Bradsher's High And Mighty: The Dangerous Rise Of The SUV

“High and Mighty: The Dangerous Rise of the SUV” by Keith Bradsher:
Introduction:
1.Why is the safe image of SUV’s an illusion?
They roll over too easily, killing and injuring occupants at an alarming rate, and they are dangerous to other road users, inflicting catastrophic damage to cars that they hit and posing a lethal threat to pedestrians.
2.What have manufacturers’ market researchers decided?
That millions of baby boomers want an adventurous image and care almost nothing about putting others at risk to achieve it.
3.What has this resulted in?
Unusually tall, menacing vehicles like the dodge Durango, behemoths, gas guzzlers.
4.What loopholes in government regulations were automakers able to exploit?
When the U.S. imposed safety,
environmental and tax rules on automobiles in the 1970’s, much together standards were set for cars than for pickup trucks, vans and off road vehicles that have since evolved into sport utility vehicles.
5.What automotive safety issue intensely captured the nation’s attention?
Rollovers from Ford explorers equipped with firestone tires that failed.
6.Why are SUV’s dangerous to other motorists?
The height and width of the typical SUV make it hard for car drivers behind it to see the road ahead, increasing the chance that they will be unable to avoid a crash, especially multi-vehicle pileup.
7.Why are SUV’s less safe than cars?
The stiff truck-like underbody of an SUV does little to absorb the force of collisions with trees and other roadside objects. Its size increases traffic congestion, because car drivers tend to give sport utility vehicles a lot of room, so fewer vehicles can get through each green light at an intersection.
Their truck brakes take longer to brake than of cars. When they hit pedestrians they fuck them up.
8.Why are SUV occupants at higher risk for paralysis?
Rollovers.
9.What is the only thing more frightening for traffic experts than a bad driver behind the wheel of an SUV? A bad driver behind the wheel of an SUV with failing brakes and maintenance problems. ie: A used SUV being resold to a teenager, when the car is already 10 years old.
10.How are SUV’s a problem for the environment?
Poor gas mileage, CO2 emissions, global warming, smog. All much higher than cars.11.Why are the gains that automakers made with fuel-economy eroding?
The rise of SUV sales. Car companies like Chrysler make shitty non-fuel efficient cars that haven’t improved gas mileage in 30 years.
12.What accounts for the 3000 needless deaths every year as a result of cars being replaced by SUV’s?
SUV’s kill the same amount of people each year as the amount of people that died in 9/11. Rollevers, car crashes, glare from headlights, just people who drive SUV’s suck at driving and they are killing themselves and other people.
13.How does the terms “network externalities” explain the rising sales of SUV’s?
14.What has a big chunk of automakers’ ad money gone towards?
Ads
15.Why does Bradsher think that the claim in Escalade advertising that “It’s Good be a Cadillac” is false?
They make things that we don’t need, instead they focus on the wrong ideas. To be a Cadillac is to be a mediocre car with a 3/5 star rating ie: 60/100 is still failing.
16.Why is the Escalade’s advice to other drivers to “Yield,” good advice?
It has so many amenities, it is basically saying move out the way, we are coming through whether you like it or not.
17.What is the key to how automakers have made enormous profits?
Take parts from a $20,000 truck, and change it a little, use the same parts and call it an Escalade and sell it for $50,000.
18.How long will automakers continue to make SUV’s?
“If pigs are big and popular, I guess we’ll make pigs”
Reptilian Dreams:
1. What did Rapaille become convinced of when he applied principles of psychological research?
A person’s first encounter with an object or idea shaped his or her emotional relationship with it for life
2. What are the three levels of brain activity?
Cortex – for intellectual assessments of a product
Limbic – for emotional responses
Reptilian – reactions based on “survival and reproduction”
3. What do SUV’s appeal to?
People’s deep-seated desires for “survival and reproduction” (Reptilian)
4. How do teenagers respond to feelings of fear?
They want to give the message “I want to be able to destroy, I want to be able to fight back, don’t mess with me”
5. Why does Rapaille think we are going back to medieval times?
We live in ghettos with gates and private armies – SUVs are armored cars for the battlefield
6. Which idea has disappeared, as epitomized in the Mad Max movie?
The idea of being civil on the roads
7. What were Bob Lutz’s instructions to Chrysler’s director of vehicleexterior design?
Ever more powerful engines mounted in ever taller SUVs and pickup trucks with ever more menacing-looking front ends. “Get them up in the air and make them husky”
8. How did Lutz establish the Grand Cherokee’s credentials as a rough and tough vehicle?
He drove a Grand Cherokee up the steps of Detroit’s convention center and smashed through a plate-glass window to enter the building – this was all televised
9. What was the result of research that found 80% of consumers disliked the aggressive design of the Dodge Ram?
The remaining 20% were in love with the design, and even with only 4% of the market share, they knew they could double their market share – pickup market share increased from 4% to 20%
10. What did the Dodge Ram’s menacing front end result in?
The entire full-sized SUV market became more menacing
11. What were women telling Rapaille about driving a convertible?
Women were concerned that they might be assaulted by an intruder climbing into a convertible. “If you drive with the top down, the message is ‘Rape me’”
12. How do the interiors of SUV’s have to be designed like?
Gentle, feminine, and luxurious as possible
13. Why does Rapaille drive a Porsche?
It allows him to retain control of his destiny with its rumbleness, excellent brakes and tremendouis stability. It’s safer than an SUV
14. What characterizes SUV buyers?
Insecure and vain people, people who are nervous about their marriage and parenthood, apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed with little interest in their neighbors or communities. Pretty on the outside, not on the inside.
15. What are SUV buyers often uncomfortable with?
Being married and having children
16. What is the tough challenge of designing SUV’s?
Designing vehicles that will sell based on their fashion appeal, but which are supposed to look as though fashion was the last thing on the designer’s mind. Delicate balance of features that are rugged yet trendy, durable yet chic, intimidating yet modish.17. What are SUV owners willing to trade off?
Flexibility or functionality in exchange for people looking at them/their car
18. Why do automakers mount the seats in SUV’s higher than in minivans?
People in SUVs are more concerned with having control of the people around them instead of the vehicle itself.
19. What are the higher seats of SUV’s a recipe for?
A rollover, because the vehicle becomes more top-heavy
20. What is the height of SUVs making it more difficult for car owners to do?
To see where they are going
21. What is the generational preference regarding wanting an SUV?
Americans born before the end of WWII buy extremely few SUVs despite dominating the market for large cars. Americans in their teens and early 20s are obsessed with SUVs despite not having money. The core market is baby boomers – those born from 1946 to 1964.
22. When affluent men and women in warm cities are walking around in hiking boots and parkas, what are they subscribing to?
“preparedness chic” prepared for fashion not reality
23.
For baby boomers who have office jobs and mortgages, what does owning an SUV provide?
Reassurance – while they have jobs and mortgages now, they have not really changed that much from the days of their youth
24. How is the European view of car safety different than the American view?
Europeans think about a light, agile car for safety. Americans think “put a tank around me, get as much mass around as possible and let Isaac Newton work his magic.”
25. What are SUV owners less likely to be doing, than owners of other kinds of family vehicles?
Volunteer work and going to church
26. What does the declining sales of minivans represent?
Another sign that Americans care more about image than anything else
27. What do minivan drivers tend to be?
Extremely nice people, ¼ of customers are senior citizens with no children at home, half the buyers are men (not the soccer mom image people associate with minivans)
28. Why is the minivan market neglected by auto executives?
The auto executives simply cannot relate to such good people (who buy minivans)
29. What theme do many television ads for SUV’s emphasis?
Intimidation (emphasizing the physical size)
30. What has happened to SUV adverting in the last
decade?
Advertising soared much faster than sales, rising from $172.5 million in 1990 to $1.51 billion in 2000. Automakers and their dealers spent $9 billion advertising SUVs from 1990 thru Sep 30, 2001.
31. According to J.C. Collins, when is the only time most SUV’s are going offroad?
“When they miss the driveway at 3 AM”
32. What did one woman in a Toyota focus group say see wanted a SUV for?
To drive up over the curb and onto lawns to park at large parties in Beverly Hills
33. Why do most SUV drivers not engage in off-road driving?
They have no place to go off-roading – off-roading is illegal in many of the most popular areas of federal parks, and completely illegal in pristine wilderness areas.
34. How have automakers fomented demand for four-wheel drive vehicles?
Creating opportunities for customers to use them – many Land Rover dealerships have little, fake mounds with boulders for customers to drive over and also have larger, permanent off-road courses near their headquarters for customers to test.
35. What is the popularity of SUV’s a response to?
Two huge changes in the American auto market: the growing concentration of income among the nation’s most prosperous families and the growing availability and reliability of used cars
36. How much of the new automobile market do the richest 20% account for?
45% in 1990, now 60%
37. What is one practical effect of SUV’s being so big?
The largest models no longer fit in many garages – they burn a lot of gas and cause gas price increases
38. When it comes to gasoline, what do affluent families care about?
The availability of gasoline but not concerned about the price of gasoline of the fuel economy of the vehicle they drove
39. What last factor does Bradsher identify as helping SUV’s become so popular?
The way politicians and Hollywood celebrities have embraces SUVs, giving them lots of free media exposure
40. What, mechanically, is the SUV a poor substitute for?
The family car
Juliet Schor “Born to Buy” CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.Why have people, for the most part, been okay with working longer hours?
-The U.S. is the most consumer-oriented society in the world. 2.What are “downshifters”?
- Those who were intentionally rejecting the consumer lifestyle rather than merely working less. 3.Why do so few “downshifters” have kids?
- I discovered that downshifters who were raising children were almost impossible to find. At the time, I reasoned that children are expensive or that most parents would not want to impose a regime of reduced consumption on their kids.
4.What does the term “tweens” refer to?
80 percent of all global brands now required a tween strategy.
-Tweens are a marketing category roughly comprising children from first grade to age 12
5.As they have tried to explain evidence of rising stress and distress among kids, researchers have unfortunately limited their focus to what?
-Researchers and advocates have focused primarily on social trends to explain the problems that beset children / Existing studies focused on the adverse effects of a particular consumer experience or product on a child.
6.What does Schor mean by “moral panics”?
- What scholars have dubbed "moral panics," that is, exaggerated adult fears about children's fads, are longstanding. In recent years, moral panics have been triggered by comic books, trading cards, electronic games, even stuffed animals such as Beanie Babies.
7.What has replaced “unstructured socializing” for kids?
- Marketed leisure has replaced unstructured socializing, and most of what kids do revolves around commodities.
8.How do today’s youth differ from the youth of the baby boomers in terms of exposure to adults?
- Major changes in the nature of childhood itself In comparison with baby boomers, today's youth have earlier exposure to and more involvement with adult worlds. Children from single-parent families, a growing portion of the population, shoulder significant family responsibilities.
9.What original 1920’s formula for selling children’s products has been overturned by marketing and advertising?
- They have done this by overturning the original 1920s formula for selling children's products, which was an alliance with mothers. / Wheatena’s proteins built bodies milk contained Vitamin D. “Gatekeeper model”
10.What does Schor’s research say about the relationship between dysfunction and consumption?
- What's more, my findings reverse the conventional wisdom that dysfunctional kids are drawn to consumer culture; in fact, the reverse is true. Involvement in consumer culture causes dysfunction in the forms of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and psychosomatic complaints.
CHAPTER TWO: THE CHANGING WORLD OF CHILDREN’S CONSUMPTION
11.What kinds of imagery and metaphor dominate the literature of the youth marketing industry?
- Hundreds of representatives of the client companies come to hear the latest findings about what kids are up to from companies, researchers, psychologists, and ad agency reps.
12.How have youth marketers “gone anthropological”?
- Marketers are videotaping children in their private spaces, providing in-depth analysis of the rituals of daily life.
13.What are the top three spending categories for kids 4 to 12 years old?
- The number one spending category, at a third of the total, is for sweets, snacks, and beverages. Toys are number two and apparel is growing fast.
14.Where does the industry term “the influence market” derive from?
- The more children shop the more voice they have in parental purchases.
In the industry, this is called the influence market.
15.What has driven the growth in children’s influence?
- Children's influence is being driven by a number of factors, including changes in parenting style. Older generations were more authoritarian, believing that they knew what was best for their kids. / Baby boom and later generations of parents have been far more willing to give voice and choice, to see consumer decisions as "learning opportunities."
16.What do the “sign wars” refer to?
- "Sign wars," that is, corporate competition centered on images, has led to an ever-accelerating spiral of changing symbolism and brand vulnerability.
17.Beyond kids having more money and say, what does Schor say is the other side to the commercialization of childhood?
- The commercialization of childhood is certainly being driven by the tact that kids have more money and more say, the explanation most marketers articulate. But there's another side to what scholars Shirley and Joe Kincheloe have insightfully called the "Corporate Construction of Child-hood." It's the growing scope, market power, and political influences wielded by the small number of mega-corporations that sell most of what kids buy. Marked by big business and sameness.
18.What has been the result of the children’s market being dominated by just a few powerful companies?
- This matters for a number of reasons. One is that with monopoly comes uniformity Economic theory predicts that when two opponents face off, the winning strategy for both entails their becoming almost identical. Monopoly also means bigger profits and market power far producers and less value and inf1nencc for consumers.
19.What have studies of trends in children’s time use revealed?
- These trends may help to explain why there are now stress management workshops for kindergartners and why marketing studies report that one of the major problems articulated by kids today is that they want less pressure, less overload, and more time to relax.
20.According to experts, what is the new “postmodern childhood” driven by?
The change that bas attracted most attention is kids' heavy involvement with electronic media, prompting some to posit a new, postmodern childhood, driven by television, Internet, video games, movies, and videos.
21.According to the Kaiser Family Foundation study cited by Schor, how much time does the average American child spend with media? - It found that daily television viewing for two to eighteen year olds was two hours and forty-six minutes, plus an additional twenty-eight minutes watching videotapes. Viewing is most intense at ages eight to thirteen, when television takes up three hours and thirty-seven minutes a day, plus an additional twenty-nine minutes with videotapes. That's nearly thirty hours per week.
22.What is the “conservative take” on the youth commercialization trends Schor describes?
- The conservative take on the trends I've described is that we've produced a generation of couch potato kids, scarfing down chips and soda, driving their parents crazy about those hundred-dollar sneakers. They're spoiled, unable to delay gratification, and headed for trouble.
23.How has children’s nutrition been faring over the past few years?
- In 1999, 16.9 percent of children were subject to what is called "food insecurity" and did not have adequate food to live active, healthy lives. Most kids are eating the wrong foods, and too many of them. 1997 study found that 50 percent of children's calories are from added fat and sugar, and the diets of 45 percent of children failed to meet any of the standards of the USDA's food pyramid. Children eat excessive quantities of advertised food products and not enough fruits, vegetables, and fiber. Among children aged six to twelve, only 12 percent have a healthy diet, and 13 percent eat a poor diet. The rest are in the "needs improvement" category. As has been widely reported, rates of youth obesity are skyrocketing.
24.What has happened to the obesity rate of teens since 1980?
- Since 1980, obesity rates for children have doubled, and those for teens have tripled. Weight-related diseases, such as type II diabetes and hypertension, are rising rapidly Along side the rise in obesity is excessive concern with thinness and body image and a host of eating disorders. Record numbers of girls are on diets, and they are beginning to diet at an increasingly young age. 25.According to psychologists, how do materialist values affect kids?
-Psychologists have found that espousing these kinds of materialist values undermines well-being, leading people to be more depressed, anxious, less vital, and in worse physical health. Among youth, those who are more materialistic are more likely to engage in risky behaviors.
Film: Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood
1. At what age does James McNeal think you can start to think of children asconsumers?
Infants
2. What do most parents not realize about what corporate marketers are intentionally trying to do?
They are trying to make parents miserable to the point that they will buy what the kid wants.
3. According to Nick Russell, what is 360 degree immersive marketing?
360 degree immersive marketing is where the marketers try to get around the child at every aspect and avenue
4. According to Enola Aird, what is advertising trying to convince kids of?
That life is about buying
5. According to Enola Aird, what is the philosophy of marketing to kids?
Cradle to grave. Get to the kids early, often, as many places as you can get them not to just buy products but to turn them into life long consumers
6. What did the FTC Improvement Act of 1980 mandate?
The FTC would not have any authority to promulgate any rule in children’s adverstising7. What followed the release of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle” movie?
Over 1000 products that were linked to the movie, the TV show, the comic book,
8. According to Michael Rich, what are important touchstones in childrenlives that marketers emotionally leverage to make money?
Characters that they’re comfortable with
9. According to Gary Ruskin, why is product placement in programming dishonest? It sneaks by and plants its message in children’s brains when they’re not paying attention
10. How does CBS News label Internet games with products embedded inthem?
There is so much advisement on the Internet that we don’t even notice it. They’re part of games (Advertisement games)
11. Why have children with cell phones become a prime target for marketers?
1 in 4 American kids between the ages of 8 and 12 have a cellphone. Ringtones, and games by companies such as Disney and Nickelodeon have downloadable content for cell phones. Advertisement right in the face of the child
12. Why do advertisers covet sites such as Webkinz?
Because of there proven ability to gather personal information from kids
13. Where were Chicago kindergartner’s taken for a field trip?
Petco14. According to Dan Acuff, what is missing from the youth marketingconferences?
The conferences do not talk about what is good for kids and how to move society forward in a healthier way
15. How does Juliet Schor describe the ethnographic research that follows kidsinto bathrooms?
It’s creepy
16. According to Juliet Schor what does the Girls Intelligence Agency ask kids to do?
They are asked to push a certain product or come and give their opinions on certain products. They ask them to be sly and get information from their friends without their friends knowing. They are secretly exploiting their friends.
17. What does Lucy Hughes say about whether manipulating kids is ethical?
She doesn’t know if it’s ethical. They are tomorrow’s consumers. Hook them while they’re young and you have them as an adult
18. What does Michael Brody call marketers?
Pedophiles, child experts.19. According to a youth marketer what is a good thing in pursuit of a product? Anti-social behavior
20. What is modern marketing to kids based on?
Social meaning
21. According to Susan Linn what is the primary value being sold to kids?
Brands will make us happy
22. According to Allen Kanner, what is the number one answer that kids giveabout what want to be when they grow up?
Rich
23. According to Betsy Taylor, what is being squeezed out by the world of kidsmarketing?
Their childhood
24. How do marketers communicate their messages and values to kids?
As boys and as girls
25. About what does Michael Rich worry concerning the sexualization ofyoung girls?
If they’re emotionally stable enough to go out in public and be looked at for what they are wearing
26. What happened when the movie studios tightened up on letting kids into Rmovies?
Sexual, drug, alcohol, tobacco, and profanity content were integrated much more into PG-13 movies.
27. According to Susan Linn what kinds of baby items are hard to find?
Baby paraphernalia that isn’t covered with advertisements or media characters
28. According to Michael Rich, what are parents told about not getting the new educational DVD’s?
They tell the parents if they don’t get these things there children will be behind
29. According to Michael Rich, what might be an effect of a lot of early mediaexposure?
It may change the way the brain develops
30. According to Michael Rich what is optimal for brain development in the first two years of life?
Face to face interaction and any interaction with any human beings is better than any educational dvd or tv show
31. According to Michael Rich what lays the foundation for all higher learning? Social dynamic. The bond and intimacy that occurs between a mother and child
32. What has happened to the amount of time spent in creative play by kids?
It has been declining dramatically over the past decade
33. According to Susan Linn, what kind of generation are we raising?
A generation of children who will never have the experience of entertaining themselves or having to calm themselves down
34. What are kids being told, when picking up stick and turning it into a wand is not enough?
That their imagination isn’t good enough
35. According to Nancy Carlsson-Paige, what fundamental message of kids marketing is really harmful and tragic?
The message of “I need something outside of myself in order to play.” It takes the play out of kids hands
36. According to Michael Brody, what has replaced the healthy child of sports,play and make-believe?
The sick child as a viewer consumer
37. According to Michael Brody, what is the difference between type 1 and type 2 Diabetes?
Diabetes from genetics VS diabetes from obesity and being overweight.
38. According to Juliet Schor, what is needed to make childhood healthy inthis country?
A government effort
39. What does Michael Brody say advertisers who hide behind the firstamendment are entitled to?
They’re entitled to the constitution but also they’re entitled to shame.
40. How does Susan Linn think we should look at the issue of kids marketing?
An issue of rights
Film: Deadly Persuasion – The Advertising of Tobacco and Alcohol
1. What are the most widely used and damaging drugs?
Alcohol and nicotine
2. Why do people often become defensive when alcohol and tobacco-related problems are discussed?
Some people see it as a threat to individual rights and freedom
3. How many people does nicotine kill a year?
Over 440,000 deaths a year
4. For every pack of cigarettes sold, what is the estimated cost to the US health care system?
Over $7 per pack
5. What is ironic about Marlboro cigarette ads’ attempt to link smoking tomasculinity?
Cigarettes are linked with lowering testosterone levels, sterility, and impotence.
6. Why did Marlboro shift from marketing itself as a woman’s cigarette to a men’s cigarette?
Because woman will use a product designed for men, but men won’t use a product designed for woman
7. What does the tobacco industry say the point of its advertising is?
To get adult smokers to switch brands
8. How many new smokers does the tobacco industry need every day to replace those who quit or die?
3,000 smokers a day
9. What percentage of smokers start before they’re 18?
90%
10. What theme is often used to sell cigarettes to young people?
Excitement and adventure
11. What are “pre-quitters”?
People who plan to quit
12. How does tobacco advertising play into the fact that smokers feel increasingly marginalized these days and on average feel powerless in society?
It makes smoking seem a statement of freedom and autonomy and independence. They can’t smoke in as many places as before
13. What has happened to the lung cancer rates of women over the past two decades?
Increased more than 400 %
14. What has been a longstanding theme of tobacco ads targeted at women?
Smoking is sexy and will make a woman more desirable. It will keep them slim and it is a beauty accessory
15. What is a key reason people have been denied important information aboutthe health effects of cigarettes and alcohol?
Censorship
16. What is our main form of alcohol education?
Advertising
17. Contrary to its glamorized image, in reality how is alcohol related to sex in negative ways?
Alcohol is related to STDs, rape, unwanted pregnancy, and sexual dysfunction
18. What do alcohol ads emphasize about women?
It turns the bottle into a woman and a woman into the bottle. Their bodies are increasingly connected to the ads
19. How do alcohol ads usually portray men?
Sexist jerks
20. What percentage of violent crime is linked to alcohol?
Over 50%
21. Why does the alcohol industry need to open up new markets?
Because over 1/3 of adult Americans do not drink
22. Why is alcohol consumption particularly dangerous for young women?
Alcoholism is more common to spread in woman than men. It increases risk of pregnancy complications and fertility problems, breast cancer, and depression. They are also the primary victims of sexual assault
23. What is the most widely used drug in America?
Beer: more specifically Budweiser
24. The alcohol industry targets college students with what goal in mind?
To have them develop habits and addictions that will stay with them for life
25. What statistic does Kilborne use to show how only a few people do most ofthe drinking on college campuses?
10% of the drinking population consumes over 60% of the alcohol consumption
26. What would “responsible drinking” do to the alcohol industry if it came tobe embraced en masse?
Alcohol industry sales would be cut by 80%
27. What must the alcohol industry do to keep high-risk drinkers drinking?
Advertise. To make the high risk drinker believe that he is ok
28. Who is the primary provider of educational messages about alcohol abuseon TV?
The alcohol industry
29. What is the usual focus of the alcohol industry’s prevention messages?
Drunk driving
30. Beyond products, what do the billions spent on advertising sell?
Attitudes