Inflatable Pink Gorilla

One sure fire way that car sales people let potential customers know that they are open for business and ready to give them a heck of a deal on an Oldsmobile is by strapping on a big Pink Gorilla to the highest point on the lot for the world to see. I'm not sure where it started or how this evolved. I'll bet that the first time one of those popped up, people came from far and wide to check out the big pink gorilla. I'm sure the story is interesting and would make a good back drop for a romantic comedy, if you could hire Heather Graham and Eric Estrada or someone as co-starts. However, the pink gorilla has lost its luster as a novelty and now just blends in to the skyline of auto-rows around America. No longer is it an attraction, but rather a necessity that legitimizes your dealership as a serious contender in the art of selling vehicles.

Well, once again, I've found the perfect thesis for a doctorate on Asian studies or advertisement or sociology doctoral candidates. It appears that inflatables are also used here in China to indicate that auto dealerships are open for business. (Hell, for all I know, they may be used around the world) However, due to cultural differences going back thousands of years, the pink gorilla is substituted with a red arch on which two dragons perch in a "hey-how-you-doing" stance. There is some writing on the arch that I would guess says something derogatory about pink gorillas, but since I can't read Chinese, it is only a guess.

I noticed these arches because between my hotel and one of the factories I pass by an area that is lined with Gleey, Chery, JAC, Toyota, Nissan, dealerships. Each one has an inflatable arch with the same two dragons.

If I opened up a car dealership here, I'd try using a pink gorilla. I'm not sure if it would enhance or deter sales, but it would be different. Likewise, if I were to get into the used car sales business in the US, I'd import one of these inflatable red arches with dragons, but I'd have the derogatory statement about the pink gorilla written in English.

I think that this observation requires more study. I'd like to pursue it, but don't have the time. It deserves the type of investigating where people are taken to the lot having a pink gorilla or the red arch and then their brain is scanned for emotional responses. People from China and people from the US can be tested. Then you can bring in people from Sweden or Honduras or Kenya, and see their reaction. Surely tomes of useful stuff could be published in journals of high importance. This may even lead to a nobel prize or the canonization into sainthood that I so badly want.