ADS USE NATURE TO SELL SUVs

  • Car companies use our love of the great outdoors to sell some of the most gas-guzzling and polluting vehicles around. (Photo by Erin Norris)

Advertisers like to push your hot buttons. One of them is your
attraction to nature. Car companies use our love of the great outdoors
to sell some of the most gas-guzzling and polluting vehicles around.
Kyle Norris takes a look at how car ads work:

Transcript

Advertisers like to push your hot buttons. One of them is your
attraction to nature. Car companies use our love of the great outdoors
to sell some of the most gas-guzzling and polluting vehicles around.
Kyle Norris takes a look at how car ads work:


Have you ever noticed that car commercials have a lot of nature in
them? The car that’s being sold is always climbing up a boulder or
ripping through the mud. Like this commercial:


(Commerical:) “The new Jeep Liberty Renegade…”


A Native-American looking man drives over some rugged terrain when he comes
across a seal stranded on the ice.


(Commercial:) “It gives you the power to conquer nature…”


As he approached the seal and raised a harpoon over his head, you
thought he was going to hurt the seal.


(Commercial:) “…as well as the ability to protect it.” (chirping and hooting)


Instead, he plunges a hole in the ice and another seal pops out its
head to be reunited with the first. Then the commercial ends with
the sound of chirping crickets and the hoot of an owl.


But listen to that announcer one more time:


(Commercial:) “It gives you the power to conquer nature as well as the
ability to protect it.”


Over the next decade, Generation Y will be elbowing out the Baby
Boomers in the marketplace. So you’ll be seeing fewer commercials about
conquering nature and more about protecting it.


Here’s why that’s happening: according to researchers, Generation Y
cares strongly for the environment and they’re willing put their money
where their mouth is. Whereas Boomers theoretically care they’re a lot less
willing to financially back that concern.


But for everyone, nature speaks to something inside us. And advertisers
know this. Art Spinelli is the president of CNW Research:


“Well, for the most part, most consumers have an enormous response to
natural settings, whether it’s the agrarian part of just human nature
or human beings.”


He calls this response a hot button. Spinelli says advertisers use it
to sell everything from beer to cars.


“…And it plays off of a really instinctive basic attitude that a lot
of consumers have. Kind of like going on vacation to somewhere and
looking around and going, gee, I could really live here. This would be
terrific but the reality is that I have a job and it happens to be in
an urban or suburban environment and I can’t leave that to live in the
desert.”


Car salespeople will also tell you we have this nature hot button. They
say it’s all about knowing you could drive in the rugged
wilderness if you needed to. Here’s a car salesman who goes
simply by the name of Mike:


“They want to be able to know they can do it um, but it doesn’t
happen. They never do it. I think I had an Explorer once myself,
and the most off-roading – it was in the wintertime – and I think
I went on the sidewalk or something. That was the most off-roading I ever did.”


So what are people actually doing with their vehicles? Is it anything
like the commercials? Well, it’s not just about conquering mountain tops:


(Consumer 1:) “I’m driving a Toyota 4-Runner. I need something to tow my boat and I was
looking for a quality car.”


(Consumer 2:) “Part of the reason I brought a little SUV is I like to sit up high and the SUV
can really offer the height.”


(Consumer 3:) “I don’t actually go off-roading with it. I can get away for weekends and
pack a load of gear. I can tow a light trailer. It’s just a good all-around sport utility vehicle.”


(Consumer 4:) “I’ve helped friends move before and all the seats, the entire back folds down and
I can fit a whole full mattress in the back.”


So, turns out most people aren’t mud bogging on a regular basis, but it’s
important to them to have the option to mud bog. And advertisers are
hip to this desire. Car buyers can keep this fantasy alive as long as
they’re willing to fork over some serious cash for the price of the
vehicle and the cost of gas.


Car salesmen say the number one thing buyers ask them about is money, as in
how much will I have to spend. They say potential buyers never
ask them about off-roading or driving through nature, but they know that inkling is there.


For the Environment Report, I’m Kyle Norris.

Related Links

Ban for Off-Road Vehicles?

Some groups are looking for ways to reduce the damage to natural areas done by off-road vehicles. An organization representing off-road riders agrees that there should be rules for off-roading… but not complete bans on the recreational vehicles. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham
reports:

Transcript

Some groups are looking for ways to reduce the damage to natural areas
done by off-road vehicles. An organization representing off-road riders
agrees that there should be rules for off-roading… but not complete bans
on the recreational vehicles. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester
Graham reports:


Off-road riding is a lot of fun for a lot of people, but some environmental
groups want off-road vehicles banned in many state and national parks.
For example, one study is looking at banning off-road vehicles from
some sand dunes on Lake Michigan because they damage rare plants.


Russ Ehnes is with the riders’ group the National Off-Highway Vehicle
Conservation Council.


“We all need to be sensitive when it comes to threatened and endangered
species and habitat, but we need to also find ways to provide
opportunities instead of just eliminating opportunities.”


Ehnes concedes as the number of off-road riders has increased, damage
to natural areas has worsened. He says it’s up to the park managers,
though, to find a way for everyone, including riders, to enjoy the parks
and preserve the important habitat.


For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.

Related Links