Harold Scruby - A threat to the Australian way of life.

In Australia we traditionally like our cars and we cover great distances in this great country. Mr Scruby is an anti car, anti fun extremist. He wants people to ride busses, walk, and he wants to ban 4 wheel drives. He takes photos of private citizen's cars and posts them up on the web, for such trivial things as window tinting and parking infringements.

What would be wrong with a car manufacturer presenting their product in an exciting way, demonstrating the fun that can be had in the vehicle? Here is the article - with rebuttals.

ROAD safety campaigners have slammed high-octane car TV ads on our screens,
saying they promote ?irresponsible? driving.

A day after The Daily Telegraph launched its bid to cut road deaths among young drivers, watchdogs (Watch dogs? Mr Scruby and his fax machine) have blasted motor manufacturers for encouraging fast driving in their ads.
Campaigner group the Pedestrian Council said the companies were ignoring guidelines which stated what kind of images could be shown on TV.

Among the ads Pedestrian Council chairman Harold Scruby finds most offensive is one for the Holden Commodore where a man drives down the road with his son strapped in on the back seat, smiling as he revs the engine. (What's wrong with revving the engine? engines are designed to rev. Some cars even have what is called a tacho, so you can see what speed the engine is revving at. Engines generate power by revving. One of the best things about a V8 Commodore is the way the engine sounds, so why not illustrate that feature?)

Mr Scruby said: "They're using subliminal affects to get around the code, which clearly prohibits cars speeding. (Why wouldn't anyone do what ever they can to get past your stupid fanatical power trip, Mr Scruby. Geez, I drive faster only because of people like you. And I'm also going to get my windows heavily tinted and am encouraging friends to do so, just because of you and your website.)

"Yet this whole advert, especially the audio of the engine revving, is designed to show the car speeding. (I can drive a car at 50kph in first gear with my engine redlining - you stupid fool)

"The worst part is the child smiling in the back of the car while his dad revs the engine. What a shocking image." (Ok, so it' s shocking for kids to enjoy cars. I would say a young kid who enjoys the sound of a nicely tuned V8 engine is well on their way to becoming a fine upstanding Aussie. Imagine being one of Scruby's kids.)

Others Mr Scruby believes are irresponsible include those for the BMW Mini, the Toyota Camry Sportivo and the Mitsubishi Magna.
He also dislikes a Mercedes ad which shows two Buddhist monks driving in a pair of Mercs who can't resist showing off their unexpected skills behind the wheel.
Mr Scruby said: "Firstly, they overtake a motorbike without indicating then they start doing very sharp turns. (Oooooooh "Very sharp turns" Look out. Maybe to illustrate the handling capabilities of a car. Some people who aren't small minded and enjoy a bit of fun, unlike you Mr Scruby, enjoy a vehicle which handles well.)

?Mercedes are supposed to be one of the safest cars on the road so why don't they focus on things like air bags and other safety features? Here, Mercedes ignore safety and promote cavalier driving.? (Some people don't buy cars for safety, and some people aren't interested in safety features. I for one would definately buy a car for power output and handling over safety features. If I had a family, maybe a different story but I want a car that goes like hell, stops well, and handles like it's on rails. The car manufacturer who can best illustrate those features will probably get my business, if not my first enquiry.)

I, and other Australians don't need you to tell us what to drive or how to drive Mr Scruby. Stick to the walk to work day, and pedestrians issues about which you may actually have some limited knowledge.

Most busy people in Australia use cars to get around. You obviously have no real life as such, and can't be all that busy, so please leave the working people of Australia alone to enjoy their cars and keep your nose out of other people's lives. The fact that you want to replace transit lanes with bus lanes illustrates how out of touch you are. Haven't you ever seen the traffic snarls generated by busses? They are useless, but hey, they government like them because they're cheap.

By the way, I'm getting a V8 as soon as I can, Mr Scruby. Just for you. My windows are going to be BLACK, and I'm going to be revving the engine. All the time.

I'm all for people like yourself expressing your opinions, as we are entitled to do in this wonderful democracy. But the line must be drawn when you seek to impose your simplistic and fanatical beliefs on us, affecting our way of life.

It is when people of extremist views such as Harold Scruby are given a louder voice by a sensationalist media (A Current Affair, 60 Minutes and other such "ratings grabbers") than they deserve, that our homeland security is truely threatened.