truth in advertising
Over the weekend a friend sent over a link to a user-created ad for the Chevy Tahoe. Chevy’s agency, as part of a marketing campaign with The Apprentice, did a pretty stellar job of providing clips, soundtracks and a slick tool for writing your own copy for your ad. Nonetheless, the only ads I’ve seen making the viral rounds are the ones that subvert the official message.
The virals that made it around the blogosphere talk about global warming (or as Seth Godin has put it, so inimitably, atmosphere cancer) and surface what is usually the subject of private conversations among people inclined to critique advertising.
Namely, that the Chevy ad imagery — most SUV ad imagery — is built on a lie.
The lie is that the average SUV driver will ever take their steed offroad where it can pulse, roar, and become the ur-chariot of a wilderness loving ur-outdoorsman. The lie is that the SUV is in loving alignment with the pristine environment usually featured in the advertising.
The point of this ramble.
If the positive applications of your product are seriously outweighed by the negative costs it imposes, it’s a good idea to skip venues on the Web where people can comment on this disjunction and speak truth to your marketing. Nike ran into a similar problem when they offered up custom slogans on their sneakers.
The bigger picture for me is that we live in an era where corporations are beginning to be held to the same standards of truth telling that govern our interactions with our neighbors, co-workers and friends.
Because the soapbox an individual stands upon has global reach.
Barring serious manipulation by governments or telcos, truth in advertising, at least on the Web, may actually become something more than an unenforced federal requirement.
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I think it’s because it’s a Chevy Tahoe. If this was for a Jeep or some other car like a Ford Escape hybrid or Lexus hybrid or a Scion even, they would probably get some good submissions. Where’s the affinity for a Chevy Tahoe? This was just a dumb move all around.
True, true.
The naturalistic elements of SUV advertising aren’t just a lie, they’re brutal irony; the product actually *destroys* what the advertising celebrates. But SUVs aren’t really about communion with nature; they’re about domination of the surrounding environment, be it natural, man-made, or man-decayed. (Note the other parody ads that use the “urban” footage.)
It would be great if the blogosphere were somehow to create a zeitgeist of truth and accountability. But most people still have never read a blog, and wouldn’t even know how to find one that wasn’t branded by a major media company. And in 10 years, I’m guessing the blogosphere will still be so fragmented and pervaded by corporate influence that most people will only know the “truth” that powerful others want them to know.
Redefining the notion of successful marketing…
My friend Paul Kim recently mentioned how the new GM marketing campaign, dubbed ChevyApprentice.com was used by environmental activists to get their message out in a very interesting and creative way.
I thought this was a complete disaster for GM….