Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: In the Weeds
Episode: Using Wilderness to Sell Cars
Description: Since the 1990s, we’ve been seeing the same kind of commercials: sweeping vistas of the American wilderness, forests and clear streams, rocky ledges, perhaps a dusting of snow. And, cutting through the landscape, a jeep or an SUV. No other cars in sight. Such a vision would seem to be fraught with contractions. For starters, this is not how most of us experience driving. Where we experience roads and traffic, SUV ads give us off-roading in beautiful country, using nature to sell technology. And, yet, these ads are clearly effective.I discuss these fantasies of...