Opinion: Hummer? Bummer!

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

The holidays do tend to warm up the fellow feeling quotient and put you off your cynic’s game.

So when I glimpsed the bright, fleeting message on a television ad for Hummers, a spot called ``Hummer Helps,’’ I first thought, charitably, aww, whaddya know – Hummer is making nice! Maybe it’s going hybrid? Or maybe just … going?

Then I saw it again. It’s a video litany of natural disasters, of wind and rain and snow and and donder and blitzen, and images of lesser vehicles incapacitated by the elements, while Hummers sail serenely through. Hummer HELPS? Helps what? Helps to contribute to that capricious global warming mess in the first place? Helps the Hummer owner on his me-first-me-last mission?

I should have known better, really. The last Hummer ad that grabbed my attention was a soapbox derby premise. The ad showed a kid building a little wooden Hummer-like car from planks he stole from a doghouse – with the dog still inside – then cheating and taking off-road short-cuts to beat the other kids’ ‘’lesser mobiles’’ to the finish line.

Come to think of it, the latest ad really did deliver a Hummer Holiday Message: ``Piss on earth, goodwill to … me.’’