3 ms·

> now often deliberately designed and advertised for their ability to cause harm. I think you are taking a pretty biased reading into the commercials you've re

> now often deliberately designed and advertised for their ability to cause harm. I think you are taking a pretty biased reading into the commercials you've referenced. Nearly every example provided in the subthreads is promoting the idea of the car representing performance and aggression, which are standard rhetoric for marketing high-performance/sports vehicles, which tend to be bought by men and tend to be bought by people who modify them for off-road (race track) usage. There is definitely a fair argument to be made that these advertisements are inappropriate since they show people doing things on public streets which would be illegal if it weren't a closed course, and a fine print disclaimer isn't really sufficient. But to claim that they are /designed/ and advertised for their /ability to cause harm/ is a bit far based on the examples provided. The reality is that vehicles are definitely categorized and marketed for different purposes and driver personality profiles, and that one of those profiles is definitely a masculine profile, and the mere existence of this is not harmful to non-masculine people which seems to be the argument you are making. There are just as many (actually much more popular) vehicles marketed to non-masculine profiles. In fact, one of the things I like to do with my partner is to discuss whether a commercial was targeted at me or them when we get commercials on Hulu. A lot of the commercials are for cars, despite neither of us looking to buy a car anytime soon.

pc86 5y ago
> standard rhetoric for marketing high-performance/sports vehicles, which tend to be bought by men and tend to be bought by people who modify them for off-road (race track) usage. The number of people tracking vehicles is so incredibly small that I don't think you can say any vehicle in mass production "tends to be" bought by those who would do it.
- tristor 5y ago
  Depends on what you mean by "mass production". Most of these high performance vehicles are small volume production for major brands and are sold often at a loss as halo cars to improve brand image so they don't appear boring. Look at the Toyota 86 as an example, there are multiple entire spec series and spec classes built around this chassis in different racing organizations around the world. At the same time, this car that's been produced since 2012 and is still in production has a total global sales volume over its entire lifespan and its siblings (FRS, BRZ) that is less than 1/10th of the the sales volume of Camry for a single calendar year just in the US. But unlike Camry, I would hazard the guess that at least 1/4th of all the FRS/86/BRZ sold will see track time before they end up in a scrap yard (maybe not with the original owner, though).
jfrunyon 5y ago
> people who modify them for off-road (race track) usage. LOL! Surely you don't actually think that, right? There are far, FAR more "performance" vehicles on the road than on race tracks.

pc86 5y ago

> standard rhetoric for marketing high-performance/sports vehicles, which tend to be bought by men and tend to be bought by people who modify them for off-road (race track) usage. The number of people tracking vehicles is so incredibly small that I don't think you can say any vehicle in mass production "tends to be" bought by those who would do it.

tristor 5y ago
Depends on what you mean by "mass production". Most of these high performance vehicles are small volume production for major brands and are sold often at a loss as halo cars to improve brand image so they don't appear boring. Look at the Toyota 86 as an example, there are multiple entire spec series and spec classes built around this chassis in different racing organizations around the world. At the same time, this car that's been produced since 2012 and is still in production has a total global sales volume over its entire lifespan and its siblings (FRS, BRZ) that is less than 1/10th of the the sales volume of Camry for a single calendar year just in the US. But unlike Camry, I would hazard the guess that at least 1/4th of all the FRS/86/BRZ sold will see track time before they end up in a scrap yard (maybe not with the original owner, though).

jfrunyon 5y ago

> people who modify them for off-road (race track) usage. LOL! Surely you don't actually think that, right? There are far, FAR more "performance" vehicles on the road than on race tracks.