TV Ads Say S.U.V. Owners Support Terrorists

New York Times ^ | 1/07/03 | KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

[kattracks]

ASHINGTON, Jan. 7 — Ratcheting up the debate over sport utility vehicles, new television commercials suggest that people who buy the vehicles are supporting terrorists. The commercials are so provocative that some television stations are refusing to run them.

Patterned after the commercials that try to discourage drug use by suggesting that profits from illegal drugs go to terrorists, the new commercials say that money for gas needed for S.U.V.'s goes to terrorists.

"This is George," a girl's voice says of an oblivious man at a gas station. "This is the gas that George bought for his S.U.V." The screen then shows a map of the Middle East. "These are the countries where the executives bought the oil that made the gas that George bought for his S.U.V." The picture switches to a scene of armed terrorists in a desert. "And these are the terrorists who get money from those countries every time George fills up his S.U.V."

A second commercial depicts a series of ordinary Americans saying things like: "I helped hijack an airplane"; "I gave money to a terrorist training camp in a foreign country"; "What if I need to go off-road?"

At the close, the screen is filled with the words: "What is your S.U.V. doing to our national security?"

The two 30-second commercials are the brainchild of the author and columnist Arianna Huffington. Her target audience, she said, is Detroit and Congress, especially the Republicans and Democrats who last year voted against a bill, sponsored by Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, that would have raised fuel-efficiency standards.

Spokesmen for the automakers dismissed the commercials.

Eron Shosteck, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said of Ms. Huffington, "Her opinion is out-voted every year by Americans who buy S.U.V.'s for their safety, comfort and versatility." He said that S.U.V.'s now account for 21 percent of the market.

In an interview, Senator Kerry distanced himself from the commercials. He said that rather than oppose S.U.V.'s outright, he believed they should be more efficient.

"I haven't seen these commercials," he said, "but anybody can drive as large an S.U.V. as they want, though it can be more efficient than it is today."

Ms. Huffington's group, which calls itself the Detroit Project, has bought almost $200,000 of air time for the commercials, to run from Sunday to Thursday. While the group may lose some viewers if stations refuse to run the advertisements, the message is attracting attention through news coverage.

The advertisements are to be broadcast on "Meet The Press," "Face the Nation" and "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" in Detroit, Los Angeles, New York and Washington.

But some local affiliates say they will not run them. At the ABC affiliate in New York, Art Moore, director of programming, said, "There were a lot of statements being made that were not backed up, and they're talking about hot-button issues."

Ms. Huffington said she got the idea for the commercials while watching the antidrug commercials, sponsored by the Bush administration. In her syndicated column, she asked readers if they would be willing to pay for "a people's ad campaign to jolt our leaders into reality."

She said she received 5,000 e-mail messages and eventually raised $50,000 from the public. Bigger contributors included Steve Bing, the film producer; Larry David, the comedian and "Seinfeld" co-creator; and Norman Lear, the television producer.

[biblewonk]

Where did you get that? I will venture a guess that Thommas might share my opinion that they are quite welcome to a fair price for their oil - as long as they wet themselves at even the thought of using the profits to support terroism.

We are buying oil from Saudi Arabia. 50,000 ish of them are princes and capitalists and love selling us oil. The other millions are extremists and hate anything that is not Islam. It is all that the princes can do to keep from being overthrown by the Islamopsychos.

I don't think we have a moral right as a country to take the oil and kill anyone in the way. So we buy it and there is no way to control what the psychos do with the money that either trickes down or is secretly funneled.

I hope you don't really think anyone is timid enough to wet their pants because of the Red white and blue.

[Skooz]

Actually, anyone who opposes drilling in ANWR supports terrorism much more than any SUV owner.

[al_c]

My SUV (2003 Trailblazer) gets the same gas mileage as my sedan (97 Cutlass). Why don't they find real issues to nag about?

[Nuke'm Glowing]

They can have my SUV when they pry my cold, dead fingers off of it's V8 humming steering wheel. May the green movement get introduced to the heavily armed redneck movement of rural America one day soon. They will find that the ecoterrs who burn SUVs and Pickup trucks will get shot at in that part of the country. And not soon enough.

[xm177e2]

To a certain extent, yes. But it's not a 1:1 ratio, if our demand were to increase a lot, Canada would increase production more than some of the other countries further away.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

"I'm waiting for the time when SUV owners start getting picked off by whacked out enviro spacecadets."

One flaw: when they get to us redneck 2nd Amendment supporting SUV owners they will learn what the term "accurate return fire" means....

[xm177e2]

Most of our marijuana comes from North America, especially Canada. Weed does not fuel al-Qaida. Heroin used to do so, because Al Qaida had control of Afghanistan. Cocaine users are funding Latin American terrorists.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

"I love this commercial, ping."

Always nice to see the resident anti-freedom socialist ping.

Excuse me while I go barf. I hope your bicycle is great transportation to and from the tree you protest on.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

The two 30-second commercials are the brainchild of the author and columnist Arianna Huffington.

Can the braindead have a brainchild?

[Protagoras]

The most effective way to end Islamic terrorism is to take away their funding oxygen.

There i fixed it.

And the way to take away their funding is to reduce our consumption oil.

Childish nonsense.

If we could dramatically cut back on oil consumption, imagine how that would cripple the terrorist orgaizations.

Your opinion is noted,,,and discarded. The right way to cut back on murderers is to cut back on their air supply, to nothing.

Our parents and grandparents made far greater sacrifices during WWII.

They did it so we could be free, to buy trucks if we please.

Or have we as a nation become too selfish?

Some of us have become too moronic.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

You are a freakin DU plant obviously. The solution is to kill our enemies. It's very hard for dead terrorists to engage in acts against us. If we have to kill 2 or 3 million so be it. We didn't have a problem helping kill millions of Nazis and Japs in WWII. I'm not going to oppose the Prez on killing millions of Muslims if that what it takes for my safety, security and freedom. If you don't like that, I'd suggest migrating back to the commie board.

[jsraggmann]

I hope you're leading by example. I'm sure you own no cars, motocycles, boats, snowmobiles, &tc. You walk or ride a bicycle, correct?

[Protagoras]

Cocaine users are funding Latin American terrorists.

Outlaws are defined by those make the laws. If they outlawed the Bible, priests would be outlaws, and we would be supporting outlaws by our tithes.

[Darnright]

Groan. Here we go again. Arianna, you ignorant hussy, many people already buy petroleum products from Citgo and other companies that do not sell Middle East oil.

IF you had used the resources you wasted on this attack on SUV owners to awaken the sheeple to the idea of not supporting sellers of said Middle East petroleum, you might have done at least some good.

[biblewonk]

Always nice to see the resident anti-freedom socialist ping.

Excuse me while I go barf. I hope your bicycle is great transportation to and from the tree you protest on.

I do bike. What freedom are you losing by sticking it to the middle east by using less of their blood oil?

[Protagoras]

I'm sure you own no cars, motocycles, boats,

Boats are unnecessary when walking on water.

[DCPatriot]

You must have an SUV, huh?

Your ad hominem attack on Ms. Huffington diminishes you.

She has been an important voice for us during the Clinton Impeachment...before FOXNEWS was there to counter the media BS.

[dead]

These are the countries where the executives bought the oil

I like the little dig at capitalism as well.

The former fag-hag is way too friggin’ old to start turning into a hippie.

[Protagoras]

What freedom are you losing by sticking it to the middle east by using less of their blood oil?

I guess your problem is with our government for not using our own oil.

[jaime1959]

Regardless of what you think about the idiocy of the ads, I don’t think that TV stations should have the right to refuse to run them. I think that for all cases except clearly slanderous ads, anyone willing to fork over the dough should have access to the public airwaves. To do otherwise is clearly a severe restriction on free speech, much more so than McCain-Feingold.