Because nobody ever says "I want to buy a Prius when I grow up"..

Via beltway blogroll comes the fact that environmentalists are protesting the fact that McDonald's is giving out toy Hummers (the SUV, not the sex act) in Happy Meals, and thinks that they should give away toy Priuses instead.

Because you know every young boy, sitting in the back of mom's minvan, screams in delight when someone drives by in a Prius.

I like the Hummer, although I like the original military H1 Alpha way more than the Tahoe-based H2. It's on my list of vehicles to buy when I win the lottery or produce my first major rap album (once I figure out a word that rymes with "blog"). In other words, never. It's a nice truck, but for the price of an H2, I could buy a 4x4 Ranger like the one I drive now, a Pontiac Solstice, and still have enough left over to redo my bathroom. Plus, given the fact that I regularly park on a narrow 1-way city street at work - narrow enough that I fold my side mirror in when I park- and that I have a fairly long commute and gas prices are fairly high, it's not exactly a perfect fit for me.

The Hummer is an asperational car. It's the kind of car that lots of people want, but few can ever buy for reasons of practicality and cost - no different from the Lamborginis and Ferraris that are popular as toy cars, but not seen very often on the road. Sure, the Hummer is cheaper, more practical, and sells better than the Lambo Gallardo, but it's still a vehicle that's fairly rare on the streets. I would say I see way more Priuses (or is the plural Priusi?) than I do Hummers on the average drive, but that may just because I live in a very blue state.

But if environmentalists want the Prius and it's ilk to be the cars people buy, they probably DON'T want it to be a kids toy. Think of the cars you see most often on the road, the ones that real people buy, the ones that make top-ten sales lists and sell in the hundreds of thousands - Civics, Camry's, Explorers, Caravans. You don't usually see kids playing with toy models of those cars, and that's the way environmentalists should want hybrids to be - the cars people actually buy, not the cars they would buy if money wasn't an object and they didn't have to worry about the price of gas or parallel-parking the thing.

One more thing - the commondreams press release contained this quote:

"McDonald’s should give away toys that reflect their values if they want to be taken seriously. They would not give away toy guns, now, would they?" said Al Tepper of CityHippy.net.

Hmm, giving away toy guns, maybe with some instruction on safe hunting or self-defense? That might not be a bad idea. Any resturants interested?