All right, get up to speed here and then check out demiurgic Chris Roberts right here in the San Francisco Examiner.
From the back:
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And from the side:
See how that balances out?
Actually, I don’t think these ads are necessarily pro or anti semitic.
But I didn’t see how the prior ads were “anti-gay.”
On It Goes…
What have we here, a big old Chevron chevron at an SFMTA bus stop?
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I guess I know why the SFMTA, America’s worst and slowest large transit agency, wants to spend millions and millions of taxpayer dollars to improve its image. So it will then be able to obtain and spend even more of our money, of course.
But I’m mystified as to the thought process behind its marketing.
For example, here’s a happy meter maid saying, ”I am a single mom working to send my child to private school. I am SFMTA.”
Click to expand
So the San Francisco Unified School District is that bad, huh?
OK fine.
(TRIGGER WARNING, Lookism: And she’s not a model, she’s a Real Person, an actual DPT Parking Control Officer? Latina/a, just a guess. Very attractive/appealing, huh? How did she get selected? Does someone at at the SFMTA’s in-house agency thumb through a bunch of PCO headshots saying, ” …pooch, dog, I-don’t-think-so, oh-now-here-we-go?” Is that how it works, something along those lines? Funny that, SFMTA.)
If I were the SFMTA, I’d take this ad down and never run it again.
If I were the SFMTA…
Actually, if I were the SFMTA, I’d stop lying to people.
I’d say, “The Central Subway is mostly about pork barrel spending.”
If I were the SFMTA…
Are you up to speed on this one?
Laird Harrison of KQED has the deets on the original “My Jihad” campaign.
Then some lady spent money on ads making fun of that campaign. An example can be found here.
But then the SFMTA responded by quoting Maya Angelou since it couldn’t figure out any different way of responding to pressure.
Which, at the time, wasn’t clear to me because Maya Angelou is still alive, right?
So now, I see this ad and now I understand:
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OK fine, a mystery solved…
Oh, and U. S. Army bases in the Saudi Peninsula ‘n stuff, that too.
But mostly it’s 20-foot Beyonce and similar
Read the news and turn the pages.
I remember seeing CODA Automotive’s first SFMTA bus stop ad back in 2010. I thought, “Man, what a turkey.” That’s the year I started the DeathWatch.
This whole CODA concept appeared to be another big fat loser from Goldman Sachs and that’s exactly what it turned out to be.
Oh well.
Ah memories, memories from 2010:
“Whatever You Do, DON’T Put $499 Down on the $45K, Mostly Chinese, All-Electric Coda Sedan
I’ll tell you, the Mitsubishi Carisma didn’t exactly slay the European market when it went on sale a decade and a half ago. Simply, it wasn’t popular. Then a regional car maker in China tried to take the design from Mitsu and make a version to sell to the Chinese in 2005. It wasn’t popular there neither, even at a price of just $10,000. It, as they say, “lacked quality to make a mark“ in the Chinese market. O.K. then.
Well, they went and took out the gas engine and fitted it with a big heavy battery and a lightweight motor and that’s how we’re getting the 2011 Coda Automotive Sedan at a price of, wait for it, Holy Toledo, $44,900. That’s the news of the day, 45K, officially.
Should California and the feds give you tax credits to buy this thing if all Coda Automotive is going to do is raise the price sky high?
What a POS this thing is. Just look at it. In some ways better, and in some ways worse than your sister’s ’94 Honda Civic:
Now, they’re going to have a showroom in the bay area soon and they’re going to let you take a test drive starting next month. Fine, test drive the thing, I don’t care. But don’t give them a deposit, don’t encourage them.
All right, what about the all-electric Nissan LEAF, the Coda Sedan’s arch-rival? The LEAF is better and cheaper.
Here’s what an overly-excited CODA fan was saying about the LEAF last year:
“It’s an alien-looking buggy with small wheels and no nose that won’t look like a real car to American buyers”
Uh, no, that’s incorrect. Sorry.
Hey, here’s a question:
Why is the LEAF so much cheaper than the CODA?
Yes the CODA has a big trunk that the LEAF lacks but so what. (The CODA has small rear seat area because of that big trunk, so oh well.)
Uh oh:
“More ominously for the company, the sedan is more expensive than the Nissan Leaf, which will retail for $32,800 before incentives. Put another way, the Leaf is almost as cheap before incentives as the Coda is after incentives. And Nissan has a well-known brand name and years of automotive experience.”
Here’s another question:
Why does the CODA cost so much more than the Chinese design it’s based upon?
Here’s another question:
How on Earth can people call the CODA an American car if the bulk of it, the glider (basically the entire car except for the battery/transmission) is made in one factory in China and the giant battery is made in another factory in China? What’s that, you wait for the boats to arrive in L.A. County Contra Costa? Solano?, Alameda? (one of them counties anyway) and then slap the battery and various whatnots inside the glider and that’s your “final assembly” in America? I cry foul.
Let’s face it, the Coda Sedan is a Chinese car, whether you like that or not.
Maybe a $45k electric sedan seemed like a good idea last year, but this thing is looking like a clunker already. That’s why people are saying that it, “may be a tough sell.”
Now, speaking of tough sells, let’s look at some of the marketing we’re getting from the CODA people. Go ahead, click and read along:
“The CODA might be the most agile car you’ve ever driven.”
Nope!
“Do you know the feeling of stomping the pedal and waiting for the car to build speed? Those days are over. The experience of driving a CODA is completely different.”
Well, I know what a Chevy Chevette Diesel automatic is like. It’s slow, with a o-60 time of 20 seconds plus. I know your CODA is quicker than that, but is the experience of driving the thing “completely different” from other cars? Nope.
“It’s small, energy-dense UQM PowerPhase® electric motor packs a punch, and weighs hundreds of pounds less than internal combustion engines.”
How can a motor be “energy-dense?” Shouldn’t you be talking about the energy density of the battery instead? Speaking of which, how much does the battery weigh? Isn’t that the more salient aspect?
“So whether you’re standing still or moving at a good pace, you’ll get instant torque and acceleration when you need it.”
You’re selling an electric car on this basis? Isn’t the CODA slower than the average car being sold today? Yep.
All right, caveat emptor.
All the deets, after the jump
My most incoherent headline yet.
This was the question back in 2011.
And this was the answer.
Comes now The Tens with his take on photographer-model duality:
Via The Tens – click to expand
Uh, what’s this?
“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at it destination full of hope.”
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Did Maya Angelou pay for this? That would make sense, I guess.
Or did someone else? You know, to increase love awareness?
Or maybe the pathetic SFMTA paid for this, so some people won’t hate it as much in the future, you know, to improve its image?
If so, did the SFMTA pay Maya Angelou for her quote or did it just rip her off? I mean, maybe she doesn’t even like the SFMTA.
And what about this – at the bottom of the ad it’s all:
So make up your mind, SFMTA. I mean, does love recognize barriers or not?
And do YOUR PASSENGERS arrive at their destinations ”full of hope?”
In closing, MUNI sucks.
I’m struggling to understand how this scene makes any sense at all.
And there were a couple more fare inspectors lurking about Bush Street out of frame:
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Hey SFMTA! Why don’t you put this amount of effort into “inspecting” how much money the average cable car operator skims each and every shift?
Hey SFMTA! You’re the worst large transit agency in the United States.
Hey SFMTA! Why don’t you throw me a few thousands of dollars* and then I’ll become a MUNI cheerleading, MUNI suck-up, MUNI kiss-ass website like, I don’t know, MuniDiaries.com?
Hey SFMTA! This is what you pay people $32 an hour plus bennies to do, sit around all day in a group chit chatting and waiting for a bus to come by every half-hour or so?
Hey SFMTA! What was this, training day?
One lady got off this N Judah Express and said “I don’t have time for this” as she just walked on off. And nobody from the SFMTA did nothing, oh well.
*Actually, this site you’re looking at right here gets more traffic than Muni Diaries(TM**), so I’ll have to demand more compensation*** than what you paid them for this shameful partnership sellout deal.
**”Muni Diaries (TM)?”
***j/k
This is the end of the Coda Automotive DeathWatch, which started on October 14th, 2010.
But tell me if I’m wrong, tell me if the final assembly facility in Benicia starts chugging out product all of a sudden ala Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory.
Otherwise, I’m concluding that Coda is dead. It’s not responding to stimuli, anyway.
Get the story here, just keep on clicking back in time to learn about the star-crossed Coda Sedan.
Why did we, the taxpayers, subsidize Coda when it was obvious that it couldn’t succeed?
I don’t know.
Now back in 2007, the electric car we were going to get from China was called the Javlon XS500. It was suppose to come in 2008. It didn’t. Check it:
Adieu, Coda Automotive.
“Miles Automotive on the $30,000 Javlon XS500 all-electric sedan“
Then, in 2008, we were promised the Miles XS500. That was going to come in 2009. It didn’t. Check it:
“Miles XS500 will be a lot more expensive than planned, maybe“
Then, in 2009, we were promised the Coda Automotive Sedan. That was going to come in 2010. It didn’t. Check it:
“Coda Automotive Unveils New Mainstream All-Electric Sedan“
And on and on.
Per Wiki:
Coda’s investors include:
