A new set of advertisements attacking Detroit car makers for failing to deliver more fuel-efficient vehicles is sure to revive the debate over fuel economy and national security, the Detroit News said.
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The television commercials, beginning today in Detroit and seven other US cities, argue that the vehicle industry’s failure to produce a 40 mpg SUV has increased American dependence on foreign oil, the paper said.
The Detroit News said the campaign is the latest salvo in an increasingly media-oriented drive by environmental and religious groups to change the politics of fuel economy.
One set of ads appearing last winter asked, “What Would Jesus Drive?” casting vehicle choice in moral terms. Another set of ads, conceived by newspaper columnist Arianna Huffington, made a satirical connection between owning an SUV and helping terrorists in the Middle East, the newspaper noted.
The Detroit News said the new ads are sponsored by Huffington’s Detroit Project and the Natural Resources Defence Council. They are a parody of car ads, highlighting features the groups say vehicle makers won’t put into cars on the market.
“Detroit should be able to put on the road any kind of car the consumer wants and make it fuel efficient,” Huffington told the Detroit News.
According to the paper, in the new spot, the camera pans over a desert and then circles around an SUV wrapped in a billowing satin sheet. A narrator says: “It can take America to work in the morning without sending it to war in the afternoon. With a sophisticated braking system that stops our dependence on foreign oil. It gets 40 miles to every gallon, with thousands of dollars saved at the pump.”
The Detroit News added that, as the satin sheet pulls away, revealing an empty space, the narrator continues: “The only problem is Detroit won’t build it.”
According to the paper, the groups said they were airing the ads to spur lawmakers in Washington to include a fuel economy provision in an energy bill the Senate is debating this week.
Eron Shosteck, spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, told the Detroit News the ads ignore the fact that vehicle makers already offer numerous models with high fuel economy.
