Harry Belafonte's Kids Sing Olds Trofeo-ized Version of Dad's Big Hit, Civilization Collapses
After creating today’s Oldsmobile Toronado Troféo Junkyard Find, it becomes my duty to share one of the most brain-scrambling examples of the “What Could GM Have Been Thinking?” genre of car commercials. Yes, it’s a version of Harry Belafonte‘s “Banana Boat Song,” with “Tro-FE-oh” replacing the famous “DAY-oh,” and sung by Belafonte’s offspring.
Let’s study the new lyrics:
Troféo,
It’s hard to figure out what GM had in mind here. If the idea was to pitch the Troféo to younger buyers considering a Detroit alternative to European marques, why use a song that was a hit in 1956? If the idea was to woo Oldmobile’s traditional purchaser demographic (i.e., grumpy octogenarians in the Upper Midwest), why use a song by a well-known Civil Rights-era activist and all-around opponent of American foreign policy, who was loathed like Satan by 99 and many more nines percent of grumpy Midwestern octogenarians? Hey, maybe they’ll buy a Reatta!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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That is right, GM didn't do anything wrong today, so let's drag out some old commercial from the 70-80's so we can make fun of GM. Let's see and hear the Champagne Edition VW commercials from the 70's with the dancing girls and champagne colored balloons or the nail polish paint colors that they tried for a while to attract female buyers. It astounds me how much you can dig up from GM's past, but nary a peep about VW (and they have such an interesting past (SS)).
GM expected all the drivers of older 70's era 'disco coupes' to trade in for W, N, and E bodies, as if they were still desired. If it weren't for the full sized trucks/SUV's, GM wuld have goen udner in 1992.