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Abstract
We review messaging within automobile advertisements that normalizes and glamorizes reckless driving behavior. Our content analysis of video advertisements illustrates the use of the automobile in ways that are both illegal and dangerous. Advertisements with hazardous driving images occur more often in our sample than all other types of marketing strategies. Messages include deviance from distributional norms (atypical vehicle use); illegal or immoral driving behaviors that put others at risk; and questionable judgments on the part of manufacturers that use advertisement imagery to increase sales while assuming little of the public costs associated with accidents, injuries, and preventable fatalities on roadways.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Seth L. Feinberg
SETH L. FEINBERG is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at Western Washington University. His current research focuses on the causes and consequences of preventable mortality and forced migration in modern African states. His prior research has been published in various journals including American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Teaching Sociology, and Qualitative Sociology.
Mikaela J. Dufur
MIKAELA J. DUFUR is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Brigham Young University. The bulk of her research examines social resources available to children and youth in their families and at their schools. She also studies issues of race and gender in sport. Her research has been published in outlets such as Social Forces, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
Amy Famelos
AMY FAMELOS is a graduate of the Sociology Department at Western Washington University.
Valeria Fisher
VALERIA FISHER is a graduate of the Sociology Department at Western Washington University. She is currently a Fulbright Award grantee working as an English language teaching assistant at a secondary school in Potsdam, Germany.