{"id":79,"date":"2007-10-16T11:26:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-16T16:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/suv-buyers\/"},"modified":"2007-10-16T11:26:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-16T16:26:00","slug":"suv-buyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/2007\/10\/16\/suv-buyers\/","title":{"rendered":"SUV buyers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span lang=\"EN-CA\">Who are SUV buyers? Based on large scale market surveys performed yearly for the automobile industry, Keith Bradsher describes them as having little self-confidence and being conceited. They are often insecure about their marriage and uncomfortable with parenthood. They often lack assurance in their driving abilities. They are above all \u201cself-centered\u201d and \u201cself-absorbed\u201d, with little interest for their neighbours and communities (<\/span><span lang=\"EN-CA\">K. Bradsher, <i>High and Mighty, SUVs \u2013 The world\u2019s most dangerous vehicles and how they got that way<\/i>, New York, Public Affairs, 2002, p. 101.)<span><\/span><\/span>  <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\">It would thus be the survival instinct and <a href=\"http:\/\/benoit-consumption.blogspot.com\/2007\/09\/expects-revisited.html\">expects<\/a> for maximum safety without consideration for consequences to others that drive people to prefer SUVs, especially the Hummer whose military origin confers a particularly robust image. The vehicle\u2019s disproportionate size, particularly in the case of the Hummer H2, also allows those driving it to literally and figuratively dominate the road. Now, in <span>\u00ab Consommation et luxe, <i>La voie de l\u2019exc\u00e8s et de l\u2019illusion <\/i>\u00bb (Consumption and luxury, <i>The way to excess and illusion<\/i> &#8211; in libraries November 13, in French only for the time being) <\/span>I mention the fact that one finds in luxury a desire to dominate others, making the Hummer an object of power.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-CA\">Advertising for the Hummer contributes to create this feeling of domination by putting greater emphasis on the vehicle\u2019s warrior image. Upon entering the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gmcanada.com\/gm\/english\/vehicles\/hummer\/\">Hummer\u2019s home page<\/a> <\/span><span lang=\"EN-CA\">(Hummer\u2019s English version of the Canadian Web site, consulted August 15 2007)<\/span><span lang=\"EN-CA\">, you are presented with a cloud of black smoke very suggestive of a battlefield, behind which hides the new Hummer H3 Limited Edition, and the slogan \u201cMove in for the thrill\u201d; this is a very aggressive pun on the expression \u201cMove in for the kill\u201d , which implies killing an enemy. Another advertising line \u201c<span>48 units are now standing by<\/span>\u201d reinforces the vehicle\u2019s militaristic image. Advertising being a major cultural influence, should one be surprised to occasionally meet a somewhat aggressive Hummer driver? In such a case, <a href=\"http:\/\/benoit-consumption.blogspot.com\/2007\/10\/hummer-vs-mini.html\">Rapaille<\/a> may be right; the reptilian brain dominates, wild instinct supersedes reason and emotions.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who are SUV buyers? Based on large scale market surveys performed yearly for the automobile industry, Keith Bradsher describes them as having little self-confidence and being conceited. They are often insecure about their marriage and uncomfortable with parenthood. They often lack assurance in their driving abilities. They are above all \u201cself-centered\u201d and \u201cself-absorbed\u201d, with little [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}