Truckers to Coke: Can the Super Bowl ad!

[Sarek]

http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/02/news/companies/truckers_coke/index.htm?cnn=yes

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Truckers want Coca-Cola to slam the brakes on a planned Super Bowl ad for its Full Throttle energy drink.

The American Trucking Associations has written a letter to Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO E. Neville Isdell urging that the ad be pulled or changed. Coke is the sponsor of the "Full Throttle Kick-Off Show" on ABC just before the Super Bowl, and the 60-second ad is the last one that will be shown on the broadcast. It includes the slogan "Let Your Man Out."

But the trucking group says the ad reinforces what it says is an unfair negative image about truckers. A statement from ATA President and CEO Bill Graves says the ad shows a large truck full of Full Throttle forcing a small passenger car off the road.

Trade publication Advertising Age says the ad also shows the Full Throttle truck tailgating and forcing a smaller vehicle -- adorned with the rival Red Bull logo -- off the main road.

Graves' statement said the ad "will reinforce and help perpetuate a negative stereotype that the trucking industry and our professional drivers have fought long and hard to overcome."

I don't know what they find so negative or stereo typical about it. That's exactly the way some of those assholes act on the road.

 

[Big Dick McGee]

They should just slap the words "A Short Documentary About Truck Drivers" at the beginning of the ad.

 

[Starship Coyote]

I'd personally like to driver every big truck in the US into the Gulf of Mexico. Truckers are the bane of my highway existence.

Let's bring back trains.

 

[Kyehlar]

A truck almost drove us off the road a few years ago when we were on vacation. But there are some truck drivers out there that are pretty cool. They come in the restaurant all the time. It's just assholes like those that give them a bad name.

That, and Smokey and the Bandit.

 

[gprime]

I hate these whiney pieces of shit. As soon as any activity less than entirely good is portrayed, some damn group bitches about being misreprested by it. Just like having a black criminal in a movie doesn't mean all blacks are criminals, showing a truck off-roading a car doesn't imply all, or even a large number of truck drivers do. Why don't they comrehend that?

 

[FBI parte due]

Because they can get money and attention by whining about it, maybe?

 

[Sarek]

I suppose when you consider that 2 of the worst traffic accidents in the past 3 months (Wisconsin and Florida) were caused by semi trucks with drivers who were either driving while suspended, following to closely or being inattentive behind the wheel, the trucking industry really doesn't need more bad press.

But fuck 'em. These morons are some of the most dangerous people on the highways as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Conchaga]

Just like having a black criminal in a movie doesn't mean all blacks are criminals, showing a truck off-roading a car doesn't imply all, or even a large number of truck drivers do.

It's just TV folks. Not all media is an honest or exact representation of reality. Most people thought Buggs Bunny and Wyle E. Coyote were bad examples. Then rationality occured to people, "it's only a cartoon. It's not real." Just like this is only a commercial. Eventually, people will get over it. Remember two years ago? The Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction. It was the talk of the town for about six months. Then, everybody forgot about it. The mob is so fickle with things. No certain image lasts for very long. In six more months, everybody will forget all about this super bowl. Life will continue.