@varro: "Too soon" is what people said to Gilbert Gottfried when he joked about "Catching a connecting flight at the Empire State Building".

After which, Gottfried went into his legendary interpretation of "The Aristocrats".

T-zone is a legitimate medical term for that area of the face.

Wouldn't surprise me if Nader's personal crusade was counterproductive (as the 2000 election campaign was) but the example he set for people getting interested in and scrutinizing consumer issues was very important, well beyond the car industry. Ludicrous to put any blame on him for the decline of the US car industry anyway.

Anecdotes about owning corvairs don't prove anything....Tests by car magazines and the DOT etc...those said that corvairs were as safe or safer than other cars of that size. Nader was proven pretty much wrong on his attack on what was a really inovative automobile and the end result was that GM stopped any real development on the car after 1966....His dishonesty and/or ignorance set back automotive economy and progress who knows where we might be today if he hadn't.

And beside, much like my Mustang, it's repaired using a box-wrench and a slot-driver, rather than a soldering-iron and a serial cable.

Also, a re-examination of James Dean's fatal crash has proven that he was in fact NOT speeding at the time, but was going the speed limit. PBS Nova did a show on it over a decade ago, but James Dean still gets a bad rap.

They *stopped* coating the WTC steel with the asbestos coating at about floor 87, cause that's when the fuss kicked up.

Several engineers, including the guy who designed it, assert that had they kept going all the way up, the buildings probably would not have fallen down, and their arguments ring true on inspection.

So, double-reverse-irony with a twist!

"I am Jack's toasty Pinto."

Hahaha.. so much win. Thanks for that. XD

Classic '80s flick, for sure.

There's an ad campaign from roughly 10 years ago which deserves (at the very least) honorable mention in ironic adverts.

"Ask Why"

This TV campaign dared us to question the status quo of bussiness, communications and energy.

The fatal flaw was it omitted the question of "how" the company was achieving its stellar growth rate.

In 2001, someone asked. When the answers started flowing, Enron crashed from a top ten Fortune company into bankruptcy in a matter of weeks.

What makes it even more ironic is - even after we knew the "why" involved shady accounting and no federal oversight - countless banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies were able to duplicate Enron's stunts, putting our economy in its current state.

P.S. Thanks for fixing those errors, Consumerist.

My father owned a number of second cars when I was growing up. One of them was a 1960 Corvair sedan. I truly hated that thing. While mom was working, Dad would watch us and we had to go to the bowling alley every Friday for his league tournaments. My sister and I ended up fighting over who would sit up front, because the back seat was noisy from the rear-mounted engine. On top of that, the Corvair always smelled like gas inside (I learned later it may have been from the gas-powered heating system unique to '60 models). Dad fortunately replaced that car with a VW Beetle; it wasn't much better, but at least it didn't smell like gas!
By the way, the James Dean PSA was actually a segment of ABC's "Warner Brothers Presents" (1955-56), which rotated series versions of three Warner film properties--"King's Row"; "Casablanca" and "Cheyenne". Each episode was followed by a 15 minute feature called "Behind The Scenes At Warner Brothers"; it was used to promote the studio's latest films and stars. But only the "Cheyenne" segment was a hit; by early 1956, the "Behind The Scenes" feature was dropped and "King's Row" was eliminated; "Cheyenne" would alternate with other WB produced series through 1962.

@YoAmphisbaena: It would have helped if people read the owners manual that said to inflate the rear tires to only 15 psi.

Sorry, what? I couldn't hear you over your GOP Pity Party.

and in other news..... about the CORVAIR in the ads... I had a 1966... Loved that car (had to sell her though, so sad... but WILL have another before I hit 40 no doubt)

If you had been harmed by thalidomide, you wouldn't have been able to type that.

Ironically, it was Nader's book that got the NHTSA started.

Now my 4 yr old is so locked down in his carseat, he can't even moon the car next to us.

Actually the Corvair doesn't belong here. Investigation of the alleged handling problems led to the development of the science of car handling. Guess what, the Corvair's handling was great. Eventually this debacle lead to the book "Race Car Vehicle Dynamics" by Milliken and Milliken, so I guess it wasn't a complete waste of time.

"You mean, we can charge people to bring clothes on a trip?"

I agree that these are indeed very ironic, however i dont see any "sexy" ironic ads?

TOO SOON!

yes it was, my mom had a pinto and I didn't even know what a car seat was.

I miss them unlegislated olden days.

Ah, the innocent days before a Union Carbide plant in India killed obliterated everyone in sight.

The stench of this "new India" remain to date,

Who says advertising doesn't tell the true?

Watched without sound because I'm still at work.

That WAS creepy, but you know what was creepier? All the happy, smiling customer service people!

It's not cool to make fun of foreigners. Times are tough right now. I don't see you paying minimum wage for American editors.

@I Love New Jersey: in March 2001, the pilot episode of the X-Files spin-off The Lone Gunmen featured a plot by a cabal within the US government to remotely hijack an airliner and crash it into the World Trade Center.

Jesus Christ.

They were both pretty good, dependable cars. Handling, compared to my parent's big Buick was pretty good.

The NHTSA later proved they handled better than many other 60s cars. It turned out Nader was wrong.

GM screwed up big time when they went after Nader the man and not his research.

When I was a kid, my family owned a Corvair and a Pinto. Not kidding. And we all lived to tell the tale.

No, Cant_stop_the_rock said they personally can't laugh at 9/11 jokes (yet) and the accompanying text contains a joke about 9/11.

Before you melodramatically lecture people on remembering history by swallowing failed attempts at humor, you should probably read and take notes. Being condescending doesn't work if you're wrong or oblivious.

This is factually inaccurate. Asbestos would not have given hundreds time to escape.

First of all, when the planes hit the towers, they sliced through all the stairways in the north tower and all but one in the south. In the North tower, people above the point of impact mostly could not get out--and it's not clear how much more time would have helped people escape. Basically, almost all the people who could get out did get out before the towers fell. (USA Today, 12/21/01)

Furthermore, much insulation on the structural steel was dislodged by the physical impact of the massive planes crashing into it.

Finally, there was much evidence that there were significant gaps in the building's fireproofing--asbestos and non-asbestos based. Inspections relating to asbestos lawsuits had pictures that showed large gaps--due to some mix of improper application, elevator cables hitting them, and the building's sway in high winds.

So there is no logical reason to believe asbestos would have made a lick of difference, and engineers' reports have overwhelmingly concluded this. At this point, "asbestos prohibition killed people in the WTC" is up there with the "inside job" conspiracy myths of 9/11.

What is referred to here is the fact that when these towers collapsed, asbestos flew into the air for MILES. I was in Brooklyn on 9/11, approximately 2 miles from the WTC. Not only could you smell the buildings burning, but papers from the towers made their way to my block. When the buildings collapsed, asbestos simply went everywhere--and the closer you were to the point of impact, the denser it was. People and buildings and entire city blocks were simply covered with powdery white debris. It was like a 2-year-old in a bathroom with a jumbo sized container of talcum powder. But not cute. Really, really horrifying as people walked down the street like freaked-out ghosts.

This post is a reference to the rage many New Yorkers feel because we were LIED TO and told that the WTC area was safe in the days and weeks after the collapse. We were told it was OK to be in the area, to be in the neighborhood. We were told that the coating of white dust in our homes was perfectly safe. We were told it was OK to send our kids to school in the WTC area.

All of these were lies. It was not safe. People were denied the ability to decide for themselves what kind of risk they wanted to take--shrug your shoulders and clean up the dust, or have it professionally abated by men in suits. Shrug off the danger, or keep your kid at home. These are choices people have a right to make based on the facts, and we were not given the facts. We were lied to and told things were safe.

New Yorkers are STILL pissed about this.

Then you must have missed this:

[www.theonion.com]

One of the funniest things I've ever read.

It was particularly bizarre, because neither my mother (menopausal) nor myself (no chance of getting pregnant that year), nor the visiting nurse (no idea of her fertility, but this was her job, after all) were not allowed to even handle the package, even with gloves on.

I mean My Aura has a sports suspension and a 3.6l V6, but you would be damned if you saw me hitting 120 on the GSP.

I can DO it, and I know people who have in the same car, but I am not stupid enough to think I am that good of a driver to do it and not cause a accident and get killed.

If you have ever seen the videos of the tests Nader had them do, the way they have the cars being driven is extreme to put it mildly. Not to mention like I said the Beetle and most German cars of that time used the same suspension, and DIDNT get attacked for it, and DID pass the European safety standards, of which the US had no equal test of the day, which was why they where allowed to be imported into the US.

the Covair is a GOOD card that got a really crummy rap from a guy who designed a test to make a example of someone.

Nader set back small car design in the US for decades.

@600Followers_GitEmSteveDave: Thats not a baby. The message they are trying to convey is that the back of the Pinto is roomy enough for a menage-a-trois as long as one of the participants is a midget.

The VW beetle doesn't count because it can't go fast enough to be a danger to anyone.

It was spelled "AYDS", the AYDS diet plan.

Back then, I used to use an HP terminal that had a key on the keyboard labeled "AIDS." It was basically a Help button, but we would always joke about not touching the "AIDS" key. Someone would grab a long stick and use it to press the key and everyone would laugh. Boy were we stupid.

Be sure to find a good contemporary ad for Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs when you re-run this in 10 years.

@kingmanic: I would like to add that I found the James Dean interview to be very bizarre. It actually made me somewhat uncomfortable listening to the weird interaction between the two of them.

Mom worked at a movie theater during the summer holidays, and she had a great view of the road in front from the ticket booth. Being a fan of cars she paid attention to the interesting ones that went past, and one day she was eyeing a Corvair sitting at the traffic light when the engine block dropped out and hit the street. She said it was like a scene in a movie, the way everyone around paused and turned to look.

@B: That would be the Kellogg company . . .

The towers were designed to withstand a direct impact of a Boeing 707 (largest jet at the time), so it was hit with something bigger than it's design criteria.

The towers would likely have collapsed anyway due to heat, but it might have given people another hour or two to get out and saved the lives of hundreds.

They stuck around for a few months after AIDS became mainstream knowledge, and then disappeared. I always wondered why they just didn't change their name.

I stopped counting, and stopped reading, after about the 6th typo. I'm no spelling/grammar police, but this is kinda ridiculous.

You objected to them presenting images of the WTC. Otherwise, there is nothing about the ad outside of the tagline, concerning the WTC, as it is concentrating on Asbestos, not the WTC.

I laughed, but then again, I'm a pretty bad person in general.

Eddie Murphy's comedy stand-up "Raw" has a recollection of his conversation with Bill Cosby about inappropriate language and topics for Eddie's jokes. Eddie called Richard Pryor, who said:

"Did the people laugh?"

"Yeah..."

"Did you get paid?"

"Well, yeah..."

"Well, tell Bill I said, 'have a Coke and a smile and shut the fuck up!'"

RIP Richard Pryor

@Jim Topoleski: A lucid and informative comment from you.

"Who says advertising doesn't tell the true? "

Errant double quote in James Dean quote.

@Wombatish: I'm hoping that the the Ford Pinto isn't your idea of the best example of late 60s through early 80s styling. You must be a Gremlin fan, too.

I know it's not prophetic...but it's still gives me the creeps. Chill out.

@Cant_stop_the_rock: The text is a pretty lame attempt at something. Most skyscrapers don't collapse when they are on fire unless they have thousands of gallons of jet fuel feeding the blaze.

I also wonder if the asbestos in the WTC already been abated when the terrorists attacked.

Those that forget the past are doomed to repeat it. So we should cover up every image of the world trade center and try and pretend it never happened? I thought it was ridiculous when I read movies were going in and editing out images of the buildings. I don't think we are supposed to be outright laughing at the ads above, but rather reflecting upon how the ads were presented to society. I am sure 30 years from now we will wonder at ads touting carbon fiber when we learn it has some kind of devious medical side effect when in dust form.

They weren't as bad as people said. They fixed the swing axles and it was really quite a compelling car, essentially an American Porsche. If it had been successful, I think American cars could have gone down a path of lighter, more efficient and sophisticated cars. Oh well.

Sorry, but I don't think it's creepy or prophetic. It's after the fact whogivesashit.

[en.wikipedia.org]

@600Followers_GitEmSteveDave:
O
M
G

Both did get you skinny and curbed hunger. It's the "chewy" part that sets them apart.

NO ONE who drove the Corvair properly ever died from any of the supposed flaws with it.

NO ONE

The idea the care was critically flawed was purposely pursued by Nader in making it do things the car was never designed to do

Thats like saying "HEY this 50 pound tested hook couldnt hold 100 pounds its flawed."NO the person putting 100 pounds on it is a moronic jackass.

And we wont even go into the fact that the car had been redesigned by the point the book came out and was even safer.

But hey you know lets pick on the Corvair, because you know its not like no other cars had the same suspension as it.... OH WAIT THE VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE DID.As well as ALL cars of the era had ridged steering wheels.

The ONLY criticism of the car that was valid, was a shitty designed heater system, but again it relyed on people not maintaining their cars properly to cause a problem to occur.

Eh, I chuckled a little at the Asbestos, and didn't really react to the 9/11 reference.

Also the Dean PSA was sad, but you would think they would air it especially because of how he died...

This quote just NEVER GETS OLD.
I am Jack's toasty Pinto.

-Everyone say "cheese" when Air Force One flys over.

@HiPwr: Back in the dark ages, we didn't have car seats to worry about. I'm guessing some people didn't worry much about diapers, either.

My family had a Pinto stationwagon back in the day. My mom tells stories of me as a 2 year old walking around the back of the car while my dad drove around town. Fun times.

@sharkd: Looks like a BMW in your picture so perhaps you take after the milkman?

"Ah, the innocent days before a Union Carbide plant in India killed obliterated everyone in sight."

"You want a hear my nightmare?"

...but ...but i like presenting anecdotes as evidence...

Irony making you laugh is ironic.

My first car was a 1965 Mustang 289 3-spd convertible. Wild guess who I take after...

I thought that was the reason for the lack of clothes, less fuel for the fire.

drugging the baby reminds me of the old joke where the new mother tells her doctor thank you 'cause those tranquilizers are miracle drugs until the doctor explained, "no, no, they're for YOU to take, not the kids!"

I know how terrible that is but I couldn't stop laughing for two or three minutes.

Here here! I just came in to make the same point. The driver coming the other was crossed the center when blinded by the sun.

Tired of people giving J-dog and his 550 a bad name...

They should have depicted the doctor smoking a cigarette during the examination.

@Cant_stop_the_rock: Well they are saying the ad is ironic not funny, but the copy next to the ad does seem like a lame attemp at humor. Actually its so badly written I cant really tell what their intent was.

@600Followers_GitEmSteveDave: I didnt notie it at first but after further review id say there is definately butt crack there.

@600Followers_GitEmSteveDave: Did they drive to the field with a naked baby, or did they remove the clothes once they got there and are now leaving?

Good thing about transporting a baby in a Pinto would be that you don't have to worry about a child seat being that you will all die in the wreck any way.

The analysis of the accident says Dean wasn't speeding. It was the other drivers fault. Highway head-ons are always serious.

And I really like that color on the Pinto, but, is that baby naked?

We have T-zones now? Unfortuntately this is the kind of science we have lost in the past 50 years.