You Say Po-Tay-To, I Say You’re Full Of It
After being roundly criticized here at Behind the Buzz and elsewhere for their new commercial, General Motors and the ad agency which created the spot, McCannErickson, have responded to the criticisms.
Their basic response has been to assert less is more, lack of credibility promotes trust and that the commercial is so boring it’s compelling.
Call it the Cartoon Strategy. There hasn’t been this much attempt to create a positive spin since Looney Tunes introduced the Tazmanian Devil character back in the 60s.
McCann Erickson maintains the ad “tested well” with consumers. Unfortunately, “testing well” doesn’t appear to be translating into car sales. It’s like a baseball player with a great-looking swing … who can’t hit.
Ad agency CEO Gary Neel asserts Whitacre “has credibility in the spot precisely because he has such little history with the beleaguered company and the industry.”
Ad week columnist Barbara Lippert disagrees:
“Does he think that viewers will look up and say, ‘Who is he? Oh right, yes, yes, yes. He’s that former AT&T executive who announced he knew nothing about cars. Let’s see what he has to say!’”
It’s a bit early to tell if GM is going to be able to turn it’s operations around but, if their initial advertising foray is any indication, we may want to get another bailout ready just in case.
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GM. Making bike riding look interesting by comparison…
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Image: Zuma Press
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