Got a moment?

One car lover gets emotional

STEVE SILVA VOLUNTEER STAFF

Thousands of Winnipeggers such as myself share one passion: cars. Not just the automobiles themselves, but also the experiences they generate. This passion defies culture, background, age and social status. Don’t believe me? Well, next time you’re at a car show note how the 55-year-old Ferrari owners break bread with the 20-year-old Civic owners. It’s a beautiful thing.

Being as passionate as I am about cars, I was quite shocked to see a Manitoban writer belittle a Lexus advertisement for its perceived lack of content in a recent feature, entitled “Puppies are cute, buy a car: nonsense and distraction in advertising” (Oct. 25) by Brendan Cathcart. The point of the feature was that the Lexus ad was premised on showing “life’s moments, the kind you recognize as having contributed to who you consider yourself to be” throughout the ad, such as festive occasions, then ending with the tagline “moments can define you, moments can delight you, and moments can change your life, here’s to the moment, and squeezing all you can out of every single last one of them.” The outrage was at the apparent use of manipulative association between life’s greatest moments and driving a car. He accused the ad of “employing associations that have nothing to do with driving.”

For an enthusiast, these special life moments and driving are one in the same, often times directly correlated with each other. The following is an explanation for those who are not enthusiasts and didn’t “get” the ad. It’s also for all die-hard enthusiasts who know their rides are more than just glass and steel.

Suggesting that cars have no emotional influence and they’re just for transportation is equivalent to equating sex with mere reproduction. Accusing the commercial of being void of logic is wrong and I take serious offence to it. The ad makes all the sense in the world to someone who it was geared towards. Why get angry at something or judge it because you don’t understand it? I don’t get tofu, I admit I don’t understand enough about it, and yes I poke fun at its seemingly pointless existence, but I wouldn’t scold marketers for trying to advertise it to me. I figure if a commercial selling tofu aired it would be implied to have a “to whom it may concern” application to whoever was watching. Since it doesn’t apply to me, I would ignore the ad and grab a brew.

Yes, this Lexus ad was about emotion, because that’s what our cars possess. If you’re paying the price of a house for a car you better expect more than just soft leather for your ass and an engine with more horses than a ranch. What you want is an experience and an intimate relationship transcending a simple commute to work. The team behind this ad, I would argue, is an incredibly knowledgeable bunch. Yes the ad does draw you in by tapping into your emotions, but that is the whole point. A true car person knows emotions and life are one entity; all the ad did was build upon this fact.

The cars enthusiasts drive and buy are not your average vehicles; they are designed to tap into your emotions and be a part of who you are and the things you do. That’s why engineers spend thousands of hours designing and planning these rides, why they cost what they do, and the reason some guys dump even more money into their cars — because it just isn’t enough.

Now I’m not just defending Lexus here, nor am I implying that they are the best company out there. What I am saying is Lexus, and other car companies, have the formula for what enthusiasts want down. If you’ve ever driven an IS300 or the new GS450H (which has almost as much power as a Dodge Viper yet is environmentally friendly in that it’s also a hybrid, getting the same mileage as a small car), you know what I am talking about.

However, I understand that Lexus is out to make money — all businesses are. What’s wrong with advertising a product in a way that you know will reach the targeted audience? Indeed, Cathcart’s opinions on the ad were such because he wasn’t part of the target audience it was intended for. I understood the ad, as did everyone else that I know that shares the same passion.

There was an obvious over-simplification of the ad and it was sad to see someone with a lack of information and knowledge on a subject attack it so vigorously. I would be happy to sit down with anyone to further explain my point so the ad no longer seems to be absurd, manipulative, and random.

Chances are all this talk about passion and automobiles still won’t make sense to nonenthusiasts, but go ahead — let it sink in, give it a moment.

Steve Silva writes regularly for the Manitoban in his column “The Garage,” normally found in the Culture section.