Escape the shame of it all, with the Ford Escape

Another week, another commercial, another ploy, that makes me wanna puke.

This commercial is pushing the green movement into a rarely tapped area of advertising: parental shame. (And quite frankly, it's about time American kids start pressuring their parents into a more earth-friendly materialistic lifestyle.)

Hybrid SUV Commercial
Uploaded by maxsilvestri

That's right, you saw it too. Little girl unknowingly gets into her Dad's hybrid SUV, while backhandedly implying that she doesn't want to be seen with him in this particular part of town. Why? Because of the family's poor standing as environmentally conscious people. And because those people in that part of town, they only drive drive hybrids and bikes. YIkes.

I have a few thoughts about this.
- This could be one of the very first recorded case of what I see as a growing silent epidemic in this country-- the green discrimination. Luckily for this father, he had the foresight to buy a hybrid vehicle, but for those dads that didn't, they surely will face the wrath of a highly green and therefore very violent segment of society. What's a dad to do when his old earth-indifferent ways casts him and his family in the abysmal shame of a non-green class? He should try to get out, that's what. He should try to move on up, to the green side, and get himself a hybrid. Because, of course, to solve the global problem we should buy still, just buy more consciously.

What's going on? White suburbia people ain't got no where to go anymore. Can't go to the bad part of town with minorities, can't go to the yuppish part of town because of "liberals". Maybe the solution for them is to stay at home and watch more TV commercials.

- What ever happen to lying? Have kids today lost that altogether? When we were kids and embarrassed about something involving our parents, we would just lie.
Q: "Hey, is your dad drunk?"
L: "Naw.He's just happy."
Q: "Hey, is your mom wearing a halter-top?"
L: "Naw.We just donated all our clothes."
Q: "Hey, is your dad SUV an environmentally sound hybrid?"
L: "Hell yeah. We claim green."

- This commercial is just one of the many that tries to popularize the Green movement. You see it everywhere, and yes, it's damn important that we try to save this planet. But it bugs me we're always taught that to save this planet we have to buy everything anew.There's a paradox to this: although the economy needs constant consumers consuming to sustain, the earth doesn't, in fact, increased production to meet the demands of the consumers only leads to... more pollution! That's just fact, anything that needs to be made (from toilet paper to hybrid cars) needs energy in its creation. Conservatism of natural resources is never stressed in our green craze.

In many ways, this girl represents a large majority of this movement. Hardly well-informed, she,nonetheless, knows it's cool to be green, or at least, knows it's shameful to not be. Luckily, everyone works out in the end for the little environmentalist when she becomes aware that the very car she is sitting in is indeed a hybrid. The father is resound in his coolness (nothing to be shame about, he's a greeny), the TWO pull out of the driveway in their fuel-efficient SUV for SEVEN, and help to create a better world.

Yak.