NEWSFLASH TO FORD: REAL CAR GUYS ARE NOT THAT SHALLOW

Ford has begun a new advertising campaign that centers around customers who test drive their products and subsequently decide that a Ford is in their future. Their decisions are essentially a knee jerk reaction after a very good test flight behind the wheel of a new Ford.

There is nothing wrong with the idea that a new Ford test drive might persuade a buyer to go Blue Oval.

Ford has been around for over a century because people like their cars- a lot. But no Chrysler or General Motors real car guy /owner will switch simply based upon a quick test drive in a Ford- this is not car guy reality.

Real car guys are different from the people in the Ford commercials. They are loyal to their brand and would be very unlikely to dump a beloved make and model because they drove around for an hour in a rival manufacturer's car. In fact, the very reason for car clubs is the unwavering brand loyalty demonstrated by real car guys.

Real car guys are not likely to jettison their old loyalties in the lightning-fast style exhibited by the people in the Ford commercials. There is little doubt that Ford used non- car guys for the commercials because no car guy could look at himself in the mirror after becoming a star in the Ford commercial.

Ford took a big detour around the philosophy of the average car guy in their commercials. One can only hope that none of the people in the commercials actually categorized themselves as car guys based upon their superficial assessment of a spin around the block.

One can also hope that the people in the commercials don't operate on shallow impulse so quickly when it comes to people issues. With these kinds of spontaneously abandoned loyalty tendencies, you really wouldn't want to test the people in the commercials out as comrades-in-arms in a spontaneous barroom brawl.

So Ford should issue a disclaimer on their commercials: The people in this commercial are not car guys.

Never were-never will be.

Jim Sutherland

Many stories about loyal car guys at http://www.mystarcollectorcar.com/