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Imagine if for every car ad, there had been a public advocate's ad, with an equal production budget, with messages like: "The bigger the tank you protect your kids with now, and the more you drive them around, the sooner they will run out of gas for your grandkids."
Vehicles are about image. Decades of media repetition has added perceived safety to many buying decisions. When there were 3 billion people on earth, in 1967, seat belts were as rare as racing stripes. Guys probably got pulled over for wearing them. "What you worried about, son? What's all this racing equipment for?"
So, "Future Safe" and "Pedestrian Safe" could have been added to the mix of positive images for vehicles to project, instead of all this "Terminator" crud we got. When Arnold was trying to pry a personal Hummer loose from the Army, we should have bought him off with a James Bond car instead. :-/
Then too, it would be nice is the average consumer had a grip on critical thinking, and some real choices that would make a smaller new car more attractive than a larger used car for the same price.
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