Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Subaru Weather Bashing

You have probably seen the Subaru ads featuring the "World's Worst Weatherman."  This brutal slam of our all-important profession has really ticked off some meteorologists.

I was rolling with it, but now they have really ticked me off.  They have an option on their web site to "see how much of your life you have wasted on the weather."


There are two things I find deeply offensive about this.  First, one cannot waste time on the weather.  As Ben Franklin said, "Some are weather-wise, some are otherwise." Fluctuations in mercury are infinitely more interesting than fluctuations in gold.  Time spent thinking about the weather cannot be deducted from a persons life.

Second, and this is the real insult, when you click on the drop down menu to select the time spent checking the weather each day, the maximum option is ONLY THREE HOURS!!!

Are you kidding me?

Having owned a Subaru previously, me-thinks they need to start thinking more about head gaskets, struts, transmissions, and CV-joints than the weather.  We have our part covered.

3 comments:

  1. Doesn't matter what the forecast is, it still takes more than a 4-brain-cell driver to keep a 4-wheel-drive car on a snowy road.

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  2. Actually Jim, I think these ads are great and even though they mean to be funny, they actually have a good point. Weather information has always been weather centric instead of user centric. Meteorologists generally think that people want more weather information, when in fact most users just want the equivalent of a drive-thru forecast. If the forecast is for 80 and sunny the next three days, why does the TV weather guy get nearly as much time as when a snowstorm is coming?

    I'm firmly in the camp of loving to look at weather information for many more than 3 hours per day, but we're a small, small minority. We should be working towards tailoring weather information for the user, which often means less weather, not more.

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  3. Just having a little fun Joel. The 3-h thingy was too fun to pass up...

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