Just saw a Subaru commercial on Fox.

Bunch of kids having a Pinewood derby.

All the boys are wearing . . . brown vests.  Like Brownies.

What the Hell is that?!?!  Subaru has so little connection to the real world that they will use Girl Scout uniforms on boys??  


No, I cannot put in a video link, this machine is so crappy i cannot even watch videos.

You sure they weren't young butches rather than boys?

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That's better than that Granger commercial where 6 seconds of it are in spanish to cater to illegal immigrants.

I just saw a Progressive Car insurance commercial where they were selling car insurance in a box, off a shelf. Car insurance in a box!?. Get real!!!

Those are not scouts, They are LESter Beans and twinkies. Its a group for the adopted youth of same sex couples.
Every year they sell Hot dogs and meatballs on a stick in front of the grocery stores. They have merit badges for doing hair and nails. Decorating. ETC.
The uniform is usually a brown vest with a rainbow scarf

Trying not to infringe on copyrights?

Not only is it a Brownie vest, but it has Girl Scout IPP’s and Cub Scout
patches.  I guess Subaru figured if they offended everyone, they could
get away from paying licensing fees.

You have one heck of a imagination.

I liked the one Hummer did a few years ago.  Now that was the American way!

Tagging the Subaru buyer base, huh?

Sounds like the makings of a laugh-u-mentory. a reporter gets to the bottom of the Lesterbeans and twinkies.......the camping trip scene would have potential

Subaru cars are built by Fuji Heavy industries in Japan, and also at their plant in Indiana (SIA).  The Japs run the factory, and have 100% control over the build and design of the vehicles.  

In this United States, Subaru vehicles as distributed through "Subaru of America" (SOA).  They control marketing, warranty administration, parts distribution, and sales distribution.   At times, SOA gives the "brand" a bad name........ especially through their marketing.  

So, just because SOA insists on marketing to "Alternative lifestyles" (They don't do it anymore than any other manufacturer, nor do they have a larger percentage of GLBT owners than any other brand), realize that it comes from only one branch of the company and is in no way representative of the people that actually make the cars.  


Mike

I am not surprised by the content of today's commercials, they all reflect the warped imaginations/ideas & lack of Intelligence of the marketing firms and the companies that hire them, look at the Burger King commercials for example.

I have never bitched about the Subaru customer base.  To the best of my knowledge they make a passable vehicle and I know people who swear by (not AT) them.

My beef is with this commercial, where they make boys out to be girls.  WTH?

Nobody has yet considered it's because the Boy Scouts of America would not have approved the wearing of an actual Scout uniform in a car commercial?

 ( previous poster beat me)

This

America's death will be by regulation, and everyone is cheering it on.

This is the same userbase that has people who genuinely believe that everyone who works at HK think rounds go into a magazine backwards because of some photo marketing guy just not knowing what he's doing.





 

People actually track that data?! How does one do that?

My very informal survey in the Pacific Northwest says lesbians are highly overrepresented as Subaru owners. But this could just be observer bias. I use the rainbow sticker and angry crew-cut assumption.

-Z

Since we are all going to force reality into this. Aimless is correct. Its a copyright issue. All jokes aside, Nobody sat in a boardroom and said lets come up with a conspiracy to piss off America.
BSA would have a field day with them for using anything that resembled a boyscout or cub scout uniform. Thats why even TV shows and movies have to make up some sort of fake scout organization. Subaru does not market themselves to alt lifestyles. They make a decent product..........But it is fun to make fun of the disproportionate number of rainbow stickers you see on subaru cars in certain parts of the country.

 It's the same userbase that thinks someone at HK actually said "because you suck and we hate you" and where Onion parodies need to carry warnings that they're not legitimate news items.

...especially a car commercial targeted at lesbians.

From BNET
http://industry.bnet.com/auto/10001205/gay-friendly-cars-is-subaru-number-one/

Gays and lesbians buy a lot of cars, and the auto industry has begun to recognize that. Subaru, for one, has been a sponsor of the Showtime series The “L” Word, and also an advertiser on Viacom’s Logo channel.

A new survey (of 3,685 respondents) by Gaywheels.com and Sorgenfrei reveals that 67 percent of both gay male and lesbian car buyers consider it “very or somewhat important” for auto companies to exhibit a “gay-friendly” reputation (when it’s defined by whether the company offers domestic partner benefits to its employees).

This is a potent market with discretionary spending: 40 percent of respondents who bought their latest vehicle new reported household income over $100,000. And 42 percent of gay men and 39 percent of gay women report household income above that level.

Subaru’s wooing of the gay and lesbian audience seems to be working—at least on one level—because it was the overwhelming favorite (chosen by 45 percent of respondents, with Volkswagen and Ford a distant second and third) as the most gay-friendly car company. But that alone apparently doesn’t sell cars: Toyota (which had 12.8 percent of the overall car market in 2008) is the most frequently owned brand among people taking the survey.

“We are definitely perceived as gay friendly,” says Dominick Infante, a Subaru spokesman. “We believe in fairness for our employees, and we were the first car company to offer benefits to same-sex partners. We have also used [lesbian tennis star] Martina Navratilova as a spokeman in commercials, and advertised in the Advocate and Out.”

Dig a bit deeper, and the results get more interesting. According to Joe LaMuraglia, a former Nissan employee who now serves as Gaywheels.com’s publisher, Saab deserves special mention as the brand most over-represented among gay and lesbian buyers. The Sweden-based General Motors subsidiary has only a tiny .1 percent of the U.S. market, but gay men are 18 times more likely to own one than is the general public. Lesbians are 11 times more likely to own a Saab.

The brand preferences diverge after Saab. For lesbians, the number two brand in terms of over-representation is Scion, followed by Jeep, Subaru and Saturn. For men, it’s Audi, then Mini, VW and Jaguar.

“These results show that when it comes to marketing, gay men and lesbians are two very distinct groups, LaMuraglia said. “And companies that target them should realize they have to be targeted separately. Being gay-friendly and having good brand awareness are very positive factors, but the companies still have to have products that meet all their needs.”

Lesbians, by the way, are more likely to buy a car based on environmental factors than are gay men. Gay men say their cars proclaim that they are “successful, sexy and well-off.” Lesbians say their car announces that they are “practical, environmentally conscious and partnered.”

Freud would ask... do you want them to be girls?



 

And yet if everybody was allowed to imitate the BSA organization, they would be much more popular.
 

If they had not urned around and used an obvious Girl Scout uniform I would find your explanation quite accurate.  Since they went from infringing the BSA to infringing the GSA it is zero-sum as an argument.

The most I would find plausible is the complete lack of experince with any type of scouting by anyone I involved with the production of the commercial.  Stupidity is always a defense.

Even that is difficult to believe considering that they bought the vests off the shelf at the GSA store.  No uniform at all would have worked.

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I thought he would ask About my mother?

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I always assumed the PT Cruiser was the real dyke-mobile, at least around Houston it is.

I will NEVER buy a SUBARU, Tree huggin hippies love Subaru wagons. They are always plastered with left wing bumper stickers and blocking the fast lane.

They track it by VIN number.  I'll keep it simple:  Let's say there is a "Lesbian Organization" or magazine that has members/subscribers.  SOA (or the subcontractor they use) will buy that organizations member data, and cross reference it with their own.  They do the same thing with MANY other organizations that they think will buy Subarus.

When they get matches, they then target those specific customers with coupons for service, new cars, etc.  They might even use certain material that they think will appeal to them.  Since they have access to the service records from their dealer network, they can track who was advertised to, and who came in for service or bought a new car as a result.  From what I've been told when I've asked the Ad guys about this, they say that the response rate from the "Alt" community is less than that of the "outdoor" community that they also target.  

I've never seen any data to prove anything, but since these Ad companies do work for multiple manufacturers they have a good idea of who buys what.  I was told that from the data they have collected over the years, Subaru does not have the highest percentage of "Alternative Lifestyle" drivers..... but he wouldn't tell me what does.  

If I had to guess I would say VW takes that title.

Not out here. It is the unofficial car of Idaho.



 

Alright, so who are the Saab driving homos here?








Gotta love this place. People here will get bent out of shape over anything.




 

Lots of them in Colorado, too.  When I lived out there, my Subaru wagon got around in the snow in the mountains better than anything else I tried.

Plenty in Utah too. You know, if you have your own it doesn't have to have left wing stickers on it. You can put on whatever stickers you want!!!!!!



 

Pinewoood derby-type cars are used by other than boy scouts.  It is the obvious nature of the uniform being from GSA rather than BSA that makes this ridiculous.  A Cub Scout chirt, sans patches would have been enough to deflect lawsuits, I should think.

Ah . . .  never attribute to malice what can be atributed to stupidity.

Oh shit, I'm doing it wrong.   I guess I have to run out and take off my BFL decal and speed up a little.  

delete

i wouldnt think twice about buying another one. first car was a subaru. my friends and i tried to kill that car..... and failed. we would put our helmets on (with no roll bar i know, stupid) and go flying through 4 wheeler trails in the woods taking the jumps and all, 70+ mph through corn feilds, drove it through the sandbar that most trucks got stuck in many times, etc. the car would not die, shit would fall off, but it would not die. in fact it did 80+ down dirt roads all the way to the crusher, and my father was amazed the car was so manuverable at speed on loose gravel as he could not keep up.

now i miss my suby. gonna start shopping for one now, hope i can get the rainbow stickers off. lol

This is the answer.





 

Subaru makes great cars.  AND they aren't subsidized by the Gov'ment...  

 

And the GIrl Scouts have less clout that the Boy Scouts?  Come on, I don't really buy that.

I loved my Saab when I had it, but drive a Honda right now.  I want a late '90s Saab 900 Turbo, though.

BSA does control their uniform usage, but while the vest is the wrong color it is fairly common in Cub Scouts -
http://www.577scouts.org/cubs/uniforms.htm Scroll down.

They likely have just as much clout.  Subaru could have made a commercial of girls going around, selling cookies.  With that in mind, to avoid any copyright issues, they likely would have had the girls wearing blue uniforms.

That's outrageous. Almost as bad as that apple commercial where the guy was wearing white after labor day.

Royal Ranger's (a Church group) do the vest thing and also the pinewood car's. Some of you people need to get a life and stop worring about who drives what car.