Transcript
BOB GARFIELD: You may have seen the image on your TV screen-- a hulking box of steel rolls along an empty expanse of sand, 6400 pounds of metal with tinted windows and impenetrable walls. No, it's not a humvee full of Marines in Southern Iraq. It's a hummer, driven by a young man in a stylish sweater on a solitary beach. The sequence cuts to a crashing wave and this phrase--: Need is a subjective word. It's the latest campaign by General Motors to sell the consumer version of the humvee military vehicle that we first saw in the first Gulf War, and despite the hummer's equally massive price tag, GM's campaign is quite a success. Joining us now is medical anthropologist Dr. Clotaire Rapaille who did not work on this campaign but has been a marketing consultant for most major SUV manufacturers. Dr. Rapaille, welcome to the show!
CLOTAIRE RAPAILLE: My pleasure!
BOB GARFIELD: We'll get to the hummer in a moment and these particular advertising images. Let's begin with SUVs in general.
CLOTAIRE RAPAILLE: Right.
BOB GARFIELD: They are not particularly practical. They are very, very expensive -- at least in the high end of 50,000 dollars and more. They get, some of them, between ten and 15 miles to the gallon. They're difficult to park and everyone who doesn't drive one hates them. Why do people buy SUVs?
CLOTAIRE RAPAILLE: Well, the first key element was kind of a failure by all the car manufacturers in Detroit to create the car that people want! All these cars -- they were boring and ugly. They look all the same; they had no identity. It's a little bit like the cars were telling you well, I, I'm, I'm not so sure of myself; I don't dare to be a car. They - that's what the message of these intellectual cars designed by Nasstar [sp?] - they're trying to get more aerodynamic and gas mileage. And then they were not sexy at all! So suddenly this SUV is hey, the hell with you -I'm strong, I'm big, I'm taller than you --and I'm proud of being that! You know? So the message was more self-confidence.
BOB GARFIELD:If SUV marketing is about appealing to primal instincts, it would seem to me that the hummer, which is possibly the most impractical automobile ever designed--
CLOTAIRE RAPAILLE: Right.
BOB GARFIELD: -- the appeal just be practically bestial!
CLOTAIRE RAPAILLE: You see that, that -- what is fantastic here in, in the time where we are right now -- the hummer is almost a car in uniform. I mean in a time of war, to have a, a, a uniform is the message. I know how to fight; I'm part of a structure; I'm strong. I even told people in Detroit -- and they laugh at me -- I say put four stars on the shoulder of the hummer - you will sell it better. And by the way, if you look at Ralph Lauren right now, his winter collection was full of uniforms; I mean it's the fashion. And people wear a car. You don't drive a car. When people say to me, you know, you need a car to go from point A to point B -- you don't need a hummer to go from point A to point B; you don't need a hummer to go shopping. I mean let's be serious. There are other reasons, other deep, deep motivation there.
BOB GARFIELD: One of the commercials shows a, a series of phrases one after the other--: [ROCK MUSIC UP AND UNDER] Do not do this. Do not do that. Eat your vegetables, it says on screen. [LAUGHTER] Play it safe. And then you hear--: [ROCK MUSIC UP LOUD] and then you see the phrase--: Whatever. Is the message there: "I own a hummer. To hell with you."
CLOTAIRE RAPAILLE:Definitely something like that. I mean I'm, I'm not behind this message, but there is something about feeling good about the hell with you; I do what I want, you see? And this is part of the American culture. And a lot of people resent this attitude around the world. You see that, that's what a lot of people resent about this administration - what they say is the hell with you - we're going to go to war anyway. But on the other hand there is something positive about it, because we know what we want and we do it!-- whatever it is. You know. So they're using that to sell a hummer. Definitely. And I think it works! I think these guys are, in terms of marketing the hummer, are doing a great job if you look at the sale of the hummer.
BOB GARFIELD: Tell me how you got involved in your specialty in SUVs. How, how does someone get to that place?
CLOTAIRE RAPAILLE:Well first of all I'm, I'm not just doing SUVs. I'm, I'm an expert in trying to understand the unconscious code of an element of a culture. An SUV is a very fantastic expression of the American culture -- and including the hummer! It is just so amazing to see people crazy about the hummer.
BOB GARFIELD:Now your theory of -- I guess you'd call it neuro-linguistics -- is that our impressions of things and especially words are imprinted based on how we first experience them.
CLOTAIRE RAPAILLE: Right.
BOB GARFIELD: You have an imprinting story of your own--
CLOTAIRE RAPAILLE: Yes.
BOB GARFIELD: -- that, that's relevant here, do you not?
CLOTAIRE RAPAILLE: Yes, yes. I was born in, in France-- during the war - last war. My father was a prisoner in slave labor in, in Germany; my grandfather was prisoner; so I was born like that; I didn't know better. I thought that that was the way the world was supposed to be - the Germans were in charge, and the French were trying to hide. And one day on the side of the road in the countryside I was with my grandmother --suddenly I was seeing the, the Germans throwing helmets, guns on the side of the road, stealing bicycle and running away! And I'd never seen these guys running away before! And then the next thing that happened to me was a big monster came out of the forest --you know [MAKES NOISE IMITATING TANK] -- just-- [TANK NOISES] -- and so I say "Wow! I understand why they are running away. They are afraid of the monster!" And of course the monster was a big American tank with a white star. And my imprint was so strong that even now that I'm telling you this story, I can, I can smell it, I can feel it, I can remember the sound, noise, the color -- and then the, the turret of the tank did open and a big guy look at me -- and another guy passed by -- put me on the tank, you know? And took me for a ride! You know, how can you beat that?! You see? That's why I'm American today. I said "Wow! You know, these guys are just--incredible!"
BOB GARFIELD: Dr. Rapaille, thank you very much!
CLOTAIRE RAPAILLE: My pleasure. My - always a pleasure to be with you.
BOB GARFIELD:Clotaire Rapaille is a medical anthropologist and consultant to the automobile industry, and he has been called the Car Shrink by Fortune Magazine. He joined us from his home outside of New York City. [THEME MUSIC]
BOB GARFIELD:That's it for this week's show. On the Media was produced by Janeen Price, Katya Rogers and Megan Ryan with Tony Field; engineered by Dylan Keefe and Rob Christiansen, and edited--by Brooke. We had help from Sharon Ball and Brian Tilley. Our webmaster is Amy Pearl.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:Arun Rath is our senior producer and Dean Cappello our executive producer. Bassist/composer Ben Allison wrote our theme. You can listen to the program and get free transcripts at onthemedia.org and e-mail us at onthemedia@wnyc.org. This is On the Media from NPR. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield.