An Open Letter to Subaru of New York
---
Dear Subaru of New York:
For several weeks now, you have been running, ad nauseum, a series of radio ads touting the superiority of your vehicles during New York winters.
Perhaps your vehicles are indeed superior, in terms of handling in winter conditions, fuel economy, comfort, etc. I neither know nor care.
What I care about is that you end every commercial with the following abomination:
"Fuel economy is more important than comfort" is an opinion. "Pink is a stupid color for a car" is an opinion. "People who buy foreign cars are unpatriotic" is an opinion.
"Subaru is the official car of New York" is not, and under no circumstances can ever be, an opinion.
Please change your scripts accordingly. Thank you.
---
Of course, what doubtless is occurring here is that either Subaru of New York, or the City of New York, or both, were unwilling to negotiate a marketing agreement in which Subaru would indeed be declared "the official car of New York." Which at first glance seems odd: it's not like New York City has been unwilling to prostitute itself in this manner in the past — and in a far more controversial context than automobiles.
I wonder whether (indeed I strongly suspect that) Subaru reached out to the city and was rebuked, most likely because it's a foreign manufacturer.* It's no coincidence that almost every police car in America is made in America.
(*Subaru has one assembly plant in Indiana, but it is a Japanese company owned in part by Toyota.)
---
Meanwhile:
And what was I just saying about "politically favored"?
(Via Lowering the Bar.)
For several weeks now, you have been running, ad nauseum, a series of radio ads touting the superiority of your vehicles during New York winters.
Perhaps your vehicles are indeed superior, in terms of handling in winter conditions, fuel economy, comfort, etc. I neither know nor care.
What I care about is that you end every commercial with the following abomination:
"That's why, in our opinion, Subaru is the official car of New York."The hypothesis "Subaru is the official car of New York" is a discrete, binary, objective concept. It either is or is not true. There is no room for "opinion." Do, or do not — there is no opine.
"Fuel economy is more important than comfort" is an opinion. "Pink is a stupid color for a car" is an opinion. "People who buy foreign cars are unpatriotic" is an opinion.
"Subaru is the official car of New York" is not, and under no circumstances can ever be, an opinion.
Please change your scripts accordingly. Thank you.
---
Of course, what doubtless is occurring here is that either Subaru of New York, or the City of New York, or both, were unwilling to negotiate a marketing agreement in which Subaru would indeed be declared "the official car of New York." Which at first glance seems odd: it's not like New York City has been unwilling to prostitute itself in this manner in the past — and in a far more controversial context than automobiles.
I wonder whether (indeed I strongly suspect that) Subaru reached out to the city and was rebuked, most likely because it's a foreign manufacturer.* It's no coincidence that almost every police car in America is made in America.
(*Subaru has one assembly plant in Indiana, but it is a Japanese company owned in part by Toyota.)
---
Meanwhile:
[A measure] would salute The Colonel's fried chicken as Kentucky's official picnic food.Of course, it is never a proper function of government to help one politically favored company "market the product" (i.e., compete against alternatives). (And KFC's parent company, YUM! Brands, doesn't appear even to have had to pay any rent-seeking to this activist hillbilly legislature. Go figure.)
State Rep. Charles Siler is sponsoring legislation to honor the late Col. Harland Sanders, the Kentuckian who founded the fried chicken chain that now has 11,000 restaurants in more than 80 countries. The bill singles out KFC's "finger lickin' good" original recipe, which Sanders first served in a Corbin restaurant in 1940, for the designation.
The Colonel's fried chicken deserves the title, Siler said, because of the worldwide attention and the economic benefit it has brought to the state. By approving the bill, he said, the legislature would be helping Louisville-based KFC to market the product.
And what was I just saying about "politically favored"?
The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals contends, however, that KFC chickens are abused, even tortured.No doubt the War on Obesity types will also weigh in (no pun intended); cf. this previous post.
...
PETA has been involved in a longstanding battle with KFC, and even began a push two years ago to have a bust of Colonel Sanders removed from the Capitol. Sanders became recognizable worldwide after he began marketing his fried chicken.
(Via Lowering the Bar.)
Posted by Kip on
24 February 2008
To comment on this post, please visit the new blogsite.