My brother works as a sales rep for a vet and ag supply company in regional Victoria, so does a lot of driving. His company is about to upgrade the fleet from Subaru Outbacks to Toyota Klugers. Now the semiotics of vehicle naming (and the implied driver) is all pretty obvious especially for Sports Utility Vehicles – open spaces, freedom, untamed frontiers, rugged landscapes – and passing a Ford Territory this morning just reinforced the point for me.
So I couldn’t help wondering if Holden hasn’t rather let the side down with the Captiva – one of which I also passed this morning. Maybe they were reaching for “captivating”, but the most obvious resonance is “captive” and “captivity”.
But maybe it wasn’t accidental. Maybe Holden are deliberately and subtly exposing the myths of freedom and limitless possibility that contemporary marketing depend on. Or making a point about oil dependency and slavery to a fossil fuel economy that is so powerfully exemplified in the SUV. Or highlighting the ways we are constrained by the ecological limits the SUV is meant to transcend.
It’s either deeply ironic or deeply subversive.
It is possible I’m just overthinking all this.
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