Alan Gutierrez

Ed Peper responds for General Motors on the GM Fastlane blog regarding the recent Chevy Tahoe promotion that did not go awry. In the promotion, people were invited to create their own Chevy Tahoe television ad.

A fair number of parody advertisments were created. Images of the Tahoe motoring through the snow were overlaid with text reading “Like this snowy wilderness? Better get your fill of it now. Then say hello to global warming.”

GM FastLane Blog: Now that we’ve got your attention

So, a few media pundits seem to think this social media program was a failure and others seem to revel in the apparent anarchy. We, on the other hand, welcome the opportunity to clarify the facts regarding fuel economy, vehicles equipped with E85 capability, and consumer choice. In our opinion, this has been one of the most creative and successful promotions we have done.

General Motors and specifically Chevrolet were early to build the modern concept of branding. Does anyone recall “See the USA in Your Chevorlet?” or “Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet?” If not, it may probably be in Chevy’s best intrest.

The quintcential all-American brand name. A brand name stamped on almost half the cars made in 1950s.

Which is why it doesn’t concern me to see the buzz at the expense of brand equity. The brand equity has been slowing draining since about 1965.

The stock footage of a bowtie clad truck rolling down an winding road is banal and meaningless. You can turn off the sound and recite the financing offers yourself.

Pink Moon is an advertisment that still means Volkswagen. Not a car on winding roads, but a brilliant vinette about winding roads, or Synchronicity, which rolls down Royal Street. Volkswagens will forever after be about the Road of Life. The only advertisments that told stories about driving, rather than about about a vehicle.

Look at the way Dodge pokes fun at it’s muscle car legacy in their advertisments about the Hemi. A way to remind folks that Dodge has been making V-8s since before you were born. A humerous evocation of the Mopar legacy.

Much better than that horrible attempt to ressurrect the late, great Harley Earl that Buick untook in recent fit of heresy. “My name is Harley Earl, and I’ve come back to build you a great car,” says veteran Miami Vice actor John Diehl.

This Tahoe experiment? There’s no place to go but up.

Bob Lutz, GM Fastlane Blog: Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before…

We can and will do a better job of advertising and communications in the traditional sense, but we need to step up our non-traditional communications and word of mouth, and get our message directly to the people on a grass roots level. This blog is one example — but we need more avenues, and bigger ideas. What do you think?

This comes to me via Debbie Wiel, where she paraphrases the Bob’s comment thus…

Debbie Wiel, BlogWrite for CEOs: Bob Lutz mentions GM’s “financial state” on FastLane blog

I don’t know about you but that sounds pretty transparent to me for a Fortune 500 blog. Translation: we’ve got a problem. Can you help? So far, 178 readers have left comments on this entry. Fascinating to read: lots of specifics, on warranties, 1-day take-home test drives, tips on how to deal with MSM’s approach to the GM death spiral story, etc.

Other than Bob Lutz, I can’t think of any automotive CEOs that I read weekly. Does it help? I think so. When I read Lutz, GM’s products don’t seem half as dowdy as they do on their television commercials. GM is learning to listen and communciate with it’s customers in a new medium.

It may well be an revolution in automotive marketing, from the same guys who brought you a car for every purse and purpose.