Things I hate: People Sitting on Car Hoods in Ads

On a recent trip to Hong Kong, I spent a lot of time looking at luxury ads. They are a pervasive presence in this city, which has an obsession with luxury consumption.  Since I run my own brand, I am always studying what other companies are doing to project their image.  As a car lover, I always take particular notice when cars are employed in fashion shoots. 

There is one common use of cars that I simply abhor, and it's about time someone said something!  I hate ads where a guy or girl is sitting on the hood of a classic car, often with their feet on the bumper! I suppose this is meant to imbue the model with a casual "Oh this old heap? Yeah I like to cruise around in it" attitude. But let's be honest here, no one EVER sits on the hood of a car they actually own.  I can only imagine the hood of that poor MGA above bears the model's ass prints in its flimsy steel. And that E-type below surely needed some help after that smug-looking douche alighted from the weakest spot in the hood.

So why do I hate these ads so much? Becuase they are so unnatural, and display a contrived behavior that doesn't exist in real life. Imagine if you walked the lawn at a car show, and saw each owner sitting on the hood of his car posing for photos! That would be absolute lunacy. And the fact that it doesn't exist in real life just magnifies how out of touch the creative directors --most of whom probably don't own a car and couldn't even tell you the name of the car in the ad-- are, and therefore how little credibility the brand has to actual car aficionados despite their use of a car in the ad.  It just rings incredibly hollow, and makes the use of the car all the more superficial.

You'll never see this BS in any Autodromo campaign, I promise you.

Comments

[Julien]

I sit on the hood of rental cars.

[Bradley Price]

HAHAHAHA

[Romain]

This honestly made me laugh :)

[Walter Jamieson Jr]

That guy's suit is reeealy ugly too.

[Colin]

I sit on the hood of the Legacy/Outback that I got for $900... Does that confirm you point or not?

[Kisii]

I read this post a few days ago and have been thinking about this, and came to a conclusion....especially after viewing A LOT of fashion spreads. Its only okay if the car belongs to you. If you have borne the suffering that accompanies living with a vintage car, we will "allow" you to pose recklessly with it...I think the problem with most of these fashion photographs is that niggling feeling that tells you the subject probably has no idea what the car is, and could not be bothered to find out the nerdy details that we enthusiasts burden ourselves ....and in the event a fuel line started dripping whilst the car was idling and they had the good fortune to notice it, then it would remain to be seen if they would roll up their bespoke RLPL shirt cuff thingys and get at the problem like a bauss, before commencing with the posin'....
endofrant.

[Arthur]

Doesn't look like the Tommy Bahama guy's butt is resting too heavily on the hood. But his heel is resting on the grille so that it is likely to bend or break. If it were my car, I would say, end of photo shoot !