buying them that goes on.
This is probably the best example of how really screwed up the kids that attend our public schools have become. They actually believe all that global warming crap that they read about in Time for Kids and Weekly Reader.
I’m a fan of Ford vehicles, but what a load of crap this commercial is!!! I drive a 2004 Ford Taurus, which according to the enviro-wackos at the Sierra Club, “…creates more than twice as much global warming pollution as a 55-mpg hybrid-electric Toyota Prius.” Hahaha!!!
http://www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming/fordaction/ford_fact_sheet.pdf
I saw a link to this load of crap on TaurusClub.com in a thread making fun of enviro-wackos. It’s a few years old (talking about Ford’s delaying of the POS in this commercial), but claims Ford vehicles produce more CO2 than the entire country of Mexico! It also claims “Nearly 100 years ago, the Ford Model T averaged 25 miles per gallon. In 2003, the average Ford car and truck got just 22.6 mpg.” Which, according to Ford’s Model T facts page, is a lie:
http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=858
“The Model T was introduced on Oct. 1, 1908. It had a 20-horsepower, four-cylinder engine, reached a top speed of about 45 miles per hour, got about 13 to 21 miles per gallon of gasoline and weighed 1,200 pounds. It was the ninth of Henry Ford’s production cars.”
But, I wonder, did the Model T have any pollution controls? Nope. What about a powerful engine, radio, A/C, or safety features? No to that as well.
However, I bet we could get really high MPGs today if we went back to 20-hp engines with max speeds of 45 MPH!!! But, it’s just like enviro-wackos to lie and take things like facts out of context to suit their al-Goreacle worshiping agenda!!! They long for hippie peasant-life where everyone beats a drum in a circle and no one does a lick of work. But, that’s not even what peasant-life was like or everyone would have starved to death back in the middle ages!!!
What lazy idiots!!!
Imagine a 20-hp tractor-trailer…I wonder if such a truck could go fast enough to squash a hippie in one pass? And, is it worth having this sort of truck in the world just to run over a hippie? Probably not, trucks currently on the road can do the job much better!!!
It also says “hybrid” on both the front driver and passenger doors.
But I think you all are missing the real point here. The bit about not wanting to be embarrassed buy her father’s SUV is a ruse, the girl couldn’t give a rats ass about green what she is really worried about is her white male oppressive and bigoted father having a conniption fit when he takes her to the part of town where, “people are riding bikes and driving hybrids and stuff” which is actually the “hood” and he sees her “friends” who is actually a singular person and a 6′4″ horse hung brother who’s old enough to buy beer.
As for the show she’s going to? Let’s just say there are a few poles involved.
Another thing about the economics of the hybrid. The rechargable lithium ion batteries have to be replaced at 120,000 miles for an additon 5g’s. Add that to the price differance and the economics just fall apart. Also where do we bury the used batteries, they’re not recyclable.
If I were that father, I would go straight out and buy the car that uncle buck drove and use that solely for the purpose of transporting that little bitch and then give it to her for her “supersweet 16″
Here’s the fact- none of you are climatologists.
Climate science has many pieces of evidence that support that global warming is caused by human activity. Three oxygen molecules forming a bond are what we know as “ozone”, you can read all about it, but probably not on any of the “public policy” links that a little internet search would bring up when you’re looking to discredit one side so quickly. Or, you could study it in-depth in school and discredit it using scientific reasoning, IF the evidence came out that way.
Look into the science, do some experiments of your own. No one likes a hack (except for a bunch of loud, shrill like-minded hacks). You don’t have to love Al Gore’s personality to see the evidence for carbon emissions causing warming. Hell, no one I know has ever chatted me up about seeing his movie, and I never have. Just remember that global warming is an idea that has existed in the scientific arena for decades.
I don’t agree you should all drive hybrids. I drive a straight 6 for a reason called horse power. I don’t have the money to afford a prius and probably never will. Hybrids are getting cheaper though, and gas is getting more expensive, so where is your complaining leading? If global warming is not in existence, those little imaginary Prius-driving assholes that breath down your neck ALL FUCKING DAY will just leave more gas for you and I to use as we please. Ahhh, all those hippies! They’re everywhere! Momma, halp!
So, lets agree to disagree there.
However, I do agree that none of you should eat tofu or salads… please work that cholesterol up just like all the men in my family, who have all died by 60 from heart problems. I plan on sidestepping that milestone myself, as steak and chicken are something I prefer to have once a week instead of once a meal. I wouldn’t mind having a little more space between my neighbors and myself, and negative population growth is the best way to do that. Go forth!
Thanks for entertaining me at work, guys. You’re really something else.
Here’s the fact- you are not a climatologist, Ian.
But I for one will take your advice and continue to shy away from tofu!
So what price does gas have to get before you decided to drive less? $3.00 $8.00 $10.00 $20.00 $50.00? You all do have a price…
Ian,
I’m not sure what you are. I know climatologists, and you’re no climatologist.
I am a physicist. I know how IR interacts with CO2, H2O and others. Water is the bigger culprit here, and there’s a feedback. The warmer it gets, the more water evaporates from the oceans, the more H2O in the air………
Canada is predicting it’s worst winter since ‘94, and has already seen much colder weather than normal. I know that my natural gas usage is up considerably over the last two years, because it’s colder in the midwest.
There is more evidence against CO2 causing climate change than for, but the contrary evidence is not accepted in journals, since it can’t be correct if the lawyer from TN says so. NASA has taken up the mantra to stay in business, since they were on the block. There is no funding available to the “independent” university researchers to disprove anthropogenic global warming, so the research will not be pursued. The money’s only there if you come up with the “correct” results.
Cheers.
Ian:
“Just remember that global warming is an idea that has existed in the scientific arena for decades.”
Well, heck. That’s all the proof I need. The idea has “existed” — and in the scientific arena, no less — for so long, it must be true!
“Three oxygen molecules forming a bond are what we know as “ozone”, you can read all about it…”
Actually, not. To form ozone, three oxygen atoms do not form “a bond”. Three sigma bonds must form — one between each oxygen atom. Picture a triangular arrangement of the oxygen atoms, and a bond between each one. This is in contrast to the oxygen gas that we breathe, which has two oxygen atoms bound by a sigma bond and a pi bond — your standard double bond.
To paraphrase Glenn Reynolds, I’ll start believing that global warming is a crisis when the people who are telling me that it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis.
I found the ad incredibly smug and stupid. But what do you expect from US auto companies that insist on strategies that lose market share to foreign competition? When will they learn to shifted their production toward clean and money saving vehicles? They won’t since it hasn’t been in their self- interest, but new CAFE standards will help them.
Personally, I’ve never heard anyone boast or talk about buying a hybrid car. I rarely overhear people boasting about cars. This even though I live in a community whose other occupants are very liberal. In contrast, I’ve seen the topic is often a complaint on denialist internet blogs. Go figure.
The guy just bought an SUV that runs 8 - 10 mpg better. Big deal. But the ladies say overconfident guys often think bigger is better. ‘Taint so. This family has a vehicle they don’t really need. They should get some real cost savings in a mid-sized hybrid that gets 50 mpg. But Ford doesn’t make one.
Kids are often sharper than their parents and this one is no exception. I know that is true for mine and it is probably true for yours. Even though dad has bought the wrong car, the girl realizes global warming will have a significant effect on her world. She is however insufferably hung-up over appearance.
#35 Herbo:
“Where do we bury the batteries, they’re not recyclable”
Who said that?
Lithium is a quite rare metal and it will fetch big bucks. It is also not nearly as toxic as the lead in the starter batteries present in every single car made, which have to be replaced more often than 120,000 miles.
—————–
You can bash the concepts of energy efficiency and conservation all you want, but the fact is that the redneck/McMansion/celebrity lifestyle isn’t sustainable. The Earth can’t support it when 6.5 billion people all want it. Climate change is only ONE of many environmental problems caused by overconsumption.
However, hybrid SUVs are not a solution to any of them. But Just as some people may use their Prius as a “status symbol”, some SUV owners do the exact same thing. The worst are the SUVs with the “Support the Troops” magnets plastered on the back. Yeah, thanks for supporting the troops while the world buys more fuel from the very nations which we are at odds with.
“Climate change is only ONE of many environmental problems caused by overconsumption.”
While I don’t believe the above statement (or any other drivel that proceedeth from Al Gore’s minions), I would agree that overconsumption/gluttony is one of America’s biggest weaknesses. Right behind uptight Prius drivers of course
Key here are the energy costs that the Prius creates when compared with the Hummer. A study is summarized in the following article:
http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/editorial/editorial_item.asp?NewsID=188
Key points:
1. The Prius takes more energy to build than a Hummer
2. The Hummer lasts approximately 3x longer than a Prius
3. The Prius’ savings on fuel do not make up for its overall energy costs
4. Summary: Prius = $3.25 per mile (lifetime) vs. Hummer = $1.95 per mile (lifetime)
If you’re concerned about energy costs/carbon footprint, then the Hummer is a better answer than the Prius.
Ian needs a hug.
tsk.