[HN Gopher] The First Car Ad Shows What Changed, What Hasn't
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       The First Car Ad Shows What Changed, What Hasn't
        
       Author : pseudolus
       Score  : 13 points
       Date   : 2022-07-24 11:02 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.thedrive.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.thedrive.com)
        
       | addicted wrote:
       | The article claims that the ad is a lot more wordy than ads
       | today, which they attribute to decreased attention spans. Which
       | may have something to do with it, but I suspect the real reason
       | in this case is that the ad looks like an article.
       | 
       | It looks more like an unattributed sponsored post than an ad.
        
       | hairofadog wrote:
       | Adjacent to this topic, I was recently thinking about how little
       | commercial air travel has changed in the past 50 years. You can
       | no longer smoke on an airplane, which is great. Security is a
       | nightmare, which is less great. Has anything else changed?
        
         | rwc wrote:
         | Safety! That's the biggest change.
         | 
         | https://news.aviation-safety.net/2017/12/30/preliminary-asn-...
        
           | Aloha wrote:
           | You hit the nail on the head there.
        
         | kevinventullo wrote:
         | I believe it is far more convenient as there are now many more
         | direct flights and they're much cheaper after adjusting for
         | inflation.
        
         | hamrickdavid wrote:
         | Not a ton has changed for the better - but a few things have:
         | 1. Ticket prices have come down in real terms (especially with
         | the advent of low cost airlines)       2. Fuel economy on newer
         | jets has improved       3. Increased number of routes and
         | frequencies       4. Lie flat seats in business and above on
         | long haul       5. WiFi on planes       6. In-flight
         | entertainment - both seatback units and video over WiFi
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | And you don't need to basically go into a travel agent and
           | get a piece of paper that is incredibly hard to replace if
           | lost.
           | 
           | In general, travel information is a lot more frictionless.
           | Flight cancelled, bags lost? There's an app for that. And in
           | general, clothing expectations mean I have to check bags a
           | lot fewer times.
           | 
           | As you say, seating is better if you're willing to pay for it
           | but I've never bought WiFi on a flight. It's one of the few
           | opportunities I have to really read anyway.
        
           | Aloha wrote:
           | Airplanes no long crash into the earth at an alarmingly
           | frequent rate.
           | 
           | Like they used to sell life insurance _at the airport_
           | because of both the perception of how unsafe things were and
           | the reality of it - per Wikipedia, in 1969 there were 21 air
           | crashes or incidents - the vast majority of which had
           | fatalities, in 2019, there were 12, the vast majority of
           | which had none - this on top of an order of magnitude more
           | flights in 2019 vs 1969 - the disparity grows even further
           | when you look back into the 50 's.
        
         | lazycouchpotato wrote:
         | The significant "cool" things I can think of is internet on
         | planes, and being able to take a shower on certain first class
         | flights.
         | 
         | https://youtu.be/84WIaK3bl_s?t=424
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | I don't find Internet on flights a particular convenience
           | and, if you can take showers at airline clubs, that's not a
           | big deal either. And I've never taken advantage of in either
           | case.
        
             | drdaeman wrote:
             | > I don't find Internet on flights a particular convenience
             | 
             | YMMV. I love being able to stay in touch with my folks or
             | scroll HN/Reddit while I'm in the air with nothing to do
             | but read a book or try to nap.
             | 
             | > take showers at airline clubs
             | 
             | That video is about Emirates First Class, where one can
             | take a shower during the flight. This kind of convenience
             | costs somewhat obscene amount of money, most people here I
             | guess aren't the target audience.
        
       | pessimizer wrote:
       | The main thing it dismisses is the "faster horse" myth. People
       | wanted to DISPENSE WITH A HORSE.
        
         | sonofhans wrote:
         | The point of the quote -- "If I had asked people what they
         | wanted, they would have said faster horses." -- is that until
         | the motorcar existed most people would not have been able to
         | imagine it. This ad does nothing to contradict that.
        
       | jhowison wrote:
       | One of the comments on that article refutes that claim: That is
       | not the first car ad, although the claim has long been made.
       | https://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/americas-first-automobil...?
        
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       (page generated 2022-07-25 23:00 UTC)