Oh great, now the politically correct virus that infects America is coming for car advertisements. You know what a car ad is supposed to do? Get your attention. That is exactly what Mercedes-AMG accomplishes showing the new W213 generation E63 S model line up for a drag race.

Click here to enlarge

They are not endorsing street racing by doing this. As it turns out, advertisements do not create laws. Amazingly, somehow we still have speed limits and rules on public roads despite car ads. How many people drag race Top Fuel cars on the street anyway? What about Formula 1 cars? That number is exactly zero. It's a fantasy. It's a commercial. It isn't real.

Watch the ad below and then let us know if you suddenly have the desire to race a jet powered Bonneville land speed record car at your local stoplight.

Doug Stokes of Irwindale Speedway in California (of course it has to be California) takes issue with the commercial. Maybe he is drinking a bit too much soy as he seems to be suffering from low testosterone?

What exactly should a commercial about a 600+ horsepower all wheel drive twin turbo V8 super sedan be about? Its gas mileage? A leisurely drive to the recycling center?

It is no coincidence Irwindale Speedway operates an 1/8 mile drag strip. The argument made is self-serving as Doug wants to funnel people to the Irwindale strip because there really is nowhere else to race in California as 1/4 mile strips continue to shut down. Sacremento Raceway is the latest victim as the county is forcing them to close due to residential development.

Doug, grow a pair. It's an ad. Stop trying to use it to funnel people to Irwindale. Furthermore, 1/8 mile racing sucks. Open up a real 1/4 mile strip where 600+ horsepower cars like the E63 can stretch their legs or shut the $#@! up.


An open letter to the industry: 09/10/17

Who the hell do I have to complain to?

It (was) just a quiet Sunday afternoon, my wife and I were watching the U.S. Open finals on TV. There were, of course, number of adverts from top-tier companies … and then there was one, near the end of the match, that made the two of us whoop louder than the sellout crowd at Flushing Meadows.
The ad that stunned us was a Mercedes-Benz commercial which shows a number of growling drag racing vehicles racing against a new model Mercedes. The machines (including a funny car, a dragster, and a full-out drag bike and the Mercedes) line up curb to curb on what looks like a city street, a traffic light goes green … and the machines leap forward in a five-wide drag race … the Mercedes gets to the end of the block first. Apparently it wins what looks everything like a patently illegal street race and the voice over indicates what Mercedes model it was and indicates that it would be a good idea for the people watching to buy this car … I guess based on its “track” … er, street racing record.*

I frankly don’t think that it was the very best example of “The Best or Nothing” slogan that tags the advert.

Likewise, a recent (at least here in Los Angeles) TV commercial shows two late model BMW’s seemingly racing each other through a (it seems) deserted industrial site with a quick close-up of another (was it one of the two street racers?) BMW cornering very hard, so hard that the driver needs to crank in a huge amount of opposite to keep control as the car slides right up to a painted double line that’s NOT on a race course, but apparently on a normal street somewhere.

There you go, “The Ultimate Driving Machine” going way, way too fast apparently on city streets.

And then we have Fiat-Chrysler running a whole flight of TV ads that show a wide range of way too fast activities with two (or more) cars quite apparently racing each other. Of course building a car (the Dodge Demon) that’s banned from competing in “as delivered” form by the NHRA, and then bragging about it in print in enthusiast magazines says: (at least to my ear) “Race this one the street, because it is so powerful that NHRA wants you to install a big old honking roll cage if you ever want run it at the drag strip.”

A quick word about myself if I may, I’m the VP of communications at Irwindale Event Center located about 20 miles East of Los Angeles. We operate a half-mile NASCAR-sanctioned paved oval and an eighth-mile NHRA-sanctioned drag strip. We opened the drag strip in 2000, and it’s the only one in southern California that operates on a weekly basis all year long. Thousands upon thousands of drivers (young, old and in between) have used our facility to have some safe, controlled, high-speed fun with their performance cars. It’s almost impossible to prove a negative, however, I think that our drag strip has helped to dampen illegal street racing in the area.

And, from that perspective I feel that I can say the following:
… Yeah, sure, yup, correct, you’re right; I know those commercial are a fantasy, innocent, innocuous metaphors, simply flights of advertising license.

On the other hand, all of the above automobile commercials most blatantly portray and appear to glorify illegal street racing. (And supering-in some sort of tiny “closed course, do not attempt” screen when the hottest model Dodge cars are purposely seen racing with each other (or in earlier TV adverts, joyfully driving right through the middle of an idyllic outdoor wedding party knocking over tables and scattering people like a terrorists.)

Finally and directly to all three of the above manufacturers, as well as any others that I’ve missed:

All of you know that you can show the fun of cool, high performance driving without using (and thereby glamorizing) often deadly and illegal street racing (no how much you see it as harmless marketing hyperbole ).
You are all better than that, I’m sure.

Doug Stokes

PS: I’d like to invite anyone in the industry (who wants to see what I’m talking about) out for one of our “Thursday Night Thunder” events at Irwindale Dragstrip. Heck ... I’ll even buy you a hot dog, soda, and a bag of chips.