Good point. I can’t think of another automaker that is as successful at losing money as is GM.

You mean like this?

HEAD ON APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD HEAD ON APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD HEAD ON APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD HEAD ON APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD HEAD ON APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD HEAD ON APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD

1. ad features a video with text overlay that has little or nothing to do with the video. This causes your brain to stop paying close attention to the video, ideally put you into a semi-hypnotic state.

2. audio will have little to nothing to do with the text or video and is often annoying. This really makes your mind not want to pay attention to the commercial, but if the audio is annoying you will still glance to the screen.

3. audio will have a sudden change, either loud noise, or silence before showing a white field with a logo in the middle. This is like a hypnotist snapping their fingers and saying a command.

The idea is that you don’t want the person to necessarily like the commercial, preferably they won’t remember it at all. They will just see the logo when they go shopping and have an impulse to pick that logo. Even if they hated the commercial as long as they forget it later it still works. Unfortunately this technique is very effective and that’s why more and more commercials follow this pattern.

Is this representing the Volt owner after walking 40 miles, which doesn’t use any gas, and letting his dog lick his poor tired dawgs?

Is the this dog that is going to be put in to a harness and made to pull you and your Volt branded sled 40 miles?

Is the advertising executive that was paid $50k for this ad sitting at home with a video camera wondering what kind of ad he should deliver to Chevy?

#1 rule of marketing: Don’t insult, demean, repulse, or otherwise gross out your target market.

But of course, it’s GM, and since I’ve sworn off all cars from that company, maybe I’m not part of that target market anyhow…

Not exactly an apples to apples comparison. How about resale, costumer satisfaction, repeat buyers, and market share today, not 1931.

Well john R, last time I checked GM has been beating Toyota since 1931… at sales, and everything else.

Are they beating Toyota in profit as well? Over the past decade, GM hasn’t made more profit combined than Toyota’s single worst year over the same period.

I’m thinking TTAC is an equal-opportunity basher.

From: Toyota’s Image at the Crossroads:

In the first quarter of 2007, Toyota spent over $100m telling Americans that the transplanted Japanese automakers had built a proper, full-sized, all-American truck– deep in the heart of Texas (no less). What they didn’t mention: the most popular version gets a combined EPA average of 15 miles to the gallon.

Perhaps that’s because, at the same time, ToMoCo ran a national TV campaign advertising the fact that its Hybrid Synergy Drive is now available in the Camry. Talk about cognitive dissonance. And when you’re done, consider Toyota’s dirty [not so] little secrets: the FJ Cruiser, Sequoia and Land Cruiser.

I wish we could find a MOLE on the Volt engineering development team to hear what’s really going on behind the curtain and let people know what kind of pressure they have with the unrealistic timeline, price and probably R&D budget that doesn’t allow them to do what they really need to do. And then crappy ads out on TV for a car they are currently trying to develop.

last time I checked GM has been beating Toyota since 1931… at sales, and everything else.

You need to quit looking at the past and start looking at the present because they are getting their ass beat by just about everyone. You sound like one of the execs. always living in the past.

/p

Well john R, last time I checked GM has been beating Toyota since 1931… at sales, and everything else. What are you talking about Gm doesn’t care about the enviroment??? They donate all kinds of money constanly to helping conserve energy, and they donate to the american red cross, and to the hurricane victims, and charities. I watched the daytona shootout saturday night… anybody catch that toyota commerical that had absolutly nothing to do with cars?? funny how you people can bring up volt commercials but not toyota…funny.. and you know whats more amusing than GM INTENDING to charge 40k???… Tesla charging almost 100k for their electric crap car. Amusing isn’t it

If you haven’t noticed, Tesla has been panned widely for their vaporware status and high price, as well as the well-known limitations of their electric car, especially on this website.

Especially when you consider Lutz admitted that the Volt is nothing more than an opportunity for GM to thumb its nose at Toyota/Honda and show that it too can be cutting edge. GM doesn’t care about being enviromental, they just want to beat Toyota at something, anything.

Its even more amusing when GM intends to charge possible Volt consumers at least $40k for the car, before options. Well out of the price range of the audience who have probably seen this commercial on Cartoon Networks’ Adult Swim and are environmentally conscience.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/01/27/want-a-volt-in-2010-then-take-40-000-to-your-nearest-chevy-dea/