A Side Effect of My Road Trip

Car commercials often show the vehicle in question cruising on high-drama two-lane blacktop, either in the desert, through pine forests, or perhaps on a twisty road along the coast.

When that happens, I don’t see the car. I’m trying to identify the road; there’s a good chance I’ve driven it and I might have a story to about it that I haven’t savored in a while. I saw one such commercial last night and afterwards while thinking that the road looked like a stretch of highway outside of Bakersfield I realized that I couldn’t even remember what color the car was.

It’s kind of like posing a sexy woman next to your product. You’ll get my attention, but I won’t be looking at what you’re asking me to buy.

4 thoughts on “A Side Effect of My Road Trip

  1. Yeah, I can totally relate: that Durango commercial that ran recently with “where has the Durango been the last 3 years? in Europe learning a thing or two…” voice over – it had me jumping up and down screaming at the television: that’s not Europe, that’s the Owens Valley and the Eastern Sierra!

    I’m really wondering whether the current “Mazdas on the wet two lane in the desert” isn’t Death Valley or Panamint Valley.

    And of course Big Sur is a given to show up once every 3 years.

    Given this and Joe’s comment above, I wonder how many car commercials are filmed in California? Just because of proximity to Los Angeles.

    • Well, Keith, the ad for the… um… SUV of some sort that I saw last night should be right up our alley. It showed the vehicle on some roads, then parked in a meadow, and said “if you can find it, it’s yours.”

      Unfortunately, I didn’t recognize the meadow.

      • I did recognize the Rim Drive at Crater Lake (Phantom Ship island?). From some of the shots on camera, I think that it’s in southern Oregon.

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