Face mask and Gucci sandals: Lani Fogelberg posing in her Ferrari. Photo / Lani Fogelberg
Face mask and Gucci sandals: Lani Fogelberg posing in her Ferrari. Photo / Lani Fogelberg
OPINION:
One evening around the mid-noughties I was among a crowd of drinkers outside an Auckland establishment well known for often having a crowd of drinkers outside it. A youngish couple left the bar and got into a flash sports car parked outside, the man at the wheel. They droveoff loudly along Ponsonby Rd in a screech of engine and rubber. The crowd rolled their eyes and got back to their Espresso Martinis.
A few seconds later there was a loud crunch as the sports car crashed into another car just out of sight.
For all anybody knew, somebody had been badly hurt in that crash, even killed. But there was a loud cheer. People were cheering not because they wanted anyone to be hurt, but because a Flash Harry had got his comeuppance. It was pure schadenfreude.
The tall poppy syndrome is nothing new, nor is it confined to New Zealand. Envy is a longstanding human emotion that has existed since the first stone age man got a slightly nicer stone than his neighbours.
Car envy
Last week, Lani Fogelberg bemoaned the fact that people had been making rude comments about her and her Ferrari.
Now Fogelberg is a business consultant and apparently very successful at her job. So successful that some people pay her an annual retainer of $50k just for her advice. Nobody has ever offered to pay me $50K as a retainer, and I was a hell of a lot older than her before I could ever afford a sports car - which suggests she's quite a lot better at her job than I ever was. Good on her.
However, I recently mentioned in this column how bad advertising agencies are at taking their own advice and I wonder if she's suffering a bit from that here. She is advising people on the strategy for their company which, I imagine, would include how they want their company to be perceived by the public.
If she was giving advice to a client on how to be best perceived as a successful, astute, and knowledgeable businessperson, I hope she wouldn't recommend that they drive around in a Ferrari. Because if they did buy a Ferrari and then posed with the car all over social media they are leaving themselves open to a fair bit of flak.
This brings us to the question of what motivates someone to buy a car this flash.
Maybe Fogelberg bought a Ferrari because (whether or not she'd admit it) she thought people would be impressed by her financial success and good taste in buying an Italian sports car? Or maybe she bought it because she just liked it?
According to French philosopher Rene Girard, this purchase is most likely an example of "mimetic desire": wanting something purely because someone else wants it.
Observers generally don't have a positive reaction to Ferrari drivers. Photo / Getty Images
Unless you really don't care what other people think (this applies to no one I've ever met, despite what they might say), be aware that whatever car you drive will cause people to automatically come to conclusions about you. You might think this is unfair and terribly judgmental but coming to snap decisions based on scant evidence is hardwired into all of us. When we were living on the savannah we had to instantly decide friend or foe; leopard, or funny looking rock, and if we got it wrong we'd be dead. So even now, if we see a leopard in a Ferrari we know to get the hell out of the way without bothering to ask questions.
The grass is not always greener
Don't be fooled into thinking that it's just New Zealanders and that going to the States will help. Americans have a similar attitude to Ferraris as witnessed by the world's most popular podcaster, Joe Rogan: "It's really hard not to be a douchebag in a Ferrari." So, if rude comments about your car upset you, I would suggest that rather than changing your country, you should probably change your car.
I like sports cars too, but I sold my Aston Martin and bought a Subaru instead. Not because of any rude comments (well, not to my face) but because there's so much more room for fishing gear in the Outback and it's way less likely to break down. It also doesn't have a big sign across the side reading: "Flash car, probably speeding."
I offer these lifestyle suggestions absolutely free. Though if anyone would like to pay me an annual retainer, something in the region of $50k would be a good starting offer. Of course, you might like to save your money as the internet summed up the whole situation some time ago: "haters gonna hate".
