Uses & misuses....

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Originally Posted by davem

Of course, but its still interesting that certain groups & organisations want to be so closely associated with Lord of the Rings. The car manufacturer for instance. Did the advertising company know anything about Tolkien's hatred for the 'infernal combustion engine'? If they did, & if their clients did, were they ignoring that fact or trying to subvert the work? Clearly they wanted to make a connection between their product - an suv, designed for off road use, providing easy access to the countryside - & a movie which is set in 'the great outdoors'. Yet their product in particular, which brings said 'I.C.E.' into the heart of the countryside would have been Tolkien's worst nightmare. He would probably have described the drivers of such vehicles as 'orcs'.

Whether the vehicle manufacture cares about Tolkien's take on internal combustion or not, it's the audience (i.e. us) that are the true problem. No one cares! Ask most people who saw the movies and ask them if they read the books (or if they've read any books). Did Tolkien like industry? Was he for or against gun rights? Who cares?!?

Where's my next spoonful of entertainment already?

To find out answers to even somewhat 'smaller issues' (I have to be careful here as I am amongst fellow Tolkien nuts) is just too much work.

This is not to say that after viewing a commercial obviously meant to be light and tongue-in-cheek that we need to write a dissertation on the same then marshal a world-wide protest, but I just think that most people (me too) just don't do any investigating to find out the truth/depth of an issue.

Sorry for the rant - it's the rain.

And I did see a T-shirt for sale in a outdoor goods store that said, "not all who wander are lost." It was grossly overpriced, did not acknowledge the Professor, and so I passed it by - then considered making my own...