Fantasy ads and grim reality
With Thailand’s outrageous per-capita road death toll each year, it is time that car manufacturers did a reality check on their television advertising.
The fact is that many of the ads are total fantasies of photoshopped montages showing their cars being driven at excessive speeds through the most dangerous conditions.
One ad in particular from a well-known brand of pickup shows it being driven at insane speed through a huge mining quarry. The car speeds down cliff-top gravel roads, just manages to duck under the descending shovel of a monstrous earthmover, and escapes the cliff top being detonated with a shower of rocks and earth cascading down on it. In the meantime it does several leaps in the air with all four wheels a metre clear of terra firma.
You and I know that this is sheer fantasy. But just what impression are the manufacturers of this car trying to create with less discerning potential customers?
Is it any wonder that so many people believe they can get behind the wheel of a car and act so irresponsibly and with no care or concern for other road users?
David Brown
Rayong
