Anyone who has watched TV in the US recently surely has seen that 45-55-year-old blonde woman in black clothes walking towards the camera and heaping compliments on the oil industry. I used to wonder why they would have chosen such a, shall we say, “middle-aged” woman to shill for the oil industry, but I think I have it figured out now: they know they can’t reach young people, so they’re trying to win over the older people!
Oh, and I almost forgot: they have given up on women too; that’s why there’s just this one woman in the ads, and no David Hasselhoff.
So here’s my theory on this spokeswoman choice: they are looking for what is known (by me) as “the Sarah Palin effect”. Yes, that’s when you get a middle-aged attractive woman who is shilling for big business and oil stuff to melt the hearts of older conservative men. Then they will fall in love, and then they’ll go out and do ideological battle for the petroleum cartel. You see, the oil industry realizes that young people are a lost cause: they’ll have to grow up in a polluted world, and they’re all into renewable energy and other hippie stuff. That’s why it’s no use trying to talk to them, and so they got a spokeswoman who is more like their mom. Or their cute aunt. Or whatever. These women will only connect with their dads, but guess what dad can do? He hands out the allowance. He pays for college. He gets them a car when they’re 16 (or not). But you get the idea. (Please forget for the moment that many more women are currently working than men, and that a lot more men are currently unemployed, okay? Thanks.) So if the oil companies can win the dads over, then the dads can use that leverage to browbeat their young liberal kids into listening to oil company propaganda every time they want something.
Sound like a good idea? No? Well, as far as the information war is concerned, it’s about all they’ve got. So I guess it’s better than nothing, from their perspective.
