Car Trouble

Abstract

An advert for the Nissan Primera in 1996–97 has a man get up in the morning, dress, leave the house, drive to work, get to work, which turns out to be back at home. As Eagar puts it ‘A smug guppy in bed says “I think I’ll drive to work today, Mrs Jones.” His wife replies: “Fine, Mr Jones.”… You see, they work from home, but he likes the car so much, this Nissan Primera, that he still commutes’ (Eagar, 1997). The punch line of the ad is ‘It’s a driver’s car, so drive it’. When asked the reason for such a slogan, the writer of the ad, David Woods, said that ‘“We were looking for an unnecessary reason to drive a car”’ (quoted in ibid.).