I don’t think this is any way to sell an automobile, but if they think it is, fine. You may have seen this ad, where some rich executive guy is driving down a conspicuously empty highway in his BMW 5 Series sedan. Well, it isn’t long before we find out why the highway is so empty: it keeps getting buzzed by drunk pilots in 767s who try to pour jet fuel all over whoever is dumb enough to be driving there! But not to worry: this guy is rich, plus he’s driving a BMW 5 Series, so the pilots know he’s rich, and his lawyer will make them pay dearly if they hurt or inconvenience this guy! So what they do is, they just pour a little bit of the fuel into his coffee cup. And then, just to show this BMW driver has no respect for the law, the ad shows the jet airplane falling behind the car! So he’s driving like, what, 500 miles-per-hour? Wow, that would be an expensive ticket! (If the California police actually ticketed rich people in nice cars, that is. Which they don’t.)
Now look, I think I understand what the ad people were getting at with this spot for BMW. It’s the idea that this car has such great fuel economy, whenever you get buzzed on the freeway by guys in those huge refueling jets like from Dr. Strangelove, you’ll only need to get your coffee cup filled up. Does that sound like I’ve just about summed it up? Well, maybe fuel economy is important to you, but if the car gets rid of the gas tank and requires the driver to have to drink the fuel instead, I don’t think it’s that great of a deal for anyone. Who cares about pollution or gas prices when you’re being poisoned to death by your car’s requirement that you have to drink the gas for it? But perhaps this is what makes this car have such a positive impact on the environment: it tricks rich jerks who usually drive those gas-guzzlers and act like they own the road into buying a car that will kill them and rid the world of their irresponsible driving behavior. So maybe it’s not such a bad idea after all.
Here is a link to the ad (See if you don’t feel like I did after viewing it.):
