Happy-Face Totalitarian Commercials

The Atlas Society - The Center for Objectivism ^ | February 10, 2010 | Edward Hudgins

[Ed Hudgins]

Three recent TV ads get our attention with totalitarianism. They do so to different degrees and in different ways. And they certainly are barometers of the shift in the popular culture in this once-free country.

Green Police

The first was the “Green Police” advertisement for Audi that was broadcast during this year’s Super Bowl. It starts with a clerk asking a customer that standard question, “Paper or plastic?” When the customer answers the latter, Green Police swoop in and cuff him with the words, “You picked the wrong day to mess with the eco-system.” A man is asked by the eco-cops whether he installed the lights on his house; next we see them hauling him away as a news reporter announces that “a man has just been arrested for possession of an incandescent lightbulb.” Another jackbooter empties illegal plastic water bottles and a bather is dragged out of his hot tub for having the temperature too high.

As Green Police on Segways man a roadblock, they allow the guy in the Audi to drive on through because he has a “clean diesel” car.

The ad does get our attention, as is its goal. But does it suggest that an Al Gore Gestapo is a good thing? And what the hell were the Audi folks thinking?

Perhaps the ad’s authors were hoping with this subject matter to catch the PR lightning of the now-legendary Apple computer commercial that aired during the 1984 Super Bowl. In that ad we see an auditorium with Big Brother on a giant screen haranguing a cowering crowd of identically uniformed prisoners. A beautiful female runner jogs into the hall and hurls a huge hammer at the screen, destroying it and freeing the inmates from the tyranny of IBM as imagined by Steve Jobs.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

I love how they liberals are all chiming in with, "but the ad was a parody." or comparisons to the Apple ad. B.S. The message sent at the end wasn't one of mocking the facism of these green police policies that are creeping into our laws, but that if you drive a Audi TD, you've accepted the green police facism and passed their test.

Audi and the advertising people knew full well the message they were trying to promote. They knew exactly what they were doing. Bring attention to the brand at any cost. The "Madonna" mantra of any publicity, even bad publicity, is good for your career.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Now that would of made a great superbowl ad.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I hope that some, any conservative with some dollars takes that Green Police ad and runs with it. It is ripe for devastating parody.

Give the Green Police truncheons, and show them attacking voters who “vote the wrong way”.

Show Green Police injecting elderly people with a poisonous cocktail, because “You are no longer useful members of society”.

Show Green Police taking handcuffed women to an abortion center for forced abortions.

Green Police in classrooms teaching classes, with students wearing children’s Green Police school uniforms.

Show Green Police internment and reeducation camps.

[GailA]

I can't imagine the work it took to pull this off turn up your sound: Born Again American

http://www.bornagainamerican.org/index.html

[ASOC]

LOL

I run the ad on video with the sound playing “We’re not going to take it” by Twisted Sister... Go Dee!