On June 1, before the ink had dried on GM’s Chapter 11 papers, the automaker had launched a “Reinvention” Web site and a 60-second spot was on the airwaves. The point is to convince people that this isn’t a funeral, rather a birthday worth celebrating.
The spot is terrible, filled with irrelevant imagery and grandstanding about being “the American Car” (conveniently forgetting Ford, which is not bankrupt). GM is ready to “get down to business,” but what’s visually missing is how it plans on doing so. Using phrases like “leaner, meaner and greener” while flashing a dog with its head out the window is a lot less compelling than actually showing redundant vehicle brands disappear from a showroom.
We often lament the basic creative “see and say” way of doing things, but during a seismic event, communicating in the very plain terms of “We get it. We’re sorry. Here’s how we’ll fix it” can do more for your brand than any cute dog.
I’d have to completely agree with your crisp and honest POV here. If you haven’t already seen it John Stewart’s take on this from Tuesday’s show to completely eviscerate what’s left of this misguided campaign.
If anyone wants to see the John Stewart clip that Nima references, go to http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=228971
“Because nothing says rebirth of the American car like people taking the subway and a one-legged man who would rather run.”
Burn!
What Can we common People do about the Bailout? Nothing.. we just have to wait and see if the company comes up and develops new cars and prototypes to please the American consumer
I’ve figured it out: GM’s ad agencies are some of their biggest unsecured creditors, and the layoffs have been brutal. This is just payback. They had some unpaid summer interns throw that spot together using stolen images.
When you look at it in that light, the spot’s not that bad.
Andrew, how would you compare the Reinvention spot with the tone and POV of the GM blog? (See http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/)
Lois;
The both strike me as nothing but preaching to the choir. There may be some value in keeping the GM family pacified, but their efforts seem so utterly uninteresting to anybody that isn’t already in love with GM (and there can’t be that many of them left). The Corvette collector or the guy excited about the new Camaro may be reading GM’s blog, but I just can’t image the average new-car buyer being very interested in any of this, other than in a negative way after reading shocking headlines about bankruptcy and $100 billion bailouts.