Drugs and SUVs

Tim Cavanaugh | January 17, 2003

In the comments section for Nick's earlier post on SUVs, Kevin suggests the anti-SUV commercials are merely sarcastic.

I can certainly see his point. When the government's "do drugs, support terror" commercials came out, a friend and I talked about spoofing them with a "use gas, support terror" spot. (After all, why stop at SUVs?) And whoever came up with the Arianna spot probably did have something similar in mind.

But given their context, that's not how the commercials work. They were funded as an earnest anti-SUV campaign with a not exactly ironic spokeswoman. Their stated purpose is to persuade people not to buy gas guzzlers, not to mock a deceptive government propaganda spot.

So ultimately, they're not disputing the anti-drug ads at all; they're jumping on the bandwagon.