I Had A Dream

Publication: Mooche News
BY The Mooche-2008-01-21

I n my dream the country was in the midst of a severe oil crisis, and gasoline was being rationed so tightly until there were very few cars on the road. Gas stations were shutdown and oil companies were going out of business too. The people were perplexed and the country was in shock because nobody had any answers.

Things were so bad until even the rich couldn't get gas, no matter how much they offered to pay for it. This created a situation unlike anything I had ever seen. Just like that, the automobile had literally been taken out of the American way of life.

The people in my neighborhood were in my dream and I can vividly remember how they managed to get along during that period of uncertainty. Some of them would go out and just sit in their cars, some continued to wash their cars and some had the hoods raised as though they were working on their cars.

None of this made sense to me because I knew there was no gas available and there was no hope of having gas anytime soon. There were some expensive fine cars on my street, as well as some not so fine and not so expensive ones too. In my dream, as the gas crisis deepened, personalities began to flare-up over the lack of not being able to drive.

The fact that nobody had gas meant everybody had to ride bikes or skateboards or walk wherever they needed to go because there was very little public transportation available. In time the people began to adjust and a lot of the tension eased. The idea of life without gas was becoming a reality to the country and the country accepted it and tried to move on.

I saw people that I didn't even know lived in my neighborhood, walking and talking and getting along without their cars remarkably well. In a roundabout way, this crisis looked like it was bringing people closer together.

Without the fronting that's often brought about by cars, people were starting to see each other differently in a positive kind of way. This was a national crisis, so people all over were without gas and pretty much had to make the same type of adjustments to their daily lives.

The country began pulling together in such a way until what started out as a negative situation was turning into something very promising. I could see a lot of the old divisive barriers being chipped away, because the crisis effected us all, and we knew that working together was the only way we would get through this.

Although the people were adapting, businesses were in a panic because cars were not selling. Advertising was down, and everything looked bleak for any business that depended on the automobile industry.

Some marketing executives decided to not take the crisis lying down, so they unveiled a series of ads depicting what you can do with a car that has no gas. The ads ranged from, if you buy a new car, the dealer would have you pushed home by a team of weight lifters, to how to turn your car into a home office.

Marketing is a hit and miss adventure where you never know what marketing strategy will be the big one, so you keep rolling out the ads and hope something catches on.

Just when I thought there was no chance for Madison Avenue to come up with any type of add that would turn the tide of life without gas, they hit the big one. It was funny, sexy, and filled with panache. The commercial in my dream went something like this:

A group of very wealthy country club members were having a contest to see whose Rolls Royce had the best smelling gas tank. Each car's gas tank was filled with the most expensive fragrance the owner could find.

The winner would receive a grand prize of a lifetime supply of the fragrance used in the tank and a trophy honoring the owner with the "gas tank of the year" award.
The vote was too close to call for the local judges, so the sponsors thought it would be a good idea if the general public would decide.
This commercial generated enough interest until the gas tank smelling contest became a huge hit reality show.