Want Safer Streets? Start Regulating Car Commercials. – Bloomberg
What if car companies were banned from boasting their trucks can “conquer,” “intimidate” and “thrill”?
August 4, 2021,
A few months ago, Dodge posted tweet: “Fill in the blank. More horsepower means more _____.”
The U.S. Twitterverse immediately responded with the reality of living in a country where traffic crashes kill nearly 40,000 and injure over four million people every year:
“More horsepower means more dead kids.”
“More horsepower means more dead pedestrians.”
“More horsepower means more dead cyclists.”
Dodge removed the tweet. But bragging about horsepower was not a one-off error of judgment. Rather, marketing speed, power and reckless driving as a selling point for cars is part of a longstanding advertising tradition for automakers who, in 2018, spent more than $35 billion on advertising.
