The Ford Motor Company Thinks We're Idiots.

I take notice when I see a brand new Ford F-150, in black, rolling up behind me at a stop sign or on the highway or whatever. It's a mean looking truck with a big grille. I'm actually kinda surprised that Michael Bay didn't use one in his Transformers film.

Oh that's right, GM footed the bill.

Anyway, Ford is kicking a whole lot of ass in the automobile manufacturing thing. Granted, they don't make their vehicles in the United States anymore, and well, there was that whole "Explorer Roll Over" thing from a few years ago but for the most part, their product design and marketing is smoking the competition.

That was, until I saw their latest series of television ads.

Instead of explaining the ads to you, let me break down the meeting between the ad exec and the CEO of Ford Motor Company:

"Ok, we got this whole new approach to our advertisements in the first quarter," says the ad exec.

"I'd love to hear it." Says the CEO.

"Ok, what's better than a customer testimonial?"

"I don't know, customer testimonials are pretty solid,"

"I know, but what if we could get non-Ford owners to say how much they love our cars, without them actually buying one?"

"My god, how could we pull off such a feet?"

"Well, we'll track down some 'average Americans', the shittier their car the better. If they drive a GM or a Toyota, even better! We'll lend them one of our brand new, top of the line automobiles for a week. I'm talking the best editions, with the in-dash video screens and leather interiors. You know, the 60K models."

"I think I see where you're going with this, but go on..."

"We'll lend them these cars, then take them back and then have them look into a camera and say how much they enjoyed the 'Ford Experience.' It's fool proof."

"You're right, American buyers will eat it up, because they're idiots. They'll never realize that we've taken someone's shitty, horrible, takes-three-good-hard-turns-of-the-key-to-start cars, with the paint peeling off of them, and replaced it with a brand new 2008 model of one of our pricier models. This is genius!"

So there, Ford thinks Americans are idiots. I mean, who else could possibly be hypnotized by some 'average Americans' thinking that a brand-new Ford is vastly superior to a GM that's 15 years older?

I enjoy the ride in a Ford, and I've had far too many bad experiences with GM vehicles to have much faith in them much longer. But still, if the Ford Motor Company really wants to sell more cars, I would recommend to them that they starting treating their perspective customers as more than complete imbeciles.