unit thirteen

SUV: Globalization, Environmentalism, and Consumption

 

 

case study guidelines

 

CASE STUDY: Selling the SUV

1) You will begin preparing your case study research by first reading all the assigned materials for that class day. These are the texts everyone in class will read in advance of your session. These reading will introduce you to some important concepts, terms, and ideas. The excellent Frontline Documentary, ROLLEVER. may be of interest to you as well. The link is on the page for this Unit.

• Keith Bradsher, High & Mighty: SUVs: The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got that Way (NY Public Affairs, 2002)

We will read only a limited amount in class. You should read the whole book for your background research and focus on bringing these issues to the whole group.

Online sources that might get you started are the SUV Anti-Ad sites of the Detroit Project and the Anti-SUV website.

• The Detroit Project
• The Detroit Projects' RealAudio Anti-Ads
• The SUV Info Link
• SUV Satire Page
• SUV Menace

2) Your cases study should focus on the issue of marketing and selling SUVs. You will want to videotape television ads, find magazine and print ads and perhaps obtain SUV brochures from car dealers. Using what you know about the social context of the SUV craze, present and analyze the ads for the class. Learning from our work in Semiotics, you should think about what concepts the ads sell, what ideas, fears, and values they create/encourage in consumers.