There must be wide recognition of the gesture to get truckers to honk because at least two recent ads use this gesture in odd far-fetched ways so that people are supposed to be able to make the association. A Subaru commercial, one of a series where the drivers and passengers are all dogs, has the puppy in his child's seat in the back gesturing to a bulldog driving an eighteen wheeler, and the truck driving dog does honk.
In a second commercial, for cream cheese, a large guy floats away off the coast in a bathtub -- this is a fantasy induced by eating cream cheese mind you -- and as he floats along in cream cheese bliss, he gives the honking gesture to a far-away lighthouse which then sounds its fog horn.
So at least the creative staff at Madison Avenue advertising agencies knows all about the gesture that kids use to request truck drivers to honk.
What don't people do much or at all anymore? Lots of things. One of them is that few, when thanked, say "you're welcome," and prefer the more blasé "no problem," indicating that they are tolerating the person thanking them.
It strikes me that requesting a honk with an arm gesture might be accepted mostly from children. A woman trucker might think that responding to a honk request from a male driver might be mistaken for a sort of flirting, and she might meet him up the road and have opened a door she'd rather not have.
In a second commercial, for cream cheese, a large guy floats away off the coast in a bathtub -- this is a fantasy induced by eating cream cheese mind you -- and as he floats along in cream cheese bliss, he gives the honking gesture to a far-away lighthouse which then sounds its fog horn.
So at least the creative staff at Madison Avenue advertising agencies knows all about the gesture that kids use to request truck drivers to honk.
What don't people do much or at all anymore? Lots of things. One of them is that few, when thanked, say "you're welcome," and prefer the more blasé "no problem," indicating that they are tolerating the person thanking them.
It strikes me that requesting a honk with an arm gesture might be accepted mostly from children. A woman trucker might think that responding to a honk request from a male driver might be mistaken for a sort of flirting, and she might meet him up the road and have opened a door she'd rather not have.
