My Daily Driver



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by Mike Furtado
Copyright (c), 2003, My Daily Driver -- All Rights Reserved

Have you seen a television commercial for a new car lately? You probably have. Have you seen any that weren't playing some classic rock riff in the background? Probably not. Do you recall what band is selling which car? I didn't think so. It doesn't really matter. Are you going to the showroom to buy a new car because they played your favorite old song in their commercial? No. And if you are, I have a great old record collection and a bunch of stuff I'd like to sell, c'mon over and bring your wallet! And yes, I said record collection.

Modern cars and classic rock 'n roll. What are they trying to tell us? That music moves us (well, most of us.) Their cars "move" us in a different way. Mainly from point A to point B. There isn't much of any excitement in the low-to-medium price car market today. So the auto manufacturers spend millions of dollars to play us our favorite songs and hope the feeling we get from the music will transfer itself to the cars they want to sell us. I suppose there must be some truth to it. Besides the ridiculous amount of money these companies must have paid the bands for the rights to use the songs, they certainly spent a similar amount of money to come up with the idea. They pay people who make up words like "Structurized Market-techture". The same bunch of folks who lust after the same freak-mobiles they're trying to sell.

While classic music is making its way into new car advertising in a big way, classic styling is barely peeking into new car design. The average-priced new car today is typically a weak machine with little style. Has anyone else noticed the massive proliferation of "bubble" cars on the road today? I don't even see their details anymore, they're just bulbous objects in the road that it's my job to avoid. And why does it seem that their collective job is to crash into MY thirty-year-old car? Maybe they're all too busy listening to classic rock to pay attention to the other cars on the road.

Aerosmith Dodge

There are a few notable exceptions to the bubble-car rule. The Chrysler Prowler is a fun looking car. The Chrysler PT Cruiser has its points. The new Thunderbird is a great re-introduction of a classic. I am NOT a Ford fan personally, but way to go on that T-Bird! I don't know what kind of real financial success these projects have been for the manufacturers, but that will surely tell their future.

So we have some auto manufacturers that recognize our love for our music, and some that are starting to test us to see if we'll love that style in our new cars. If someone at the top of one of the "Big 3" would consider all this, maybe they could take that money back from the old bands and spend it building cars we would actually want to buy, regardless of the songs they play in their advertising.

It seems so perfect that as I write this there is a commercial playing on CNN for a new Cadillac. Led Zeppelins classic "Rock and Roll" is playing loud and proud. I still don't want a new Cadillac. I'm sure it's a wonderful car, a marvel of modern automotive technology. Yawn. GM is offering us a 24-hour test drive on new vehicles. "Let me sleep on it..." Meatloafs Paradise by the Dashboard Light from his hit record (there it is again) Bat Out of Hell is the only sound in the whole commercial. "I call that a bargain..." The Who is selling us a Nissan, of all things. Nissan is hoping we'll think that Roger Daltry is really telling us that his Sentra hatch-back is "The best I've ever had..." So what was Hyundai thinking when they approved their new commercial with the highly identifiable flute riff from Jethro Tulls "Thick as a Brick" playing in the background? I think that's a classic Freudian slip.

And haven't Chevy trucks been "Like a Rock" for a long time? I wonder if they're still paying Bob Seger for that one? GM is big on this band-wagon (I put a quarter in the pun jar), they also use REO Speedwagons "Roll with the Changes" Every year around new model roll out time. It seems like a perfect fit, doesn't it? Again I ask, what was Hyundai thinking? We don't have to wonder at all what Aerosmith was thinking when they toured the whole country with giant Dodge truck banners all around their stage. That must have cost old Daimler a hefty sum.

Yep, they've got me pegged. The auto manufacturers have spent millions of dollars to play my favorite songs in their commercials. I especially love to hear them when I'm flying down the highway in my 30 year old Plymouth!

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