Entirely unashamed anti car propaganda, and the more the better.

[T & P]

I don't think many of the folk who enjoy these kind of adverts will have much chance of being swayed by the one above, though...

 

[teuchter]

Interesting bit of an interview with the designer of Sim City

Geoff Manaugh

: While you were making those measurements of different real-world cities, did you discover any surprising patterns or spatial relationships?

Librande: Yes, definitely. I think the biggest one was the parking lots. When I started measuring out our local grocery store, which I don't think of as being that big, I was blown away by how much more space was parking lot rather than actual store. That was kind of a problem, because we were originally just going to model real cities, but we quickly realized there were way too many parking lots in the real world and that our game was going to be really boring if it was proportional in terms of parking lots.


Manaugh: You would be making SimParkingLot, rather than SimCity.

Librande: [laughs] Exactly. So what we do in the game is that we just imagine they are underground. We do have parking lots in the game, and we do try to scale them -- so, if you have a little grocery store, we'll put six or seven parking spots on the side, and, if you have a big convention center or a big pro stadium, they'll have what seem like really big lots -- but they're nowhere near what a real grocery store or pro stadium would have. We had to do the best we could do and still make the game look attractive.

The Philosophy of SimCity: An Interview With the Game's Lead Designer

Stone Librande talks about parking lots, governing styles, and how Google Earth shaped the Sim's new world.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[two sheds]

Better car ad here

France bans Dutch bike TV ad for creating 'climate of fear' about cars

Ad for VanMoof bike unfairly discredits automobile industry, says watchdog

www.theguardian.com

 

[scifisam]

Another issue arising from car dependency and the associated assumptions is the effect on the building of infrastructure and how it favours motor vehicles over cyclists.

A simple example - the south London junction shown here has temporary traffic lights at the moment because there is construction work going on. The temporary lights for the northbound traffic have been positioned level with the start of the cycle box, i.e. level with the stop line for the cars. Accordingly if you are in the ASL box you cannot see when the lights change. I doubt the person setting up the lights deliberately chose to endanger cyclists; more likely they just didn't think at all because they are not a cyclist and are not properly trained to think about cyclists.

That is incredibly stupid. Either put the traffic lights further forward or, if that's not possible, put an ASL box behind the traffic lights. Tape put down on the road rather than repainting. If drivers can cope with temporary traffic lights they can cope with temporary ASL boxes.

Helmets are a stupid idea though. Drivers are generally at the least risk in collisions, aren't they? Yup, just checked.

If the idea is to require all passengers to wear helmets too, since they're at greater risk, then that's even more unworkable. Ill-fitting helmets would cause more injuries than they'd prevent.

 

[teuchter]

Better car ad here

France bans Dutch bike TV ad for creating 'climate of fear' about cars

Ad for VanMoof bike unfairly discredits automobile industry, says watchdog

www.theguardian.com

That's quite amazing. They are squeamish about the imagery of some smoking factory chimneys. I hope they take a balanced approach and also ban all car adverts that show them speeding along empty country roads, driving around on beaches and so on.

 

[two sheds]

driving around on beaches and so on.

Yes that's always annoyed me, cars have got no fucking place on beaches. Among other places they've got no fucking place on.

 

[Doodler]

What other product is depicted in adverts in a less realistic way than the car? Nearly always the car is shown in a narcissist's paradise of empty streets or on wilderness roads or salt flats, with no other vehicle in sight. Even Ferrero Rocher probably really have been served at an ambassador's party.

 

[platinumsage]

What other product is depicted in adverts in a less realistic way than the car? Nearly always the car is shown in a narcissist's paradise of empty streets or on wilderness roads or salt flats, with no other vehicle in sight. Even Ferrero Rocher probably really have been served at an ambassador's party.

Toilet paper, high street bank managers, Coca Cola.

 

[Doodler]

Toilet paper, high street bank managers, Coca Cola.

Toilet paper, out of 'taste and decency', like the blue liquid in tampon ads. Bank managers - depicted as recognisable human beings albeit strange and unctuous. Coca Cola - the ice cubes in the ads may be made of glass, but it is undoubtedly drunk in real life by skateboarders and foreign exchange students.

 

[Saul Goodman]

What other product is depicted in adverts in a less realistic way than the car?

You mean apart from almost every advert ever?

 

[Doodler]

You mean apart from almost every advert ever?

You're claiming car adverts are more realistic than other adverts? In which parallel universe?

 

[Saul Goodman]

You're claiming car adverts are more realistic than other adverts? In which parallel universe?

In the universe where you spray some Lynx into your armpits and you're suddenly surrounded by hundreds of horny women.
At least there's a chance of being on an empty road in a car.

 

[Doodler]

In the universe where you spray some Lynx into your armpits and you're suddenly surrounded by hundreds of horny women.

Your hopeful imagination is embellishing things. Lynx adverts use irony and humour so they don't appear too preposterous.

(Car adverts almost never use humour.)

 

[Saul Goodman]

Your hopeful imagination is embellishing things. Lynx adverts use irony and humour so they don't appear too preposterous.

(Car adverts almost never use humour.)

You need to move out of the city. I can get in my car now and find a 'car advert' road within 2 minutes. In fact, I have one right outside my front door.
Not everyone lives in London.

 

[Doodler]

You need to move out of the city. I can get in my car now and find a 'car advert' road within 2 minutes. In fact, I have one right outside my front door.
Not everyone lives in London.

I don't live in London. Congratulations on your dream home.

 

[Saul Goodman]

I don't live in London. Congratulations on your dream home.

It's not my dream home. Far from it. It just has an empty road outside, with a lovely tunnel of trees arching over the road. Nice, empty roads aren't unrealistic.

 

[Doodler]

It's not my dream home. Far from it. It just has an empty road outside, with a lovely tunnel of trees arching over the road. Nice, empty roads aren't unrealistic.

What percentage of car journeys in Britain take place on otherwise empty roads? Or on salt flats? Or in eerily deserted cities?

 

[Saul Goodman]

What percentage of car journeys in Britain take place on otherwise empty roads? Or on salt flats? Or in eerily deserted cities?

Ah, so we've've gone from it being completely unrealistic (in any part of the world), to it only being realistic some of the time, in Britain.

 

[platinumsage]

Why do adverts need to be realistic? Who smiles while going through a personal loan application in a bank branch? Which dogs bound in slow motion across a field every time you feed them?

Perhaps adverts should be renamed “manufacturer updates on new products introduced to the market which may be useful to you” and for cars could feature a specification sheet shown on the screen for three minutes while being read out by Jeremy Irons.

 

[Doodler]

Ah, so we've've gone from it being completely unrealistic (in any part of the world), to it only being realistic some of the time, in Britain.

Straw man. I never claimed that car ads were completely unrealistic, just that they were less realistic than other ads.

A better choice of words would have been 'divorced from reality' or 'less true to life' compared to other adverts.

The reality of driving in Britain is ludicrously different from the unobstructed, depopulated world depicted.

 

[Doodler]

Why do adverts need to be realistic? Who smiles while going through a personal loan application in a bank branch? Which dogs bound in slow motion across a field every time you feed them?

Perhaps adverts should be renamed “manufacturer updates on new products introduced to the market which may be useful to you” and for cars could feature a specification sheet shown on the screen for three minutes while being read out by Jeremy Irons.

I don't think they need to be anything except truthful about stated facts like fuel consumption. I find the adverts ludicrous. If people are taken in by them, that's their problem.

 

[T & P]

Advertising for many cars (in particular performance/ SUV types) can certainly be idealistic in the extreme, and promote fun and adventure as much as the tight rules governing car advertising will allow, which is not a lot.

But not all car advertising is like that. Plenty of adverts for some models focus solely or mostly on the vehicle’s safety features, which is a major selling point for a great many drivers. Other advertise the alleged superior engineering quality and reliability of their products. Others their affordability. By no means all car advertising is geared towards performance, speed or adventure.

Banning that bicycle advert is fucking ludicrous though

 

[teuchter]

Ideally car adverts would just be banned altogether, like adverts for cigarettes. I think we can all agree that no one can plausibly argue that cars are less harmful than cigarettes.

 

[Spymaster]

I think we can all agree that no one can plausibly argue that cars are less harmful than cigarettes.

Difficult to make meaningful comparisons really. I think we can all agree that most V8 Jags are more harmful than a packet of Silk Cut Blue but where do we stand on something a bit more complicated such as Capstan Full Strength v Nissan Micra?

 

[Teaboy]

Difficult to make meaningful comparisons really. I think we can all agree that most V8 Jags are more harmful than a packet of Silk Cut Blue but where do we stand on something a bit more complicated such as Capstan Full Strength v Nissan Micra?

Is the micra an auto (what a car by the way)? Fuel consumption was never great on them. Do they still sell Senior Service tabs?

 

[Saul Goodman]

Difficult to make meaningful comparisons really. I think we can all agree that most V8 Jags are more harmful than a packet of Silk Cut Blue but where do we stand on something a bit more complicated such as Capstan Full Strength v Nissan Micra?

Or a Rollie vs a Roller.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Straw man. I never claimed that car ads were completely unrealistic, just that they were less realistic than other ads.

A better choice of words would have been 'divorced from reality' or 'less true to life' compared to other adverts.

The reality of driving in Britain is ludicrously different from the unobstructed, depopulated world depicted.

Advertisement:

Not an advertisement:

 

[Doodler]

Advertisement:

Not an advertisement:

Burger photography is a minor artform.

 

[Orang Utan]

Burger photography is a minor artform.

A friend of mine makes his living doing that (well, not just burgers, but food)

 

[Doodler]

A friend of mine makes his living doing that (well, not just burgers, but food)

There must be all sorts of little tricks and trade secrets involved. Funny when restaurants have a go at taking their own food photos for their menus, usually doesnt turn out very well.