# Car Commercials That Don't, That Don't, Rock Me **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 17, 2002, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658 "2002-10-17T13:43:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/1 "2002-10-17T13:43:04Z")
• **Chevy**. Why do they think I would want to buy one of their cars after being assured by them over and over that it is “Like a Rock?” It’s been a long time since I’ve owned a car, but I recall its chief charm being its ability to transport me from Place A to Place B. The very _raison d’ être_ of a rock, however, is to sit there and not move, ever. Why does Chevy think I would buy a car that cannot be moved without the aid of a bulldozer or dynamite? • **Buick**. Who the hell is “Harley Earl” and why has his ghost returned from the dead to design new Buicks? Is Buick that hard-up for talented designers that they have to go meddling in the afterlife? Was Harley Earl some famous car designer I’ve never heard of, or just some character Buick has invented out of thin air to frighten Tiger Woods in those commercials? Earl—judging by his wardrobe—seem to have lived in the 1930s–40s, so one can only hope some Buick copywriter didn’t tell Tiger, “You ever see Maitlin Moreland? Ya think you can bug out your eyes and go, ‘feets, don’t fail me now?’” ---
**Author:** ![racekarl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6bbea6/32.png) [@racekarl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racekarl)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/2 "2002-10-17T13:49:15Z")
Harley Earl was and still is one of the most famous auto designers ever. He invented the tail fin and designed the original Corvette, among other things. Just for smart aleky folk like you, Buick has even gone so far as to include a brief bio of Earl in the print Ads. Admittedly not a great ad campaign… ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/3 "2002-10-17T13:49:45Z")
Re: [Harley Earl](http://www.idavette.net/HistFact/earl.htm) : [quote] _from the link_ As car companies spend millions of dollars each year advertising new car models, consumers rarely question who designs the cars that appeal to our individual style. While the style of a car may be just as important to us as how the car runs, automobile manufacturers did not begin to pay attention to car designs until the 1920s. It was not until 1927, when General Motors decided to hire designer Harley Earl to displace Ford Motors prominence in the automotive world that design became important. What Henry Ford did for the automobile is what Harley Earl did for car design.[/quote} ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/4 "2002-10-17T13:52:41Z")
damn - screwed up the coding. GRRR. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/5 "2002-10-17T13:56:29Z")
That’s a pretty tacky ad campaign then, now that I understand it. “Hey, we’ve called up a spirit from beyond to design and hawk cars for you!” ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/6 "2002-10-17T14:02:01Z")
I hate all car advertisements, anyway. Does Detroit really think I’m going to trot out and make an impulse buy of a Chevy Malibu or whatever because I saw a commercial during some sit-com or flipped over a photo while reading a People Magazine article? If they’d funnelled all that ad money into R&D, we’d all be flying around with jet-packs by now. ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/7 "2002-10-17T14:05:09Z")
Once an emplyee, always an employee. ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/8 "2002-10-17T14:07:56Z")
I appear to have dropped an “o”. Hey **Uke** , do you REALLY want the average idiot to have a jet pack? I mean really, imagine the idiots we all curse at on the road, flying around above our heads. If it comes to pass, I am investing in steel umbrellas. ---
**Author:** ![Gorgon\_Heap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f475e1/32.png) [@Gorgon\_Heap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgon_Heap)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/9 "2002-10-17T14:11:34Z")
I kinda like the nostalgic air it gives them. 'Course, I think most new cars are ugly, but it gives a sense that at one time there were, in fact, great cars with great designers on the drawing boards. What really gets me is the actor they chose. John Diehl, as in the ultra-crooked cop from The Shield and previously in both Stargate and Stripes. Kinda high-profile actor to play a ghost, eh? ---
**Author:** ![NutMagnet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@NutMagnet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NutMagnet)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/10 "2002-10-17T14:37:03Z")
As bad as car ads are, at least we’re back to actually seeing the car (or parts of it). I really hated those ethereal “essence of the product” car ads. Music and voice-over, leaves swirling in the wind on a lonely mountain road, something having just swooshed by… And will someone please tell the local dealers we don’t want to actually SEE the owner, or his kids, or his freaking family? Fette looks like Lurch after a month on the Crisco diet. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/11 "2002-10-17T14:41:50Z")
OK, so apparently I am not hep to the history of auto designers. Harley Earl was a real person, now dead, I assume? And Buick has utilized the forces of darkness to conjure up his ghost to design cars? They must have Harley’s ghost chained, somehow—I have to believe he’d rather go out on the town, goosing showgirls and seeing what’s new, rather than spending his time at Buick working for free. Are the spirits of long-dead assembly-line workers also toiling for Buick, in some kind of hellish afterlife? Are their tortured screams heard for miles around? Now, will someone explain to me why it’s a good thing for a car to be “Like a Rock?” ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/12 "2002-10-17T14:49:35Z")
Like A Rock? Even if they meant Hudson, it’s still not a good connotation. Harley Earl sounds like biker puke. Again, not good. One to add… I don’t mean to be anal about the Probe butt that one doesn’t work for me either. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@bibliophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophile)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/13 "2002-10-17T15:27:12Z")
I have two words for you - Zoom Zoom aarrgghh! ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/14 "2002-10-17T15:27:35Z")
What gets me is that “Like a Rock” is a depressing song about an old middle-aged fart sitting into the night, staring at the fire and wondering where the 16 years had gone since he was eighteen. I thought that was sad, oh, around _sixteen years ago_ when the song first came out, and I was about eighteen years old. Now . . . I don’t even like to think about it . . . ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/15 "2002-10-17T17:18:57Z")
Keep in mind that Seger comes from Detroit, so if the ad was done locally, they may have had a bias towards the song. I think Motor City’s Burning would have been a better local choice. ---
**Author:** ![japatlgt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df705f/32.png) [@japatlgt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/japatlgt)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/16 "2002-10-17T17:25:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike \* > \*\*I hate all car advertisements, anyway. \*\* I hate all advertisements, period! Chevy’s ad campaigns seem to be focused on the traditional mythology that “seeing the USA in your Chevrolet” is a part of the American dream ( “By gawd, Dot, I got to hab me one!”) made ever so much more pleasant with a macho American song and presumably a highly marketed beverage and a beautiful woman. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbazine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbazine/32/362_2.png) [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/17 "2002-10-17T17:47:59Z")
34 is middle-aged? Come over here so I can whack you with my cane. The one I really hate is the commercial where Cher screechs “_freedom is calling…yeah_” Makes my skin crawl every time. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/18 "2002-10-17T18:54:39Z")
I’m with you on “Like a Rock”, **Reilly**. Of course, the suits that make the decisions in corporate offices never have a clue what the songs are about. I remember when George Will interpreted Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” as patriotic. They’re about as out of touch with Seger as he was with Springsteen. I can’t remember which car it advertises, but Smashmouth’s “Walking on the Sun” doesn’t exactly make sense as a product promo, if you listen to the words. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/19 "2002-10-17T19:10:31Z")
Interesting hijack… Harley Earl was the guy responsible for those huge, wacky [bumper guards on the 1953 Cadillac](http://www.caditalk.com/dagmar.html)…the ones that were referred to as “Dagmars,” in honor of the chesty blonde television hostess of “Dagmar’s Canteen.” ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658/20 "2002-10-17T19:25:17Z")
I see by the link that Harley Earl died in 1969 . . . Way before air bags and mandatory seatbelts—not to mention the emissions standards! Does Buick have to force Harley’s ghost into current-practices sessions? “_Air bags?_ What kinda pansies _are_ you people anyway? I’m outta here. Is that Goldie Hawn chick still around?” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-commercials-that-dont-that-dont-rock-me/132658.md?page=2)