Chevrolet's new, and completely lame, advertising strategy

I have written other blog entries about lame advertising campaigns and the like before, but Chevrolet has just inspired me again with its latest, absolutely lame, ad campaign.

If you have not seen the ad that inspires this discussion, basically it is a series of images showing bits and pieces of American history with a few Chevy products mixed into the bunch. Images of Rosa Parks on a bus, Richard Nixon doing his famous peace-sign wave, Vietnam clips, hurricane Katrina devastation, 9/11 imagery, and a whole boat load of other similar big-event things are in here. And, every so often there will be a picture of something like an old Chevy pickup truck that is meant to look like it is from the 1970's, and so forth.

Well, if I was to even for a minute consider investing in GM stock, this commercial alone would quickly change my mind. And, if I was to consider buying a GM car, this commercial would do absolutely nothing to influence me towards a purchase.

I am so sick of these artsy/statement commercials that do everything possible to avoid presenting the product for sale. And, I am sure GM spent millions on this crap. One (advertising exec) professional that Fox News spoke to today tried to describe these commercials as a push to be more "real"; part of a greater "real" push going on in all commercials. Real?? Real to whom? Real to the advertising firm that made it, but pure crap to any consumer that just wants to see what Chevy has to offer thse days.

Who knows, maybe subconsciously those images of Rosa Parks or Richard Nixon will make someone just run out and buy a Chevy that otherwise wouldn't -- because, Chevy quite obviously had some part in all these events shown in there commercial? Whenever I see ads like this (lame ones -- and there are many), I can't help thinking what the ad firm was compensated to produce such a thing. Seems to me that anyone could have put together a series of images like this, and then inserted clips of any product they wanted to (in this case, a product that was around for 40 years or more) throughout the ad, and poof, you have a new commercial. I think Chevy'd be better off putting the money into developing something like the "Fast and the Furious 4 -- Chevy Rules" or something, where the entire movie uses only Chevy cars.

Well, the proof will be in the Chevrolet sales, and I can't wait to see how those go for GM over the next 12 months (I know I will not be buying the stock, especially based on hopes for ads like this to be effective).