Sorry you find the idea “bazaar”, LloydofDSS. I’d even regret if you found it “bizarre”.
But for the subject car, it appears that every driver in that picture disagrees with you. And, speaking of folks who might take issue with you:
“Headlights aren't just for nighttime use and use during inclement weather. By driving with your headlights on at all times, even on bright sunny days, recent statistics show that you reduce the likelihood of being involved in a collision by as much as 32%.” - Michigan State Police
Society of Automotive Engineers Inc., Automotive Engineering Vol. 102 ; No. 8 ; Pg. 35; ISSN: 0098-2571 (August, 1994).
Damage severity in the non-DRL group (measured in terms of cost) was 69% greater than that of the DRL-equipped fleet.
Sparks, G. A., et al.: The effects of daytime running lights on crashes between two vehicles in Saskatchewan: a study of a government fleet. Accid Anal. Prev 25: 619-625 (1991).
The estimated reduction in daytime two-vehicle crashes was 15 percent. When the analysis was limited to two-vehicle collisions most likely to be affected by DRLs--involving vehicles approaching from the front or side--the estimated reduction was 28 percent.
Cantilli, E. J.: Accident experience with parking lights as running lights. Highway Research Record Report No. 32. National Research Council, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 1970.
In the United States, a small-scale fleet study conducted in the 1960s found an 18-percent lower daytime, multiple-vehicle crash rate for DRL-equipped vehicles.
GM says company research finds that the running lights -- very low beam headlights that turn on automatically whenever the engine is running -- reduce traffic accidents, injuries and fatalities. Daytime multivehicle collisions declined 5 percent when vehicles were equipped with running lights, and daytime car-pedestrian accidents dropped by 9 percent, according to GM.
Headlights increase visibility, it’s the same reason motorcycles are required by law to use them. And, if you disagree with that, well, let’s just say there are a few cyclists who might not be alive today had I not seen their headlights in the nick of time.
This “car” has a lower profile than a motorcycle and its color is the same as the wet road.
Are you familiar with the concept of camouflage? Camouflage has been well recognized by most military institutions as an affective means of tricking the eye into thinking that something that is there, is not. (I stand braced for your argument with this concept as well.) Anyway, it appears to me that they did a good job of camouflaging the car under the conditions shown.
The "car" being driven as depicted, is a death trap. And, I think that it was stupid of the advertisers to feature it that way.