April 3rd, 2006
General Motors hosts ads attacking Chevy SUV
News.com executive editor Harry Fuller just walked into my office to tell me how General Motors still has a Web site up hosting dozens of negative ads about the Chevy Tahoe 72 hours after the unflattering and sometimes raunchy, x-rated content about the gas guzzling SUV appeared. "It’s a classic case of how an major corporation doesn’t understand the Internet and doesn’t respond in Internet time," Harry said. And this is the seriously struggling American auto manufacturing company that proudly touts its executive blog, written by Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. I didn’t find any reference to the contest of user contributed commercials on his blog. Brand protection thrown out in favor of letting the chorus of unexpurgated critics express themselves using GM’s forum and materials.
Greg Sandoval’s reports that videos came about as part as part of apartnership with Donald Trump’s "The Apprentice" TV show to the Chevy Tahoe SUV. Viewers are challenged to create commercials using clips and track, making their own cuts and writing their own "captions." Now they videos are circulating through the Web, which makes damage control impossible.
Here’s a sample image from this commercial:
This one gets more to the point.
More commercials to enjoy here…
Dan Farber, editor-in-chief of CNET News.com, has more than 20 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
