We Are Big Babies
I’m watching the Wachovia Championship. Tiger’s drive has deserted him again.
A BP ad commences: “Which would you rather have, a car or a cleaner environment?”
A pleasant woman in a sundress faces the camera as jangly/tingly tones are heard.
“Well I would love to have a cleaner environment, but my car – that’s like askin’ someone to give up chocolate! To give up my car... it’s just not gonna happen. I love my car!”
That’s not a bad basis for a joke, actually, equating our automobile economy with a craving for chocolate, but I’m muttering: BP, think for a second. Is the global community going to be charmed with this idea that international politics and strife are shaped largely around the presumption that we here in the United States can’t even consider modifying our need for chocolate? It’s no more significant a part of our lives than that?
I hope it’s more complex than chocolate. Unfortunately, I think the rest of the world already perceives our car/SUV fixation in that light. We are selfish disgusting pigs, they suspect. So thanks, BP. Thanks for the little dig right in the middle of the Wachovia Championship.
Postscript: It's possible this ad is not aimed only at us, but I bet it is. When you're talking about not giving up cars you're talking about the USA.
A BP ad commences: “Which would you rather have, a car or a cleaner environment?”
A pleasant woman in a sundress faces the camera as jangly/tingly tones are heard.
“Well I would love to have a cleaner environment, but my car – that’s like askin’ someone to give up chocolate! To give up my car... it’s just not gonna happen. I love my car!”
That’s not a bad basis for a joke, actually, equating our automobile economy with a craving for chocolate, but I’m muttering: BP, think for a second. Is the global community going to be charmed with this idea that international politics and strife are shaped largely around the presumption that we here in the United States can’t even consider modifying our need for chocolate? It’s no more significant a part of our lives than that?
I hope it’s more complex than chocolate. Unfortunately, I think the rest of the world already perceives our car/SUV fixation in that light. We are selfish disgusting pigs, they suspect. So thanks, BP. Thanks for the little dig right in the middle of the Wachovia Championship.
Postscript: It's possible this ad is not aimed only at us, but I bet it is. When you're talking about not giving up cars you're talking about the USA.
posted by Lonesome Payne at
4:26 PM
