Re: [FWDLK] Tasteless Remarks and the Dodge LaFemme.
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Re: [FWDLK] Tasteless Remarks and the Dodge LaFemme.



And I was looking Forward to the creation of the Chrysler Klansman,
which should be of great affinity to too many of our members.



On 6/26/2013 1:34 PM, Jim Bennett wrote:
Please stay on topic. These comments could be offensive to some list
members.
In a message dated 6/26/2013 4:30:58 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
jrawa@xxxxxxx writes:

I wasn't  going to jump in, but Larry is on board... This sad society isn't
happy unless  there's something to cry about. At the time, the LeFemme had
pink on it to  appeal to women... Because pink is girlish and at that time
women were  becoming, or were allowed to be more independent.. Cherokee,
pontiac,  cheiftan.. they should be honored.. and I didn't know scottsmen were
cheap! I  just learned a stereotype!

What should really happen is the govt should  start liberal motors, have
cars named tree hugger, that secretly put out  4times more emissions, or
electric cars called the men-on-men, that you  connect together by phallic
looking plugs to charge at night!

If only  the minds of America could have individuality as they did when
fins were  in...people need a good slap, but today you'll get sued!

Sent from my  Verizon Wireless Phone

----- Reply message -----
From: "Larry Ashbaugh"  <ALIENVOICE@xxxxxxx>
To:  <L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [FWDLK] ... and the Dodge  LaFemme.
Date: Wed, Jun 26, 2013 3:53 pm



Welcome to the world of political conformity and  correctness.  Since the
name Cherokee has never denigrated the Cherokee  Nation, nor American
Indians, I am surprised that anyone would have any  concern with the
re-introduction of this honored nameplate.  Maybe  Chrysler's use of the name without
negative"stereotypes" will save it the  righteous outrage of America's Liberal
elite, although I see some enterprising  Lawyer somewhere approaching Native
Americans to help sooth their "offense"  through a substantial lawsuit of
the Chrysler barbarians (is Barbarian an  offensive term?).
The Cherokee name is a good name, a strong name, and a name that Americans
associate with solid, quality transportation for the family and  for
occasional (or not so occasional) forays into the boonies for the fun of  driving.
That noise you hear is America clapping for the Chrysler execs who made
the correct name choice.
Larry in Middle America (Akron, Ohio)
57 (2), 58, 59 Coronets & 60  Saratoga ForwardLook  and many more Mopars
In a message dated 6/26/2013 11:44:04 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
x779@xxxxxxxxx writes:

When Cars Assume Ethnic  Identities

Making its debut for the 2014 model year is a new Jeep  with a name from
the brand’s past: Cherokee.

By GLENN  COLLINS

June 21, 2013

Coming to a showroom near you for 2014:  the first sport utility vehicle in
its class equipped with a 9-speed  automatic transmission. It’s also the
first to offer a parallel-parking  feature. And, in 4-wheel-drive models, the
rear axle disconnects  automatically, for fuel efficiency.

Oh, yes: its name is the Jeep  Cherokee.

Hold on -- wasn’t that model name retired more than a  decade ago? Wasn’t
it replaced by the Jeep Liberty for 2002?

Yet  now, in a time of heightened sensitivity over stereotypes, years after
  ethnic, racial and gender labeling has been largely erased from sports
teams, products and services, Jeep is reviving an American Indian model  name.
Why?

“In the automobile business, you constantly have to  reinvent yourself, and
sometimes it’s best to go back to the future,” said  Allen Adamson,
managing director of the New York office of Landor  Associates, a brand and
corporate identity consultancy.

Jeep, a  division of the Chrysler Group, explained that its market research
revealed  a marked fondness for the name. The 2014 version, said Jim
Morrison,  director of Jeep marketing, “is a new, very capable vehicle that has
the  Cherokee name and Cherokee heritage. Our challenge was, as a brand, to
link  the past image to the present.”

The company says it respects changed  attitudes toward stereotyping. “We
want to be politically correct, and we  don’t want to offend anybody,” Mr.
Morrison said. Regarding the Cherokee  name, he added: “We just haven’t
gotten any feedback that was disparaging.”

Well, here’s some: “We are really opposed to stereotypes,” said  Amanda
Clinton, a spokeswoman for the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. “It would  have
been nice for them to have consulted us in the very least.”

But, she added, the Cherokee name is not copyrighted, and the tribe  has
been offered no royalties for the use of the name. “We have encouraged  and
applauded schools and universities for dropping offensive mascots,” she  said,
but stopped short of condemning the revived Jeep Cherokee because,  “
institutionally, the tribe does not have a stance on this.”

So far,  marketing materials for the 2014 Cherokee model have eschewed
references to,  or portrayals of, American Indians and their symbols. That’s a
far cry from  the excesses of past years, when marketers went beyond
embracing  stereotyping to reveling in it. Indeed, Chrysler’s restraint seems an
indication of just how much things have changed.

For decades,  American Indian tribal names have helped to propel
automobiles out of  showrooms. Return with us now to the era when Pontiac’s sales
brochures  carried illustrations comparing its 6-cylinder engines to six
red-painted,  feathered cartoon Indian braves rowing a canoe.

Or review Pontiac’s  marketing copy, which proclaimed that “among the
names of able Indian  warriors known to the white race in America, that of
Pontiac, chief of the  Ottawas and accepted leader of the Algonquin family of
tribes, stands  pre-eminent.” Of course, the visage of the chief was
appropriated as a hood  ornament.

Many other tribes were adopted as marketing tools. Long  gone is the Jeep
Comanche pickup truck, sold in the late 1980s, along with  the Jeep Comanche
Eliminator.

Certainly, American Indian names are  still in the market: consider Indian
motorcycles, about to resurface under  yet another new owner, Polaris
Industries. And Chrysler’s full-sized S.U.V.,  the Grand Cherokee, introduced in
1992 as a larger version of the Cherokee  and still a market leader. In fact,
its success was a reason for the revival  of the Cherokee name for a
midsize S.U.V.

American Indians have  hardly been alone in the cavalcade of automobile
cultural stereotyping. In  the 1950s, advertising for the Studebaker Scotsman
didn’t actually use the  word cheapskate, but prospective buyers were
informed that “when you and  your family sit in your thrifty Scotsman...this great
Studebaker body  cradles you, your family and friends in safety.” It should
be noted, though,  that the Scotsman featured cardboard door panels and its
hubcaps and trim  weren’t chrome-plated: they were painted silver.

While there is no  indication that the General Motors Viking was
discontinued in the early  1930s because of protests by outraged Scandinavians, it’s a
certainty that  no automaker’s copy writers would dare write today that “
the development of  the Viking car closely parallels the development of the
Viking youth in  attaining manhood,” where “only those best fitted for
leadership survived to  contribute to the strength and superiorities of the race.”
Moreover,  in the Roaring Twenties there was no apparent feminist backlash
against the  Little Jordan Tomboy. The cover of its 1927 advertising
brochure depicted a  smart, stylish woman in jodphurs and knee-length boots,
clutching a riding  crop. The purple marketing prose stated that “I am the Little
Jordan  Tomboy,” with “a thousand miles of open road before my saucy nose.”
Also hard to fathom today is the Studebaker Dictator, “Champion of  its
Class,” discontinued after 1937, when the rise of Hitler and Mussolini  gave
the model name an unpleasant odor.

In the late 1920s, the quest  for association with high-profile leaders led
the Windsor Autoworks in St.  Louis to shamelessly place a color portrait
of the Prince of Wales on its  1929 brochure for a new vehicle, The White
Prince. Buckingham Palace was not  amused, and expressed its displeasure.

American Indians have long  opposed derogatory sports-team labels and
likened fans’ use of war paint to  the derogation of African-Americans with
blackface. The N.C.A.A. has  forbidden the use of nicknames, as well as mascots,
logos, signs and band  uniforms that are “deemed hostile or abusive in terms
of race, ethnicity or  national origin.”

In 1994, St. John’s University in New York changed  the name of its sports
teams from the Redmen to the Red Storm. Also gone are  the Miami Redskins
and the Marquette University Warriors; the Southeastern  Oklahoma State
University Savages are now the Savage Storm.

The  Washington Redskins have resisted; so have the Atlanta Braves,
opposing a  name change or the discontinuation of its tomahawk chop. But the Braves’
   team mascots, Chief Noc-A-Homa and Princess Win-A-Lotta, have been
remaindered.

Even aside from the use of an American Indian tribal  name in the Jeep
Cherokee, the risks are high in the introduction of any  vehicle. Automobile
experts estimate the cost of renewing a nameplate like  Jeep Cherokee at more
than $50 million.

Why, given these risks,  return to a discontinued brand? “Coming up with
new names is very expensive  these days,” said Mr. Adamson, the brand
consultant, explaining that  trademark research, focus groups and legal due
diligence can be costly. The  growing quest for viable names -- and the third-rail
of stereotypical  labeling -- are possible explanations for the advent of
such hard-to-spell  monikers as the Volkswagen Tiguan, and the growing adoption
of concocted  names like Acura, Elantra, Infiniti and Lexus - as well as
the proliferation  of alphanumeric designations.

“New models have all of these  three-letter-code designations that mean
nothing to me,” said Stephen W.  Hayes, a Manhattan automotive historian and a
collector of printed auto  memorabilia, of nameplates like MKX, RX 350,
F-150, 328i, QX56 and GL450  that populate the auto world. “Companies don’t
name their cars as colorfully  anymore.”

Nevertheless, “just the name of a brand itself is one of  the most powerful
marketing tools you have,” Mr. Adamson said. “Automobile  brands define
who you are, and Cherokee summons up rich associations.”

The Jeep Cherokee was a winner from the start, introduced in 1974 as  a
sport utility vehicle with the latest gadgets. Recent market research  revealed
that “there was so much passion behind the Cherokee,” Mr. Morrison,  the
Jeep marketing director, said. “What was really interesting was that  people’
s fondness for the Cherokee was greater than that for Liberty.”

Giving the new Jeep its old tribal name may have seemed just another
acceptable risk. “Names can be polarizing, and can cause controversy, so you
have to be careful,” Mr. Adamson said, but opposition to brand names has
become something of a national pastime. “Anytime you introduce a name,  someone
will be upset.”

A name that has zero associations is even  more likely to sabotage a new
model’s introduction. “If you have a name that  offends nobody, then you end
up with a forgettable brand” that won’t cling  to the memory, Mr. Adamson
said.

“So,” he said, “it just won’t be  sticky.”

=Lou=



~~~~~~~~~~ **-=\/=-** ~~~~~~~~~~



The opposite of bravery is not cowardice, but conformity.       Robert
Anthony

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