Rick Rosner: The question is: why are holiday car ads so clichéd and disconnected? The question is about how some come across as out of touch or uninspired, and it seems inexplicable. The most ridiculed feature is the big red bow on the cars.

Is it because people who buy luxury cars as gifts without consulting their significant others on such a major purchase are foolish? Or, perhaps there is another explanation: maybe that’s part of it, but the primary point might be that the shallowness is deliberate. It’s showcasing people so wealthy that their actions and decisions don’t need to make sense—they’re insulated by their wealth.

This idea ties into Thorstein Veblen’s theory of the leisure class, which argues that true wealth is demonstrated through conspicuous consumption—spending on extravagant, unnecessary things purely for the sake of showing one’s status. This theory, over 120 years old, remains relevant.

What these ads are really selling, through the portrayal of uninspired characters, is the idea of such extreme privilege that even mediocrity or foolishness is still rewarded and protected by one’s social position, represented by the luxury car.

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Rick Rosner, American Comedy Writer, www.rickrosner.org

Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Independent Journalist, www.in-sightpublishing.com

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