They are probably selling all those cars and giving the money to a children's charity.

interesting, I'm really surprised we haven't seen more backlash about this if we're basically destroying this guy's career...

K

Probably because other than a few people from Florida......nobody really cares.

I would love to see a show like that as well. The main problem I see with it is that where would the profits from the shows sponsors come from? What products can they push while showing you how to do this in your own garage?

Most of the so called "automotive shows" are just half hour commercials for whatever they are trying to sell.

What career? The antichrist of the Hotrod World? That sounds like a good career path to me. I'm with Henry.......who cares.

Regarding Rawlings -- he has had a successful career as an advertising executive, followed by a successful career as the owner of a large and famous hot rod shop. Now, he wants a third successful career, as the self-styled "Anti-Christ of the Hot Rod World". He wants to establish this career by manipulating us with his promotional material. I'm sure that we'll get more backlash.

The ebay selloff is interesting.


Regarding these shows in general -- they exist in their current form because they are extremely profitable. Parts companies pay TV production companies to have "How-To" shows made about their parts. Then, the production companies sell the shows to the TV networks, who profit by showing commercials. The shows are tailor-made for the advertisers.

For example, on GasMonkeyGarage.com, it says "Watch GMG on SpikeTV new series MuscleCar". MuscleCar is a part of the "Powerblock" series of automotive television shows, shown on SpikeTV, and featured at HorsePowerTV.com. At the bottom of HorsePowerTV.com, you'll see that it says "RTM Productions". If you click the about RTM Productions link, you'll see that RTM Productions is a large television production company that makes shows for numerous automotive channels.

Here's the funny part. On the bottom of HorsepowerTV.com, you'll see another link that says advertise with us. That page provides basic information to companies who want to pay RTM Productions to advertise on "Powerblock TV on Spike TV". Notice how it says:



This is what I mean when I say that the shows are "tailor-made for the advertisers". And, this is why they aren't worth watching.

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If we want better television shows about hotrodding, then we would have to demonstrate that greater profit could be made by showing an information-based show than by showing the current shows. Difficult.

What we CAN do is spread the word that these shows are carefully-crafted commercials. The programming is dependent upon the fact that the average viewer is unaware that the shows are made for advertisers. If we can leverage the knowledge, and make it such that the average viewer IS aware of this fact, then the shows would have to tone down the sponsorships, or risk losing credibility.

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Body and exterior tips || Freeing a stuck engine || Soda blasting || Narrowing a rearend || John Deere Blitz Black paint || How to find cheap parts || Hotrodding glossary || Transmission identification || Rust || Cheapo paint job || How to identify a Ford V8 || How to title a hot rod...and hundreds more articles.

Same thing goes for the magazines. Like in the other thread asking what magazines you subscribe to. I don't subscribe to any. I did to car craft for many years, but the usefull tech articles in them severly declined with only a couple featured cars and quite a bit of advertisement. I was severly disappointed, cause I use to run to the mailbox to see if it arrived and started reading it immediately. Jeff Smith I believe was the editor when it was good, and the humor they threw into their replys to questions was entertaining for sure. I pick up street rodder and it looks like a nice thick magazine with a lot of content. Wrong, its made up of a ton of ads. Some say car craft has been getting better and improving its content. I would hope if enough people can quit subscribing to a magazine when its content declines to encourage an improvement and also enough would choose to not tune into the shows that are one big commercial and cause some good shows to take there place. Not easy to change things though, just look how we have been stuck paying gas prices. Enough will just live with it or not care enough to make a too big a fuss, or will complain but never take the steps themselves to change, let alone encourage others. Many probably don't even realize they are just being fed a big advertisement or just enjoy watching a soap opera. I miss watching junkyard wars. You know it wasn't driven by advertisement, cause they had to use whatever they could find, and try to make it work. I've gone without having cable for a few years now, and for the most part I don't miss it all that much.

Doc here,

About the "Tailor Made Advertising" ....That is funny.. (weird, not ha ha funny..)

MSNBC just did an Hour Show on the "Tailor Made Infomercial." and Fraudulent claims on "Bad" Products sold to the public by ad exec's that would Tailor them to the edge of "Puffery" and fraud..

MSNBC , got some dissoluble capsules, and a box of Nestle's quick and filled the capsules with the Nestle's quick..Then had the whole thing blister packaged with a wiz~Bang looking package professionally..so It looked like a Professional Medical product. They even went to the trouble of putting the ingredients transposed from the Cocoa can on the package..

The Product was supposed to re~Hydrate the oils in your skin, and remove age wrinkles, and give the skin "That 20' ish Glow" from the inside out..

Then they approached a series of Infomercial Exec's To push a commercial so many times a day on Television..When asked, told them :"No actual Medical Testing has Ever Been Done for this product.." But was registered with the FDA..(and gave them the Nestle's registration number) The Exec's response to that was: "No Problem..There are ways AROUND that" ...

They paid (IIRC) a retainer to one of about $2000 Dollars to get the ball rolling with no more information than that..and called MSNBC back about 2 weeks later to view the several "Takes" and infomercial that they had produced..to close the deal..The air personalities consisted of about 6 female actors..AND a board Certified Doctor...

The Doctor Claimed , I've been using this product for years..and have referred it to all my patients for years..(A product that didn't exist a month before..)

The actress's claimed " It has helped keep my "Girlish skin for years.." and I will continue to use the product for life..

MSNBC then , went and found all the actress's and the doctor and sat them down and interviewed them..Starting with the doctor..When told the product was a fake..was nothing more than quick in a capsule..Claimed Everything she said in the infomercial was true..and they couldn't say different..then they played back the infomercial..She declined further interview..an interesting point , prior to the "Falling out" she had stated she received SEVERAL thousand dollars for testimony and that was a percentage of the total package when sold to the advertiser (MSNBC)...(What ever happened to "Do no Harm?")

Then they interviewed the actress's and they were more up front about the whole thing..said right out, they never used the stuff (most of them anyway) and had no idea what it was..AND follow a very strict "Wording" from a TelePrompter..and admitted they were paid only $50 for their work..When asked Why? All said .. For Exposure to legit ad agency's..

A few held out and said , Sure I tried the stuff a couple of times in the past..so on and so forth and were told what was in it..AND the stuff wasn't even around a month ago..they conceded the point..

Interesting enough..MSNBC also got a hold of the outtakes (or bloopers) while they were producing the commercial..AND played them and ALL actress's were reluctant to say what they were told to say in those outtakes..which is when they went to TelePrompter (NO ad~libing..)

I had the same misgivings about the "Ads" on these hot rod shows since the Fad started ..Them pushing a product that I had used in the past..and had trouble with..that would do everything from improve your mileage to double your horsepower to polish the fenders..all in one..

Until time caught up with them..and here is a product I just tossed in the dumpster that would do nothing it said it would and I knew was crap..Yet their pushing it in prime time..and it does EVEN more! uhhh ~ Huhhh...

I see hot roding going this way if WE don't get a "Brake Job" and very soon..One way to do this is to Publicly "Call" them on the crap products every-time they promote one..either through a high traffic Buyer's website..or Complaints directly to the show producers..and the Key point being , If I can't trust the products you push, I can't trust the information from the show, Why Not watch The cartoon Channel instead.."

Whose reality is it anyway?

Doc

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WOW! What a great accomplishment you have made!
You know, destroying what this guy has worked hard for his entire life!
I mean, from what started as a joke.... and clearly it was a JOKE.. you have single handily run this guy into the ground! Give yourself a BIG pat on the back for that one!



I tell ya it takes HARD WORK to become that successful in life.. and by hard work I don't mean farting around on the computer in your mother's basement day and night trying to perfect a hotrodding website.. and trying to make everyone think that you aren't making any money out of the deal.

Why don't you un-*** that chair, take a step outside and let the sun hit you in the face for once in your life time?
Go buy a ratty piece of crap for $500, tear it down and rebuild it? Be a MAN for once in your lifetime!


Just remember, what comes around goes around.. you'll get yours

If I worked that hard in life, and got that succesfull, I sure wouldnt risk losing my career with cheap marketing tricks like he pulled here on hr.com.

Isnt Richard and Gas Monkey Garage from Dallas? Isnt Denton a 20 minute drive from Dallas? I see the word is spreading around fast

Are they closing shop?


Mike

Anyone who has already gotten bored after doing well in advertising, and can afford to enter in the Bullrun races with celebrities, is'nt gonna be hurt by what happens here like the HRBB "ruined his life".....

I doubt highly that anything that has transpired recently has made him a penniless, despondent bum.

I do hope that what has happened serves as a wakeup call that the majority of us in the hotrod community are not a bunch of mindless 'sheep-le'... We know what we want to see happen with our hobby, and to think that anyone other than ignorant, impressionable teenagers would be enamored of Monkey's badboy self is ludicrous.

WE are NOT teenagers. Well, to be blunt, the teenagers we DO have here have shown way more maturity and education than the Monkeyboys did.

Perhaps he ought to do as Milli Vanilli did and promote his badboy self to the Mtv generation. He's already got the cheesy video, just steal some music from somewhere like a lot of the newest "artists" do (it's not a 'remix', nobody wants to listen to recycled songs, most of us like them the way they were the first time, unless the original artist does an acoustic version or something like that.)

I wonder how far Spanky and Monkey could get if it was a music video instead of a LAME hotrod video...

Sad part is nobody would protest to the degree HRBB has done if they did'nt like it...

Doc

Dr. Chop said it well, I really don't think anyones life was ruined here, highly embarassed from not "manning" up and apologizing for an error in judgement. Jon has shown a lot of patience in the past for guys that have the huevos to man up and apologize.
I hope Jon is making a million bucks a month from this site. He started it on his own dime, there's a lot of members that enjoy hanging out here, if he's making money, isn't that the American way? I don't believe he had to visit kiddy chat rooms to do so.
Take a step outside and let the sun hit him? Serious skin cancer concerns there...
And when was building a car a sign of manhood? I believe we have young men in Iraq that would get a chuckle from that one.
What comes around goes around...Jon's been a very public figure here for almost 5 years now, maybe if every member sent him a buck for his birthday, he'd have .............about 40 grand?

Yeah, lets all be real men and post pictures of ourselves in women's underwear.

Or we could really be men, and apologize, which would have kept people's "lives" from being ruined in the first place.

BTW,if anyone has a downloadable copy of their original video, let me now, I wanna do my own parodies of it

And here's another parody for everyone. The Village Monkeymen, Who can guess what song their singing?



Brad

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The profits would come from selling products and services that are needed or desired by the individual building in his/her own garage. Not many people make their own steel, their own tools, parts, precision machinery, and all the materials needed to construct a garage.

For a personal, anecdotal example, I've spent nearly $10 grand on tools and my garage in about 2 years, since beginning my project. None of that, to my knowledge, went to any advertisers on the current crop of "infomercials" disguised as hotrodding shows, because none of the shows are about real hotrodders. When I want to know what I need to accomplish some goal along the way to completing my project, the current tv shows are the last place I would consider. Hotrodders.com is the first.

Profits would also come from selling products and services that are needed or desired by the individual hiring the building of a hotrod.



I would go so far as to change your "[m]ost" to "all". I've watched just enough of them to determine that they're about promoting the purchase of glittery parts instead of about hotrodding.

Give me a show with somebody like willys36 installing Caddy taillights using glass pack mufflers, or powerrodsmike putting a new radiator inside an ancient brass one for a museum firetruck, or RickB1B's wood dash for a '37 Caddy, or cboy building his "Rat on a shoestring". None of them put on a thong, strolled into the woods and began pounding rocks, dirt and animal skins into hotrods. Each bought _something_, beyond beer, sunglasses and posters.

If the producers would make it real, they might discover an audience of people who actually need or want products that help accomplish a goal. Such an audience is already motivated.

Sales that are dependent on trickery, including false, crafted lifestyle images, are not nearly as reliable as sales to people with pre-existing needs and desires. Victims of the former spread warnings while satisfied customers spread referrals.

Why dont you do your research first buddy? Jon's got a Suburban that he works on and did quite a little bit of work on it.


Mike