Well the book makes the point specifically just as Woj wrote but that was not the main point of the book. Rather the main point was how marketeers created a demand for an already existing product and increased it's sales from insignificant to best seller. What buttons exactly the marketeers pushed to accomplish this was less important than why they they did it.
One of the strangest contradiction in the reasoning for SUV purchases by women was fear of attackers. It was either the number one or number two reason women gave (I can't recall which) for purchasing an SUV. The SUV sat high enough that women felt no one could hide unseen under it which gave them a feeling of security. Conversely one can actually get under and out from under an SUV rather quickly and easily. Logically this reasoning should dictate purchasing a Ford Focus instead of an Explorer. No human could extract themselves from under a Focus quickly enough to attack anyone. They would be putting themselves in a vulnerable position. The same cannot be said for tall SUV's. Equally someone hiding on the floor of the rear compartment or rear seat would be less visible to a person standing beside an SUV than a person hiding inside a smaller compact. The small car has no room to hide and since you look down into it you can see the floor easily. Try looking at the floor of an Excursion when you walk up on one.
SUV sales are mostly driven by fear, rather than an urge to express power/domination. Marketeers couch their messages in these terms. The TeeVee commercial featuring a Cadillac SUV being attacked by roadside obstacles is easily seen as playing on this fear. It also uses racial signifiers well to play on whites fear of blacks. It is one of the most blatantly racist commercials I have seen in the 21st century. For some reason I was surprised Bradshers cited this example in his book.
One disappointing portion of the book mentions the future potential for SUV's to cause harm. The author shows a distinct bias against the poor when he starts his diatribe against used SUV's being poorly maintained by owners of second-hand vehicles and how these second-hand owners are less skilled, and therefore more dangerous, drivers than the wealthier first owners of th SUV's. It was a sad ending to an otherwise very good book.
John Thornton