Rusty Saber: Movies, commercial portray dangerous image

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.

Recently, the Rusty Saber scolded television car commercials for emphasizing high speed and irresponsible driving. Rusty also took issue with automakers for building cars that are too fast.

My misgivings were about showing drivers performing outlandish stunts while disclaimers crawl across the bottom of the screen announcing that the actors are professional drivers on closed courses, viewers shouldn't try these deeds. If this is so, why feature them? These commercials create an image in the minds of impressionable viewers that reckless driving is acceptable.

Since that column, a commercial has come along that strengthens my apprehensions. The most negative role model for drivers I have ever seen is a joint ad for automaker Mitsubishi and the movie "2 Fast 2 Furious," a sequel to "The Fast and The Furious." In the ad, two young men are driving in ways guaranteed to kill them and anyone who gets close to them. As it turns out, the appalling driving scenes were from the movie about street racing (a socially responsible activity?).

The boys are actually sitting in Mitsubishis on a dealer's showroom floor. They are only imagining they are driving like fools. Mitsubishi is a fine automaker. Why create ads appealing to dimwits? This car commercial, more so than any I have ever seen, boasts that it is acceptable to fantasize driving in a "fast and furious" manner, a tiny step away from actually doing it. For those who think no one is paying attention to this silly movie, as I write this it is the week's top box office attraction.

To my knowledge, the nation's highest posted speed limit is 70 miles per hour. I realize that in certain situations it may be necessary to momentarily go faster than 70 mph. I can't conceive of an emergency requiring a car to go beyond 100 mph.

All but the smallest so-called economy cars have top speeds of over 100 mph. For instance, according to Car and Driver magazine, the top speed of the new 2004 Chrysler Crossfire is 151 mph. The average top speed in the same magazine's comparison of five mid-sized sport utility vehicles was reported to be 112 mph.

I confess to being a car lover. I subscribe to several car magazines. You can take my word for it; speed is a focus of the magazines. This is because so many drivers evaluate cars by their top speed. Car magazines have a special jargon to denote fast cars. For instance, "Pocket Rocket" and "Sling Shot" are small, fast cars. "Muscle Car" is medium-sized with a big engine. Similar cars may also be "Smokin' Rides." "Supercars" usually are very expensive and fast. I doubt you are likely to be influenced to buy a $250,000 car to take for a spin on Interstate 44 at 200 mph.

What does unnerve me are ads for affordable cars that may influence viewers to seek out the fastest cars to drive like they do on TV, or even worse, in movies like "2 Fast 2 Furious." That sort of thing can get people killed.

Rather than laboring to extract a few more miles per hour beyond posted speed limits, why not strive to further increase the quality of the cars? Perhaps the most recent J.D. Powers and Associates Survey of Owner Satisfaction might be a good stimulus for auto buyers. It focuses not on speed, but on the best and worst cars based on numbers of service complaints. The lower the score, the better. If I were a carmaker, it would be a more profound honor to rank atop this list than to turn out one of the fastest cars on the block.

As the owner of a middle-aged Lexus that never seems to need much service, I am not surprised that Lexus was ranked first in owner satisfaction. It has all the power I need. I don't know what its top speed is and I don't care; I do care about quality.

General Motors probably has mixed emotions about the results. Cadillac ranked second, Buick was fifth. However, the Hummer, a GM product, was dead last, with 34 manufacturers between it and first place. Speed had absolutely nothing to do with how each was ranked. Owner satisfaction may not be as glamorous as blazing speed, power slides and dangerous trick driving. Ah, but commercials celebrating quality would sell me.