More Madness from Wrigley. AOL today hilites a minor controversy over a stupid ad for Bud Light shown weeks ago, in which men tell their wives they're going up to the roof to make repairs, only to set up lawn chairs on pitched roofs and drink beer.

Anheuser-Busch, the makers of Bud Light, says the ad was a spoof.

Critics said that the commercial sent a dangerous message that it was fun to drink on rooftops and that the ad violated the beer industry's advertising and marketing standards, which stipulate that ads "should not portray beer drinking before or during activities, which for safety reasons, require a high degree of alertness or coordination."

The poll that accompanied that New York Times article on AOL shows that 77% of readers do not believe it encourages unsafe behavior. As well they might. That commercial is just silly, and no one is going to take it seriously.
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Another commercial does, however, encourage irresponsible behavior. Were it the only case of its sort, it might be harmless. But it's not the only such case and not harmless.
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In the commercial I object to, Orbit gum shows a young man driving down the road and checking out his dazzling-white smile first in the rearview mirror, then left side mirror, ignoring the road. So captivated is he by his own smile, that he can't take his eyes off the mirror, so runs off the road and thru several businesses, until his car finally stops in a front-end crash into a solid wall. People are shown scrambling for cover, but, magically, no one is hurt.
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Reckless driving is not harmless, and not the slitest funny.
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In looking (unsuccessfully) for an online showing of this revolting ad, I came upon astonishing praise for a Pontiac commercial from 2003 in which a blind woman is shown driving. Blind. Driving. And the National Federation of the Blind actually praises that commercial! That organization should be crushed out of existence.
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Blind people are not entitled to the 'exhilaration' or 'joy' or 'liberation' of driving. Driving is not so safe that even the blind can drive, and to suggest otherwise is criminally irresponsible. That Pontiac commercial is insane, and should be punished by a permanent, lifelong ban from advertising and media for everyone responsible in any way for its creation or broadcast. The executives at General Motors who authorized it should be fired, and banned from executive responsibilities of any kind forever. Plainly they don't have the judgment of a five-year-old. No wonder GM is in perpetual danger of going bankrupt.
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Hollywood — and now the National Federation of the Blind?— has been teaching people to drive recklessly for at least 70 years. Drivers are regularly shown taking their eyes off the road for extended periods to look at the person next to them in conversation, as tho this is a sane and sensible practice necessary to make a real connection in conversation. Racing on public streets, speeding, car chases, car crashes, and jumps by speeding vehicles over and into obstacles are standard fare in Hollywood movies, and almost never is anyone killed or even injured in these extraordinarily dangerous behaviors. Now Wrigley adds its two cents to encourage people to think that inattention and reckless driving are funny. What's the worst that can happen? You bang up your car. None of the dozens of people who had to run for cover in that ad is injured, and crashing into a wall does you no harm either. "It's all good." (That is one of those Hollywood expressions I detest.)
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No, it's not all good. It's not AT all good. It's inexcusably irresponsible, and should be punished. Graphic images and moving pictures are not protected by the First Amendment. They are an extension not of human speech nor the press but of statuary, painting, and other publicly displayed art, which the Founding Fathers knew about but did not protect.
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We have a very real problem in this country with inattention during driving. A very different, responsible commercial now showing, for Allstate, shows a man momentarily distracted by an open cup of coffee he is drinking while driving. A car ahead has stopped unexpectedly, and our driver not only drops his coffee but despite his best efforts to brake in time, crashes into the car ahead. The Allstate spokesman, black character actor Dennis Haysbert, intones some appropriately solemn warning about needless accidents and claims that Allstate is working to reduce accidents thru driver education and other measures. Now that is all good.
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It is not funny to make lite of women putting on mascara while driving, or of anyone using a cellfone with one hand and drinking a cup of coffee from the other, while steering with the elbows. Things like that actually happen, because some people are morons who think nothing bad can happen to them. They've done things like that before and nothing bad ever happened. Well, moron, it's just a matter of time. And when something bad does happen, it can be very bad indeed.
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Cars are thousands of pounds of steel and glass hurtling with enormous force. Crashes can not just crumple steel and shatter glass, but kill or permanently maim people, even several people in a single accident, especially if drivers following irresponsibly close are then involved in multi-car pileups.
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According to the futurists who speculated on highway safety features in, for instance, the 1939 New York World's Fair, we were supposed to have, by now, automatic spacing between cars, and system-wide speed and direction controls that adjusted to road conditions, weather, and congestion, to keep us from having auto accidents. Hasn't happened, even tho we do still hear of plans finally to put such things in place.
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Until and unless that happens, we are going to have to rely upon the judgment of drivers, and drivers must always be aware that driving is an intrinsically dangerous activity, so they must always drive responsibly, which means paying attention primarily to the road, not to friends, nor coffee, nor makeup, nor music, nor radio news, nor unexpected cellfone calls, or anything else.
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The message must be consistent. We can afford no encouragements in the popular culture to regard reckless driving as a harmless lark.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 2,325.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 4:08 PM