ADS ON SUVS MAKE A POINT

By now you might have heard about or seen the ads that have been created
and circulated on the Internet equating driving sports utility vehicles to
terrorist violence carried out by Islamic extremists.

The link is simple: SUVs use a lot of gas; the gas industry funds Islamic
states; and Islamic states fund terrorism with that money.

The style of the commercials is immediately familiar to those who have seen
the U.S. government's anti-drug spots.

They are the ones that have normal-looking people confessing to heinous
acts such as torture and murder.

The implicit assumption in the anti-drug ads is that by buying even small
amounts of illicit drugs, people here are funding brutal drug lords in
faraway places.

The SUV commercials are a brilliant send-up of the anti-drug propaganda.
They use the same logic as that employed by the ridiculous anti-drug
message and parody them brilliantly.

The two commercials are similar in style, with actors saying the horrible
things their gas usage has caused (such as killing thousands of Kurds),
while images of armed Middle Easterners flash in the background. According
to the Web site of The Detroit Project, which created the ads and is
soliciting funding so the group can air them on television, the spots were
created to draw attention to the link between America's reliance on foreign
oil and terrorism.

Of course, it's a difficult link to establish. For one thing, cars other
than SUVs use gasoline, which is purchased from foreign regimes.

And the assumption underlying the ads is somewhat troublesome (as is the
assumption underlying the drug spots): The people who purchase anything
bear the moral responsibility for the actions of those who profit from
their purchase.

Still, the fact that the group was able to so deftly mock the anti-drug
efforts, which themselves have almost no basis in reality, is admirable.
People can agree or disagree with the message that SUVs are evil, but the
commercials are sure to raise some eyebrows.

And their argument that our dependence on foreign oil is bad is certainly a
worthwhile topic to explore.

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individual. As such, editorials are unsigned. Signed columns represent the
individual opinion of the columnist and not necessarily of this newspaper.