dynodonn 

Wrong, even my wife can tell the difference between the two Mustangs, for one, the blower noise is horrendous. Performance bikes are faster, but at the expense of many creature comforts which the general public craves. Personally, I prefer the high horsepower to just stay on a the race track under controlled conditions with as much safety measures possible in play, and not on the street as a sales marketing ploy.

MTBLover

Precisely my point. To all the naysayers out there, use your freaking brains. Do you really think anyone pays attention to the miniscule caption that reads "Professional driver on a closed course." People see a car driven fast, looks sexy, and is driven by an extremely hot, sort-of-exotic woman and they want it. Fair enough- that's advertising, and always has been. There, the behavior that's desired is consumerism, and hey, that's what we're all about, right? But when that transfers to dangerous driving on the road, and I offer that as an hypothesis, not a fact (in case you didn't get that), it's definitely worth looking into.

Save your face palms for the real trolls.

cudak888 

Say, what did bicycle ads show, the last time I saw one?

Ah, yes. It showed racing.



Not for bicycles, but this one takes the cake for being utterly corny:

Fact is, there's hardly a product out there anymore that isn't sold with some sort of unbeatable performance in mind, including toilet paper.

Replace the 550-hp Caddies, BMW's, and M-B's with a Yugo, then go make an adrenaline-pumped sales video for it. Will America continue to drive aggressively? No, the car won't respond in a manner that facilitates it. Only the kids in Dodge Chargers were moving fast when everyone else was driving a lumbering Ford LTD.

-Kurt

dynodonn 

But the difference is showing a person on a 10+lb bike doing speeds of what the average motorist often exceed in a residential setting with a 3000 to 6000 lb vehicle, even in the lowest horsepower base model car.

cudak888 

Obviously, and we also know what the horsepower of toilet paper would be.

Someone has created an adrenaline-charged society on the edge. I'd blame movies before anything else.

-Kurt

dynodonn 

It won't be as near as long to extinguish that adrenaline charge in the average person pressing bike pedals as it would a motor vehicle's. That's what makes seductive car ads displaying closed course maneuvers more of a threat to the general public than a bike ad.

Hard to say about movies being the culprit, it could be that they're just reflecting the general public's desire.

cudak888 

Time to code in "the man with the hammer" into auto computers then, eh?

The general public's desire? If movies reflected the general public's desire - as opposed to the general public's desire being influenced by movies, as it is - then the general public has an unusual desire to shoot everyone while making love during a car chase.

-Kurt

MTBLover

Cuda raises a good point re: movies, and I would extend this to all sorts of venues, including print ads. For example, look at the cover of any Bicycling magazine. And don't get me started on video games. Bottom line is that this lust for speed, power, etc. is a systemic issue, not limited to car ads- I was just pointing out an obvious one (Caddy ads), but you don't have to look very far to see numerous other examples.

Doohickie

Actually, I have a bigger problem with those than with the Cadillac ads. Tell me when the program is on, fine. But don't make me and my family watch two guys beating the crap out of each other with the blood and all that. I find that pretty offensive to be honest.

GraysonPeddie

Blame Fast and the Furious! I would! LOL!

Raiden

If we're going to point back to movie makers, consider a lot of them start on music videos and.... commercials.

*Connects this post with the OP and adds a half-twist*

dedhed

Ads are when you change channels, that's why the remote was invented.

Nimitz87

wow...anyone remember the commercial chevy had to pull about the corvettes flying through the air in the little boys dream?

let me guess you think video games = evil too?

Chad

MTBLover

I don't remember that commercial. But yes, some (not most) video games are very definitely evil. GTA is just one example.

cudak888 

Nah - how about sticking it to H.B. Halicki and his (original) Gone in 60 Seconds?

-Kurt

Nimitz87

so guns are evil too?




its the PEOPLE that make those things "evil"

actually its the lack of parenting...the whole lets sit the kid down in front of the video game/tv and let it take care of him because I'm to lazy/busy too that all started with Barney IMO the tv show baby sat the kid

here is the commercial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG0Ba-wef6M

Chad

cudak888 

Therefore, we can conclude that unsafe driving behavior is due to a combination of the following factors:

A. Cars
B. Movies
C. Video games
D. Barney

-Kurt

Mycah

I have literally never seen anyone trying to mimic a car commercial ad. Don't know what kind of idiots you have in your area, but I never see anyone doing doughnuts in the middle of the road. KTHX.

MTBLover

I'm afraid that we have your share of the idjits. In fact, just yesterday, my wife and I were nearly run down by some speed demon jumping lanes, and the curb (!) to pass the guy in front of him on the right. And this was a busy city street, mind you.

@ the gyrene- I don't know about about Barney, but I'm surprised you didn't include Sesame Street.

cudak888 

S.S.? I don't know how any child can stand watching it for more then 5 minutes. I couldn't stand it as a child, for crying out loud.

-Kurt

Nimitz87

you could definitely include Sesame Street hell that is the original kid show, but I think the mentality of parents started to really change (for the worse) later on it all boils down to the parents as a kid my dad would let me play "Doom" I would watch him play and want too, I was only allowed to play when he was there and was told many times that it is a GAME games like GTA are only bad when the kid can't differentiate them between reality

but that also boils down to the desensitization of our society...

Chad

GraysonPeddie

I went like "holy sh*t--this kid is crazy."

If I am a parent (I'm single) and I have a child, I will never, ever, let the child see it. Plus, I don't have a television with cable connected to it. However, I do have MythTV with my antenna connected to it, but I can't watch TV unless I boot up my computer to Linux after I end my Windows session. One good side that I'd like to mention is I don't watch TV that much. Only recorded TV shows and movies.

dobber

But, but, but. What is with the victim mentality of the general AnS community?

cudak888 

It's also outrageous to the point that it's closer to an acid trip than an entertaining commercial. I'd expect something like that for Hot Wheels - and even then, not necessarily so.

-Kurt

mustang1

I like that Concept Cadillac.