Ford Ranger was sold last year under the slogan “Explore Your Inner Beast.” The 2.4-tonne Ford Ranger is a “light” truck, but the stakes keep rising. The 3.5-tonne Ram 1500 is “eating utes for dinner” this year.
Aotearoa, New Zealand, has received supersized light trucks. Eight of the top ten selling passenger vehicles are now SUVs or utes. Two-thirds are registered for personal use.
The Household Travel Survey shows that many trips previously undertaken in smaller cars (such as shopping trips) now take place in these vehicles.
Double-cab light trucks are becoming more urban vehicles despite the recent protests by farmers and tradesmen about the “ute tax.”
In New Zealand, the marketing videos of these vehicles were the most “masculine.” This was especially true for pickups and utes. The themes of violence and dominance are prominent: Vehicles are called “Raptor,” “Gladiator,” “muscular,” and “beasts.”
Many advertisements feature images of aggressive driving, such as skidding, jumping, and fast-moving vehicles, usually shot from below. The marketing of SUVs is a little more unisex and focuses on safety, luxury, and envy.
Trucks versus cars
Here’s the problem. Climate change is also supersizing. The recent extreme heatwave in the Pacific Northwest US and Canada and severe flooding in Europe and other places have reminded us.
The climate is negatively affected by light trucks in cities. Due to their size and weight, light trucks emit more CO2 compared to other vehicles. For example, in an average year of driving, 100 Ford Rangers emit 90 tonnes (90 tonnes) more CO2 compared with the same number of Toyota Corollas.
Large vehicles also make it more difficult to walk and cycle, as they have outgrown the parking spaces.
The chances of a cyclist or pedestrian being killed or seriously injured in a collision with one of these vehicles is roughly two times greater than a crash that involves a small vehicle.
Nature as a marketing tool
Ironically but deliberately, nature and the ability of urban dwellers to connect to the countryside is an enduring theme that has been used to sell large four-wheel drive vehicles.
Cultural historian William Rollins pointed out that SUV marketing exploited and twisted “developing environment consciousness” to demand high-emission cars. The time required to develop cleaner cars was lost in the process.
Read more: Nature is a public good. A plan to save it using private markets doesn’t pass muster.
In New Zealand, the shift to larger SUVs and utes has largely wiped out the fuel efficiency gains made over the past ten years. Globally, the SUV market was the only industry sector last year where CO₂ emissions continued to rise despite the pandemic.
The growth in SUV sales has been identified as the second most important reason why CO2 is continuing to rise.
It’s not a new tale.
This is not a new issue. The 2002 book High and Mighty – SUVs: the World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way by Detroit auto journalist Keith Bradsher documents the now familiar dangers: high emissions and deadly for other drivers and pedestrians.
He also gives an ethnography of the marketing strategy formed around these vehicles, some of which are now larger than a WWII tank.
Read more: Extinction Rebellion’s car-free streets showcase the possibility of a beautiful, safe and green future.
Marketed at our “reptilian” instincts for safety, dominance, and connection to the natural world, it had a strong Hobbesian flavor. Life – particularly city life – is nasty, brutish and short. One must dominate or be dominated, even on that trek to the supermarket in search of cat food.
Bradsher’s interviews revealed that marketing executives had a deliberate plan to market these cars to consumers who were more egotistical, insecure, and anxious about their status. New Zealand research on SUV drivers also showed that they were more inclined to agree with the statement “Most people would want a vehicle similar to mine“.
Auto industry goldmine
New Zealand is a market that has always been ideal for urban light trucks. The regulatory frameworks, which have weak emission standards and prioritize drivers over other road users in vehicle safety ratings, have created a climate that is ripe for supersizing vehicles.
It’s a well-known story. A trade war between the US and Europe resulted in the American pickup truck, which was a hit on the market. The all-American truck was exempted from a number of environmental and safety standards.
Read more: How the Ford F-150 became king of cars.
Since then, they’ve been a gold mine, with profits on SUVs and utes much higher than on cars, and the auto marketing machine swinging in heavily behind these vehicles.
Ford spends around 85% on ads for SUVs and Utes. The US$35 Billion global automotive marketing industry now focuses largely on selling SUVs and utes, including in emerging markets like India and Brazil.
Change is on its way.
The role of advertising in climate change is now being questioned by the big-budget campaigns to promote these vehicles with high emissions.
The UK organization B advertising has called for a ban on advertising in the third dirtiest of these vehicles. They argue that advertising should “name and shame” other industries which indirectly contribute to climate change (such as investment and banking).
But advertising itself could be a part of the solution. The “wave of misinformation,” which they are facing from corporate advertising, is being criticized by creatives who work with governments to achieve ambitious decarbonization goals.
Read more: Mass-market electric pickup trucks and SUVs are on the way
While marketing spends may still be weighted heavily in favor of the auto industry, there are ways of promoting smaller, cleaner, safer vehicles:
- Make planetary health warnings mandatory in all advertising for high-emission products
- Ban the sale of the third dirtiest of these vehicles
- Bring forward the New Zealand import ban for those same vehicles to 2025 from 2035
- establish low-emission zones in cities
- Ban the sale of diesel cars that do not meet the latest European emission standards.
Adopt new codes of advertising ethics in order to stop the promotion of products and lifestyles that are high in carbon.
Mia Wisniewski, a Master of Public Health candidate at the University of Auckland, contributed to the research for this article. Analysis of SUV/ute advertising themes in New Zealand was undertaken as part of her MPH thesis.
