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[RubHer Yellow Ducky]

hummers helping? Sunday, Dec 23 2007 It's all about me! and Teaching and NOLA PhDaisy 8:24 pm
Speaking of commercials, I just saw one laden with Katrina images, streets flooded, etc. spliced with images of a Hummer driving through the deep water. The final tagline: Visit HummerHelps.com. Upon doing so, I was directed to the main Hummer page, then to a menu of links ?to learn more about what you can do with your truck,? some of which include stories of owners pursuing heroic efforts with their vehicles. The Katrina narrative begins as follows:

Some might argue Mike Morris? search-and-rescue vehicle of choice, a Hummer H1, is a fuel-sucking monster. But Morris isn?t making any apologies for himself and a small battalion of other H1 (and H2 and H3) owners who spent nearly two weeks serving as early responders after Hurricane Katrina.
?You don?t ask the ambulance that pulls up at your home what its fuel economy is,'? said Morris, of South Bend, Indiana, as he motored the debris-littered streets of New Orleans. The group, dubbed HOPE (Hummer Owners Prepared for Emergencies), performed a variety of volunteer work following Katrina?

OK?I?m not sure how I feel about this and, while the narrative begins to offer some support, the actual commercial?s visuals cast the Hummer as the superhero, not the individual heroes driving them. Also, this is but one story, so how are we to really assess the vehicle as a do-gooder, when the miles per gallon facts and environmental concerns are much more publicized and persuasive? Not to mention the vehicle?s reputation as a status symbol?
It?s been a long day and I need to think about this more thoroughly, but since I already planned to design a writing project around the visual rhetoric of Katrina, this commercial has moved to the top of my list!

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Mike Morris and the Hummer Hero's for what they did for the folks of New Orleans after Katrina is great news...
Thanks for sharing!

[Agriv8r]