Media Campaigns in the SUV Debate

Media Campaigns in the SUV Debate

The American consuming public has a long history of imposing patriotic consumption decisions upon the marketplace. They may be small things, like choosing to consume “freedom” fries over french fries or looking for the “Made in USA” label on products, or they may be forceful actions, like revolutionary era boycotts of British tea or holding foreign food and drug products to American standards. Recent anti-SUV campaigns have grown out of this legacy of consumption protest. The Detroit Project is at the forefront of promoting anti-SUV sentiment to a mass audience.

The Detroit Project is an effort of the AFEC (Americans for Fuel Efficient Cars), which is self-described: “AFEC is a nonprofit group dedicated to decreasing America’s reliance on foreign oil.” The mission of the Detroit Project is: “to mount a citizens’ ad campaign aimed at getting people to stop driving SUVs and other gas-guzzling vehicles – and jolting our leaders into taking action.”

To meet these goals the Detroit Project has produced and aired two tv spots that suggest that operating an SUV provides funds to terrorist groups. The ads are patterned after ads put out by the Bush administration that imply that funding illegal drug-dealing provides money that ends up in the hands of terrorists. The script of the first Detroit Project ad reads:

"I helped hijack an airplane. I helped blow up a nightclub. So what if it gets 11 miles to the gallon. I gave money to a terrorist training camp in a foreign country. It makes me feel safe. I helped our enemies develop weapons of mass destruction. What if I need to go off-road? Everyone has one. I helped teach kids around the world to hate America. I like to sit up high. I sent our soldiers off to war. Everyone has one. My life, my SUV. I don't even know how many miles it gets to the gallon."

WHAT IS YOUR SUV DOING TO OUR NATIONAL SECURITY? DETROIT, AMERICA NEEDS HYBRID CARS NOW.

The script of the second ad reads:

"This is George. This is the gas that George bought for his SUV. This is the oil company executive that sold the gas that George bought for his SUV. These are the countries where the executive bought the oil, that made the gas that George bought for his SUV.