Last year, fresh out of bankruptcy, General Motors ran the first ad with Ed Whitacre. At the time, GM rationalised the Whitacre ad by saying:
“The spot will set up a wider TV campaign featuring commercials about each of GM’s four surviving brands: Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac.” Automotive News, 9/10/09
The implication being that the brand advertising would clarify the brands’ identities. Almost three heads of marketing later, we still have yet to see an ad or an idea that positions these brands clearly in the marketplace. Three of the four GM brands have not put a stake in the ground telling us what they stand for (GMC is the exception and that work was done years ago).
Last week it leaked out that Chevy was going to have the tag-line “Excellence for all.” That idea has been roundly criticized as a strategy looking for an execution. We used to describe an idea like this by saying its “strategy is showing.” The point of course is that it lacks passion, emotion, bravado, something magical that makes you feel something about the brand, rather it’s as if research wrote the line. Chevrolet is truly one of America’s most storied and iconic brands, surely it deserves better.
Predictably the industry was quick to blame Publicis (Chevrolet’s new agency), I think that’s misplaced.
Ironically, exhibit number 1 in defense of Publicis is the new Cadillac campaign from Bartle Bogle & Hegarty. Just announced yesterday, here are a couple of the commercials: (more…)
