Strelnikov
4th Level Red Feather
- Joined
- May 7, 2001
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From Dilbert Newsletter 46.0, 5 Feb 2003
by Scott Adams
Did you ever wonder why fuel-efficient cars are always designed to look like lunch boxes or deodorant cans? I'm no expert on car design, but it seems to me that an attractive "shape" wouldn't cost a manufacturer extra. So why are all the cars that are friendly to the environment practically bristling with the subliminal message "DORK ON BOARD"?
Answer: Marketing!
Carmakers want to discourage people from buying cars that have high gas mileage and low profit margins. If you're foolish enough to cross them and buy a planet-saver anyway, automakers are going to exact some revenge by making sure you have no chance whatsoever of procreating.
Normally I would applaud the spunky -- dare I say Dogbertian? -- attitude of the world's carmakers. But these aren't normal times. There's a school of thought that if we use less fuel, we'll be safer from terrorist threats.
I'm not convinced that oil is the problem. I'm pretty sure we could fly over the Middle East and drop bags of money and they'd still want to kill us for blocking the view. But I digress.
The point is that carmakers could easily make a fuel-efficient hybrid car that looks great and doesn't cost more to manufacture than an ugly one. However, thanks to marketing, that ain't gonna happen.
And so, as I have often predicted, marketing will be the death of us all. Our only hope is that our pollution kills the terrorists.
Strelnikov
by Scott Adams
Did you ever wonder why fuel-efficient cars are always designed to look like lunch boxes or deodorant cans? I'm no expert on car design, but it seems to me that an attractive "shape" wouldn't cost a manufacturer extra. So why are all the cars that are friendly to the environment practically bristling with the subliminal message "DORK ON BOARD"?
Answer: Marketing!
Carmakers want to discourage people from buying cars that have high gas mileage and low profit margins. If you're foolish enough to cross them and buy a planet-saver anyway, automakers are going to exact some revenge by making sure you have no chance whatsoever of procreating.
Normally I would applaud the spunky -- dare I say Dogbertian? -- attitude of the world's carmakers. But these aren't normal times. There's a school of thought that if we use less fuel, we'll be safer from terrorist threats.
I'm not convinced that oil is the problem. I'm pretty sure we could fly over the Middle East and drop bags of money and they'd still want to kill us for blocking the view. But I digress.
The point is that carmakers could easily make a fuel-efficient hybrid car that looks great and doesn't cost more to manufacture than an ugly one. However, thanks to marketing, that ain't gonna happen.
And so, as I have often predicted, marketing will be the death of us all. Our only hope is that our pollution kills the terrorists.
Strelnikov
