Anne Lutz Fernandez
Anne Lutz Fernandez is a former corporate executive with experience in management and marketing of consumer brands such as Weight Watchers frozen foods and Bufferin pain relievers. She also spent a decade as an investment banker in New York and London where her work included marketing the firm's services to multinational corporations and advising clients on strategic mergers and acquisitions. She left her position as Director at Credit Suisse to become a writer and teacher. She currently teaches English and lives in Connecticut with her husband, who is also a teacher. She co-authored her first book, Carjacked: The Culture of the Automobile and its Effect on our Lives, with her sister, anthropologist Catherine Lutz.
Recent Posts
How Ad Dollars Help Explain the Media’s Bike Backlash
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The media loves drama, of course. As your high school English teacher explained it, if Hamlet doesn’t get pissed about his dad’s murder or if Atticus Finch doesn’t step up to defend a black man falsely accused — that is, if somebody doesn’t say no, you’ve got no story. So the vociferous opposition of a […]
Ad Nauseam 2010: The Year in Car Commercials
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Car sales are up, auto shows are packing them in, and the GM IPO was oversubscribed, but there may be no surer indicator of the auto industry’s recovery than the renewed avalanche of car ads rumbling across every medium. And there’s no better way to get a glimpse of what a born-again car culture might […]
Driven to the Poorhouse: How Car Title Lenders Prey on Americans
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The cheerful come-ons seem more cheesy than sleazy — “Looking for a New Way to Borrow?” “Apply Now-Get Cash Today!” “Go From $0 to Cash in Less Than an Hour” — but these are not the friendly offers of local diversified banks. They are the insidious pitches of companies that do one thing very well: […]
Electric Car Fever and Polar Bear Halos
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Over the next few months, electric cars will start rolling out of showrooms and onto American roads. They’ve been a long time coming. For years, Chevy has been trumpeting its yet-to-be-released Volt. Journalists test drove a version of it over eighteen months ago; it’s been a perennial feature at auto shows; this summer President Obama […]
Our Mobile Money Pits: The True Cost of Cars
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Rowena learned about the true cost of cars the hard way. Raised by her mom, a Filipina immigrant, in a happy if carless home in northern California, Rowena marveled upon graduating from college and getting a steady job that she could afford to lease her very own car. For a small down payment and $199 […]
BP, Toyota, and the Illusion of the Car System Techno-Fix
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Last Christmas, an Oregon couple driving with their baby in the backseat followed erroneous GPS instructions and got stranded on wilderness roads in a Cascades snowstorm. Twelve hours later, they had given up hope and taped a farewell video. While a rescue party fortunately was able to save them, they no doubt wished they hadn’t […]
The Car Loan Loophole: How Auto Dealers Dodged Financial Reform
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The fat lady hasn’t sung yet, but the country’s auto dealers have been exempted from the financial reform bill now in its final stage in Congress. Given that the purpose of the bill is to protect Americans from harmful manipulation by the people selling them financial products, this is a pretty stunning development. The nation’s […]