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The
New York Times (2-22-03)
S.U.V.'s and Satire
To the Editor:
In
"Did My Car Join Al Qaeda?" (Op-Ed, Feb. 16), Woody Hochswender
seems to miss the point of the ads run by the Detroit Project, a
group that I co-founded. He has obviously fallen victim to an epidemic
of literal-mindedness that is sweeping the country. The use of exaggeration
to make satirical points is a venerable tactic in the tradition
of Jonathan Swift: savage humor at the service of passionate conviction,
intended not to provoke laughs but social change. Irreverence with
a purpose. Would Mr. Hochswender have also fumed about the outlandishness
of Swift's "modest proposal" that Irish babies be sold
for food?
Our
spots were a parody of those outrageous drug war ads that the Bush
administration has flooded the airwaves with. They were intended
to push the envelope and grab the viewer by the throat, to break
through the information overload clutter and spark a national conversation
about S.U.V.'s, fuel efficiency and oil independence. Does anyone
doubt that they worked?
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
Los Angeles, Feb. 20, 2003
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