This past week some posts have come across the 2002 Digest about a commercial put out by the Ad Council. The ad in question is certainly for a good cause however it depicts the destruction of another one of our favorite cars. Some of the posts asked 'why an 02?' and indeed why? Others said that it was a pretty horrible experience to be watching TV, see a nice looking 2002, only to witness its demise at the metal crushing force of a van - Oh, the humanity. Certainly after the celebration of the 2002 in a now famous Taco Bell commercial we thought others loved our cars the way we do. Maybe not.

The Ad Council has recently changed their ad campaign from the humorous to the foreboding. We used to see the happy crash test dummies "Vince and Larry" as they told us about the dangers of not wearing seat belts along with the tag line "You could learn a lot from a dummy". The new campaign focuses on people (unsuspecting victims) involved in auto accidents, with the tag line "Didn't see that coming? No one ever does. Buckle up." The whole campaign involves a series of short narratives. The 2002 ad features a couple of 20 something guys cruising in their '02 (a nice red one) coming up along side a group of girls in an Olds convertible of around the same vintage as the 2002. The interaction between them is that of glances and smiles with small talk at the red light, when disaster strikes and a van smashes into the back end of the 2002.