Great Advertising Can’t Save a Bad Company.

Rick Stanton, Creative Director / Managing Partner, Stanton & Everybody

The ad below is part of the new campaign for GM.
The ad:


Rick's commentary: It’s a good ad. Very good.
It has all the right images and a strong yet contrite copy platform, given the situation
GM is facing. And the production values are fabulous. It must have cost a wad.
But now that you've viewed the spot, I am curious if you're left wondering the same thing I am: why the hell did it take bankruptcy to get GM to admit their mistakes and attempt to do something about it? For years, short of the Corvette, GM has turned out cars and trucks that are ugly, inefficient and duplicitous.
For years if Chevy had a car called Bob, then Oldsmobile had virtually the same car only called Larry. When they had most of the market share that may have made sense. But when you’re getting your brains kicked in by Japan and Europe wouldn’t and shouldn’t you have looked at your business model twenty years ago and made some decisions and maybe offed Larry sooner than later? I have to keep reminding myself that these are the same people who came to D.C. in private jets looking for a handout without a business plan.
And now all of a sudden they have one? Hmmm.
GM turned into a bad car company all on it’s own because of bad contracts with bullyboy unions and brand arrogance.
Some (old people) may remember that many years ago Mike Mogelgaard and his agency did some brilliant print ads for Sea First (once a great local bank brand) apologizing for bad loans they had made that put the bank in serious financial peril. One showed Babe Ruth walking back to the dugout after striking out at the end of his career, bat dragging behind him in the dirt. As I recall, the headline read, “He never batted a thousand.”
The ads humanized the bank. It showed humility. They simply stated they had made mistakes. And as a result, people showed empathy and support.
To me, all this new GM campaign does is remind me how out of touch with reality GM’s management truly must be and that their arrogance extends to believing the public will be drinking this Kool Aid any time soon.

Worth Reading: http://adage.com/article?article_id=137010