] Friday, January 10, 2003 ] "Detroit Project" Won't Play in Detroit ] Detroit TV stations are refusing to broadcast the Detroit ] Project's TV ads linking terrorism to gas-guzzing SUVs, ] and industry-funded think tanks like the Competitive ] Enterprise Institute have jumped in to attack the ads. ] Actually, the marketing link between SUVs and violence ] may run deeper than the Detroit Project realizes. The SUV ] craze got its start thanks to the first war in the ] Persian Gulf, which inspired automakers to adapt military ] vehicles for the consumer market. As even Fortune ] magazine admits, the auto industry has been deliberately ] marketing rollover-prone gaz-guzzlers as vehicles of ] aggression that appeal to consumers' "reptilian" ] instincts. Small wonder that, ] according to the industry's ] own market research, "the SUV is the car of choice for ] the nation's most self-centered people; and the bigger ] the SUV, the more of a jerk its driver is likely to be." ] Source: Detroit Free Press, January 10, 2003 Spin of the Day |