Research shows off-highway vehicle advertisements send irresponsible messages

By Tamber Weston

April 1, 2005 | More than half of magazine advertisements for off-highway vehicles promote irresponsible driving.

The finding comes as a result of research by Utah State University junior and natural resources student Angie Cannon.

Cannon spent three months conducting a content analysis of OHV advertisements and presented her findings Jan. 26 at the fifth annual Research on Capitol Hill.

Each year about 50 undergraduate students from USU and the University of Utah travel to the state capitol to showcase original research in poster format to legislators in hopes of inspiring continued (if not additional funding) to the universities.

Cannon conducted her research while an intern at Tread Lightly!, a nonprofit organization that promotes responsible outdoor recreation. Sponsors of the organization include corporations such as Ford and General Motors that often sport the Tread Lightly! logo. To use the logo, companies must follow certain guidelines with respect to advertising. Cannon's job was to find out how well companies were following such guidelines.

For the project Cannon analyzed 520 OHV advertisements from 1987, 1995 and 2003 issues of Motor Trend, Outside, Outdoor Life and National Geographic. Two judges examined the advertisements for trucks, Jeeps and SUVs looking for "irresponsible" images and phrases.

Irresponsible images were those that did not follow the Tread Lightly! guidelines and included: images of a vehicle not on a visible road, in water, speeding, covered in mud, or on a wet road or surface. The words "off-road," "wilderness" and "go anywhere, do anything" and similar phrases were considered irresponsible phrases.

The analysis concluded that more than half of the OHV advertisements contained irresponsible phrases and nearly as many did not show vehicles on an obvious road.

Cannon said that the number of irresponsible images increased from 1987 to 2003, while the number of irresponsible phrases slightly decreased, but she said the decrease was so small she considered it insignificant.

Cannon said that when OHV advertisements use irresponsible images and phrases while using the Tread Lightly! logo, it gives the organization a bad image.

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