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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Post from: EveryJoe

You Say Po-Tay-To, I Say You’re Full Of It

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Sleep aid
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From the outset of the commercial, the mood is best described as antiseptic. It’s like you’re walking through a hospital with an OSHA inspector.

Between Ed’s black suit and the lack of inflection in his voice, everything about the commercial seems designed to convey a lack of excitement.

Not counting Ed’s red power tie, you could do a shot of tequila every time you spot a color in the commercial that’s not black, white or gray and you’d still be able to hop into a Chevy and drive home sober at the end of the ad.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with featuring your CEO in an ad if, as was the case with Lee Iaccoca at Chrysler, your CEO has a sales background. Boring details spouted by boring engineers don’t sell cars, unless you already wear a pocket protector with your short-sleeve shirt.

But if that’s the case, you’ve probably already made your decision to buy a Japanese car based on the superior technology.

The rest of the commercial is a series of assertions made by someone who is obviously not an impartial observer. No self-respecting engineer would accept an assertion like “car for car, when compared to the competition, we win.”

Really? Based on what criteria?

The problem with this kind of declaration is that you’re telling us, not showing us.

“The [insert product here] is the best” doesn’t resonate as a claim unless it’s made by an independent rating service or backed up with some powerful evidence.

As chairman of GM, I certainly hope you think your cars are better than your competitors, but the fact you do carries very little weight with me as a consumer.

In fact, Ed does a pretty good job throughout the commercial in undercutting the notion of GM’s alleged superiority through his own words.

Mr. Whitacre starts the commercial by saying before he got to GM he had some doubts but now, “I like what I found.”

Is that because they just made you chairman … or is there another reason? We never find out.

Are we to assume all the doubts Ed had (by the way, “just like you”) have been magically taken care of in the few short months he’s been there?

There are two other instances where the “we’re the best” message gets muddled. Both could be chalked up to semantics, but words and phrasing are the scalpels of advertising — to not use them precisely is to botch the surgery.

Instance #1: “I just know if you get into one of our cars, you’re going to like what you see.” Every car salesman in the GM force should have flinched on this one. It’s Sales 101 — assume the close. It’s not if you get into one of our cars, it’s when you get into one of our cars. You’ve just finished telling me how great your cars are compared to everyone else. Why would there be any doubt as to whether I would be willing to see for myself?

Instance #2: “Put us up against anyone, and may the best car win.” Again with the doubt. Only this time it’s even worse because it’s enshrined as the tagline at the end of the commercial. There are so many better ways to say the same thing. “We challenge anyone to beat our guarantee” or even “Bring it on!” both exude more confidence than sounding like a beauty pageant contestant, “Oooh. All the other girls are so pretty and talented, I’m just glad to have been selected to be considered for the title…” blah..blah..blah. Can we get a question from Perez Hilton to liven this thing up a little bit?

Perhaps the most egregious fault of the commercial is the total lack of focus on the one thing which makes GM unique — the 60-day money back guarantee. That’s a reason for me to consider buying, or at least trying, a GM car but we don’t even hear about it until the commercial’s halfway over.

Even then, it’s just another bland sentence in Ed’s monologue. If you haven’t already fallen asleep or changed the channel, you just might get to hear an offhand reference to what should have been the focal point of the commercial.

A 60-day money back guarantee?! You can’t get that with a Snuggie, let alone a car. You need to grab my interest at the beginning of the commercial with that kind of guarantee and pimp-slap me with it for the next 45-seconds.

I may still buy a Honda, but at least you will have gotten my attention.

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“I’m telling you, Bob. If you boil vegetables long enough, they’ll look gray and washed out just like everything else here at this company…”

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Image: Zuma Press

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Two other excellent articles on GM’s horrific commercial are over at AdScam and The Truth About Cars.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Walking Through GM’s New Commercial

We’re not talking spending extra time trying to win a couple hundred bucks in your fantasy football pool.

As long as you’re going to dream, you might as well dream big. The folks at Frito-Lay are giving you the opportunity to do just that.

Building on the success of last year’s Crash the Superbowl promotion, where the company turned complete control of its Superbowl ad time over to hardcore Dorito-eaters (which, face it, is pretty much everyone who’s not on life support), the makers of Doritos are raising the stakes even higher this year.

The basic challenge is much the same as last year: create a Doritos Super Bowl commercial. If your commercial is one of the six finalists as voted on by the Doritos-crunching public, you’ll win $25,000.

Your commercial will air on national TV during Super Bowl XLIV if you finish in the top III out of the VI finalists.

Then the real fun begins. If your ad places first among Super Bowl ads according to the USA Today’s Ad Meter, you win $1,000,000. Second place is worth $600,000 and third place is worth $400,000.

Just like they did with Blazin’ Buffalo Ranch Doritos, the Doritos folks have added an extra kick to spice up the contest…

Let’s make the assumption Doritos eaters are funnier, sexier and more creative than your average Entourage-watching ad exec. If the three Doritos ads take the top three spots according to USA Today’s Ad Meter — all three entries win an additional $1 million dollars.

That’s some serious cheese, dude.

So, what are you waiting for? Instead of posting your skateboarding friend’s nut shot as he misses his rail grind for the fifteenth time, get cracking (crunching?) on your video masterpiece for the upcoming Super Bowl.

Contest rules and stuff are available at: http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/

Who knows? You could have yourself one helluva Super Bowl party.

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Never try to bogart a man’s Doritos.

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Image: Zuma Press

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Post from: EveryJoe

It’s Crunch Time

And it has nothing to do with the unique way they user only lower case letters and highlight the typeface in the name of their product.

They’re throwing down the creative gauntlet (or maybe just giving their flavor-inventors some time off) as they let you, the consumer, design the next big thing in vitaminwater land.

Utilizing a “flavor creator lab” on Facebook and a white-coated female avatar who speaks with a Bogart-style lisp, the folks at vitaminwater have pretty much reinvented their entire web presence around the program which gives water lovers the chance to combine flavors and nutritional functions to develop the next flavor of vitaminwater.

I call bacon-flavored with Cialis.

Did I mention that, in addition to bragging rights every time you go into a supermarket, there’s also the chance to win $5,000 for designing the winning entry?

The winning entry will be picked from a field of ten finalists by former American Idol winner Carrie Underwood and rapper 50 Cent.

Which is another way of saying anyone can win.

The format of the contest, as relayed by the folks at vitaminwater, is as follows:

in step one, vitaminwater fans can help choose america’s most wanted flavor by logging onto vitaminwater’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/vitaminwater starting september 8 and voting for their favorite flavor or flavor combination. vitaminwater has created a flavor buzz meter that scours flavor conversations on top blogs and web sites and then ranks flavors based on information gathered from current chatter.

in step two, participants will play a series of games and answer quiz questions to help vitaminwater assess what functional benefit america really needs. from this data, vitaminwater scientists will derive a special formula of vitamins and nutrients that meets the needs of the dehydrated masses.

for the final step, which is sure to be a crowd-pleaser with the creative types, consumers can participate in a contest where they get the chance to name the new variety, design the label and write copy for the bottle. whether it is a life story about summer camp or a steamy tale about a love triangle involving a kiwi, a strawberry and a banana, entrants will help develop the new variety’s name, personality and look.

in step four, you actually get to use capital letters when signing your autograph for all the water groupies you’re sure to attract with your new found wealth and fame.

The folks at vitaminwater and their creative team have designed an engaging contest which will culminate in a new flavor coming to market in March 2010.

Until then, you can have fun, unleash your creativity, and be healthy all at the same time.

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“I came to Facebook for the waters….”

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Image: Zuma Press

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Post from: EveryJoe

fun with a capital ‘F’ from vitaminwater

Thanks to a new ad for Downy Ultra, that thought still won’t find a home in your cranium.

Although the new fabric softener commercial doesn’t conjure up images of middle linebackers, it may get you to chuckle enough to give the new and improved offering from Downy a shot.

The new spot is from the Hispanic marketing agency, Wing, and features two guys in a laundromat doing what you’d expect two guys in a laundromat to do…

No, they’re not trying to pick up girls; they’re discussing laundry, silly.

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Neither one of these dudes is doing a one-armed push-up anytime soon…
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The ad is just quirky and off-center enough to generate some buzz for the company. It’s got a nifty punchline and challenges the typical stereotype of Latin machismo.

The commercial has more of an experimental feel as if Downy’s exploring whether “scent longevity” is something which may attract more male customers.

The Downy website remains squarely directed toward a female perspective urging fabric softener users to “feel more connected with wonderful softness, freshness and static control from your fabrics.”

As a guy, I don’t really want that kind of deep, meaningful relationship with my cargo shorts. I want to wear them a couple of times, have a good time and then try on a new pair.

But with Downy Ultra scent longevity, I just can’t seem to forget them…

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Maybe ‘feeling connected’ isn’t so bad after all…

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Image: Zuma Press

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Post from: EveryJoe

Quien Es Mas Macho?

Sure, you can re-tape envelopes and copy on both sides of a memo, but if you want to make a real difference in the bottom line, you need to cut costs with a chainsaw and not a nail clipper. Personnel and advertising cuts will generally give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Companies continue to make sizable cutbacks in both areas. The latest company to announce draconian cuts in marketing and labor costs in an effort to maintain profitability is American Express. The upscale credit card company reduced its Q2 advertising and promotion expenditures by 47%, or roughly $311 million versus the same period last year.

The move is in response to declines in sales and profits that have hit credit card companies particularly hard as consumers rein in their spending due to the current recession. American Express reported consumer spending by their customers fell 15% over the past year with credit card delinquencies rising to 10% from 8.5%.

Some analysts worry American Express may be “cheating the brand” by cutting back on advertising.

“You can cheat your brand for a little bit and not lose, but do it for too long and people start forgetting about you,” said Bart Narter, head of the banking group at research firm Celent.

You know what else cheats your brand? Not making a profit.

Due to its cost cutting measures, American Express is one of the few credit card companies to make money in the second quarter, earning $337 million.

The company has also been able to pay back $3.9 billion in TARP money which enabled it to avoid further financing charges and prevented senior management from getting calls during dinner from government debt collectors.

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Card tricks

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Photo credit: moacirpdsp on Flickr

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Post from: EveryJoe

Don’t Have Your People Call My People

The airline suffered its third major accident in less than a year when a Continental flight traveling from Brazil to Houston hit turbulence and was forced to make an emergency landing in Miami. Early reports cite at least 26 injuries and list at least four of those injuries as “serious.”

This accident follows on the heels of a Continental Connection crash outside of Buffalo earlier this year which killed all 45 passengers on board and a Continental flight out of Denver in December of 2008 which skidded off the runway and burst into flames resulting in 38 injuries to the crew and passengers.

In an industry where it’s unusual for an airline to have a headline-grabbing accident more than once every five to ten years, Continental’s experience stands out as a developing public relations headache for the company.

The traditional reasoning used to attempt to calm people who are afraid to fly is that you are much more likely to get hit by lightning than be involved in an airline accident.

The likelihood may shift if you’re traveling on Continental Airlines where, if recent experience is the guide, the percentages may more closely resemble standing atop a tall tree with a raised golf club.

Continental will need to take some crisis management steps to prevent the situation from spinning out of control into a more serious threat to the company’s image and bottom line.

Two key actions most commonly recommended by PR strategists in a crisis situation are being proactive and being honest.

Being proactive means having a strategy to deal with questions, rumors and inquiries from the press. In addition, the company will need to have some answers ready regarding actions it is taking to comfort and assist those involved and ways it is working to prevent similar crises from happening in the future.

While attempting to project an image of “confidence, compassion and competence,” companies managing a potential PR disaster must take great pains to make sure company reps tell the truth. Attempts to fudge statistics or mislead reporters are more likely to be exposed due to the increased scrutiny being brought to bear on the company and, more importantly, are virtually guaranteed to make a bad situation worse.

The course Continental Airlines chooses to navigate through the current publicity problems will seriously impact the company’s ability to remain viable in a highly competitive industry.

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Flying Continental to Las Vegas might strike some people as redundant…

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Image: Zuma Press

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Post from: EveryJoe

Developing PR Nightmare At Continental Air?

Kind of like the Ashton Kutchers of the bird world.

Wikipedia describes the birds as “opportunistic scavengers that will eat anything once they have discovered it is edible.”

Twitter users who cling to the notion of Twitter as a pure social networking destination will think both descriptions are appropriate for the advertising service, Magpie.

Magpie bills itself as “the largest Twitter Advertising Network” and says they are all about “generating a conversation for your brand within a social networking context.”

Or, as it’s more commonly known, “bugging the crap out of your friends.”

Granted, most of the followers on Twitter aren’t really close friends but, just like real life, people tend to get a little miffed when you forward their name to an insurance agent without asking first.

Since Magpie automatically matches content to your followers, the company claims it targets people who are most likely to appreciate your sincere, automated recommendations.

It may very well be a law of the online universe that nothing is ever destined to be enjoyed for its own merits. Any successful innovation will necessarily be reduced, at some point, to serve the two lowest common denominators of the Internet equation: viral marketing and porn.

Some would argue we’re giving viral marketing a huge benefit of the doubt by giving it its own separate category.

Magpie claims to have a click-through rate over 10 times greater than banner ads. The irritability quotient would appear to be close to equal for both methods.

You can hear more of the Magpie’s sweet song of monetizing your Twitter followers at be-a-magpie.com.

Magpie is just another one of the increasingly sophisticated ways that marketers have of trying to separate you from your money.

These advertisers — you’ve got to watch them like a hawk.

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“A little birdie told me … about this great new line of skin care products….”

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Image: Zuma Press

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Post from: EveryJoe

I Know Why The Cagy Bird Sings

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My second fantasy is to be able to hold my breath that long….
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The amount of time I’ve spent watching synchronized swimming in my life is roughly equivalent to the amount of time I can tread water in the deep end of a pool. That’s nowhere near the five and a half minutes it takes these women to transform themselves into dolphins while following Robert Plant’s guitar riffs.

If I was trying to get more people to come out to watch synchronized swimming at the Olympics, all I’d do is pay for some television ad time, play this video and tell people, “If you come out to the pool, you may get to see a demonstration of beauty and athleticism this awesome.”

I’d also automatically put the Spanish team through to the finals, because everyone knows that Spanish women are incredibly wild and hot.

And, after all, sex sells.

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Stuff most people can’t do on land…

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A tip of the swim cap to sports blog With Leather for the point to this video.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Let The Product Speak For Itself

Parent company PepsiCo managed to take a mature sports drink which owned its category and accelerate its decline with the kind of so-hip-that-nobody-gets-it advertising that wreaks havoc with any brand.

It’s the Entourage effect brought to advertising. Only the people who work on the campaign think it’s slick. They’re so convinced of their own coolness they don’t realize they just come off as a bunch of preening idiots. That’s fine if you have the alternate reality of your own TV show, but not when your goal is to drive sales of your product.

You’ve probably seen the following commercial about a hundred times already. I can tell you in advance it’s about Gatorade and you’ll still have to watch it three more times to figure out the advertisers are talking about the country’s number one sports drink.

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Gee. I don’t know WTF you’re talking about…
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Instead of playing to its strengths as the sports drink of choice for athletes and wannabe athletes, Gatorade tried to reverse a one year decline in sales by reinventing itself.

Bad idea.

When you’re number one in your category, your biggest challenge is to show a little poise and, above all, don’t give away valuable marketing territory in the battle for the consumer’s mind by confusing your customer.

One famous marketing study was done of 25 top brands which held the number one spot in their respective categories. Sixty years later, 20 of those 25 brands still had the number one position in their category. It’s extremely hard to unseat a market leader.

PepsiCo will most likely survive this most recent screw-up (especially since they appear to have realized their mistake) but there has been damage done to the brand.

As a veteran of the Cola Wars, PepsiCo should understand that on the marketing battlefield, the first thing you try to do is not shoot yourself in the foot.

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Post from: EveryJoe

G Is For Gaffe