I have failed as a blogger. It's true. I can't deny the fact. But before you say, "Matt, it just isn't true. You are a wonderful blogger. A model of blogging Utopia even," let me explain.
What are the general requirements of a blogger these days? They must have a strong opinion about whatever it is they are writing about. Check. They must be able to write in a coherent form. Check. They must spent 10-30hrs a week researching, updating, and writing their blog. on a daily basis. Massive empty box.
I realize without daily, or at the very least weekly updates, that this blog, http://www.autothoughts.blog.com/ (shameless plug) cannot become a destination of automotive enthusiasts, nor fans of advertising. I promise to make more frequent updates, and I hope that one day soon you will look forward to the new articles on a regular basis.
This blog started because I wanted a place to share my opinion on cars. Over the last few months I have come to realize how important this is, to me at least, and this is why:
I don't want to read automotive publications, and online car magazines for all the factual information. I can spit numbers with the best of them. With the internet, I can pull up just about any fact on any vehicle produced in the last 10 years or so. Anything from standard features, horsepower, trunk space, gear ratios etc. can be found in a matter of seconds thanks to websites like http://www.edmunds.com/. Just about the only thing you can't easily find are consistent 0-60 times, but that's for a different day. What I read most automotive publications and websites for are opinions, true car enthusiast road tests. I know all the facts far before the magazines hits my mail box. It's the unique content in the form of opinion I am looking for. Because of this, approximately 10 to 15 pages of each automotive publications I recieve is actually valuable to me. Usually it is a decent to great editorial and then one or two extensive road tests of new vehicles. There are always quite a few shorter reviews, but the shorter it is, the more its stuffed with numbers and facts. I can't say how many "short takes" or "road tests" I've read that give no impression the author even drove the vehicle. It is infuriating.
Like any other consumer purchase, I believe it is best to have as many educated opinions on the the item as possible, be it a car or a movie. You can never have too much information. From an economics stand point, it will either make the model for decision making more accurate, or be considered non-relevant. Before paying $10 for a movie, there are a plethora of movie reviews from varying publications and websites (www.rottentomatoes.com for example) The reviewers have different backgrounds, and different interests. That doesn't mean you will find one reviewer that has identical taste in film as yourself, it just means that the available diversity in the reviewing allows trends to actually mean something. If a group as different as film critics in the 21st century, thanks to blogging and other easy editorial mediums, universally decide that some film sucks, besides a few outliers of course, it probably does suck. The same goes for automotive reviews. If out of 10 different sources (print, online, blog), 8 find a car to be wonderful, chances are it is a great car. The same goes for negative reviews. In the end the best possible review can be your own, but at least in the automotive world, part of the fun of publications and websites is that they drive vehicles you would never have the opportunity to test yourself. In that case they should not be reviewing the vehicle in a manner which helps you decide which $300,000 supercar to buy, but instead write about it in a way that makes you feel as if you have conducted the tests yourself. CAR is a wonderful publication that does that beautifully. Between the photography and the level of writing, I have actually gotten chills up my back when reading about certain vehicles. (997 GT3 for example)
There was a lot of talk about physical automotive publications becoming obsolete, due to the availability of content and information on the internet. Althought this may become the case much farther down the line, I believe print sources will maintain a market, as long as they are still stuff with opinion. Magazines will never be the fastest way to deliver factual information, and thus it should not attempt the compete on that level. In that way, magazines are already obsolete. But as long as they can deliver an automotively educated opinion not found anywhere else, magazines will always have a place in my heart.
This sentiment has given direction to my blog. I obviously cannot compete with sites like http://www.worldcarfans.com/ and http://www.autoblog.com/ when it comes to delivering up to date factual information on new vehicles and concepts. I can, however, offer my opinion on all things automotive. And that alone will make this blog worth a read.
Some sidenotes of course. I completely realize that print publications in many parts of the country, are still the sole way people receive there automotive information. For this reason it is important to have a large of amount of mostly factual vehicle short takes, previews, concept reviews, etc. However, as time goes on, in the next 10-15 years, I believe that primary consumer base will shift enough that that kind of supplemental information will be able to move to the internet, and magazines will more capable of desiring truly unique content, something everyone wants.
Jeremy Clarkson is a wonderful example of opinion over facts. It is the most famous automotive journalist in Europe, and possibly in the U.S. as well. (More due to the fact that few of us here , including myself, can name any other automotive journalists) He uses the facts as tools to accentuate and emphasize his opinions, not to populate the articles. It is the very fact that he has such a strong and often radical opinion, that has made him such a well known and influential journalist.
I want to close out todays entry with some fun content. Because of my career path's turn into the world of advertising, there will be a fair amount of entries pertaining to that category. I will try to label which world each entry specifically pertains to. Thanks to the abundance of automotive advertising, even my advertising entries will often be car related, as is the case now. The video below is a Shell commercial/short that got a fair amount of press during production. The director's, Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, other work includes the famous Honda "Cog" commercial. The shoot lasted a month which is unheard of in the commercial world, and spans numerous famous locations. The basic concept: A lap of the world is made by an evolving F1 car representing Ferrari's racing history. Turn up the speakers, and enjoy.
For those of you who are viewing this somewhere other than autothoughts.blog.com and cannot view the embedded youtube, or for those who want the higher quality video, click here: www.partizan.com/partizan/commercials/?antoine_bardou_jacquet
