The man behind a Chevrolet ad campaign that spawned a particularly hilarious, long-running spoof almost from day one has left the company, Automotive News reports.
Chevrolet ad chief Paul Edwards took a walk Thursday, with General Motors replacing the brand’s U.S. marketing VP with Steve Majoros, currently the bowtie’s director of cars and crossovers marketing.
According to a company spokesperson who spoke to AN, Edwards left GM today to pursue other opportunities. A longtime employee, Edwards served as director of advertising and sales promotion for Chevrolet from 2007 to 2010, moving on to become executive director of global marketing for GM. In 2014, he switched to the role he vacated today.
The automaker has not yet announced a replacement for Majoros’ vacated post. Majoros joined the company in 2013 and accepted the Chevy cars and crossovers file the following year. Before joining GM, Majoros spent 25 years at marketing firm Campbell Ewald.
Currently, Majoros is busy touting the new C8 Corvette, which entered production earlier this week.
“If you can anticipate customer needs and expectations and deliver on those, the world’s an easier place and it’s a better place. That’s good for us,” Majoros told AN at this week’s Chicago Auto Show. “It’s good for dealers and good for customers. If we can take that approach and cascade it across all of our models, which we’re starting to do, I think that’s a positive thing.”
Edwards may best be remembered for the “Real People, Not Actors” campaign, which featured — among other scenarios — telegenic strangers attempting to identify the make of a partially concealed Chevrolet vehicle. The “real people” were quick to misidentify mainstream Chevy sedans as big-bucks imports.
YouTube soon became home to a series of parodies titled “If ‘Real People’ Commercials Were Real Life…,” starring a Bostonian protagonist named Mahk.
Edwards shrugged off the criticism, telling Ad Age in 2017, “In the last 25 months we have learned a tremendous amount, not only on the campaign equities itself and how to fine tune it and keep it fresh, but also on the power of focus and alignment and consistency over time.”
The “Real people” ads were young at heart and didn’t take themselves too seriously, Edwards said, adding that it delivered instant brand recognition among viewers. That was something missing from Chevrolet marketing efforts for some time, he said.
[Image: Chevrolet/YouTube]
I still liked the Camry “grounded to the ground” ad.
“The “Real people” ads… delivered instant brand recognition among viewers.”
Well, that part is true. And some of them were quite telegenic.
They may have been ‘real people’, but I never believed these people were “really” surprised, especially years into the ad campaign.
Those ads were dishonest in that they stated GM quality was superior. Other carmakers called GM out for these ads. The truth is GM quality is at the back of the pack according to consumers reports. GM does not seem grounded in reality.
At least Dead Weight was funny.
Amen.
akear
Upon closer review of the Consumer Reports survey. I noticed
– a large number of models made by the Detroit companies went unrated. While every single Asian model was rated.
– Massmarket brands like RAM went unrated Micro brands like Genesis & Mini had every single model rated.
Conclusion: Consumer Reports data collection system is highly flawed. With a huge margin of error.which makes any results completely worthless.
So tell us, where can we find unflawed data?
Mahk’s from St. Pete, not Boston. Pretty good accent though. Hollywood could take a lesson.
For real? Lol.
“pursue other opportunities” How a corporate execution is announced (I’m not saying it wasn’t justified).
The sixth paragraph of cringe-worthy nonsense would do Homer Simpson proud. Maybe he figures it will give GM stock a price bump.
you’re right, “pursue other opportunities” is generally a giveaway that he was axed…particularly when (a) the departure was sudden and (b) there is no immediate replacement for his successor.
“Pursue other opportunities” can also mean “he got a job at another company we don’t want to name.”
I like my commercials with fake people.
Oh, sure, you knew instantly when you saw them that it was about Chevrolet. And then you changed channels to avoid hearing the stupidity that was being offered. Aside from the small print and the eye rolling about Chevrolet quality being even remotely average, these things were horrific.
Honduh.
Mary Barra “… also reminded everyone that GM intends to reduce manufacturing complexities for 2020, by eliminating 1/4 of the parts currently required for assembly…”
I suggest a natural segue to “Real People, Real Parts”. Open with establishing shot of “real customers” along with GM engineers peering under the hood of a vehicle.
Customer holding up a part: “Do I need this part?”
Engineer: “No, you don’t need that part.”
Customer tosses part into a large bin.
“Do I need THIS part?”
“Nope. You don’t need that part.”
And so on. (Bonus points if “part” is pronounced as “paht” by at least one customer or engineer.)
” Open with establishing shot of “real customers” ”
That’s exactly what is needed because that is the crux of the problem for GM, not enough real people buying GM products.
” reduce manufacturing complexities for 2020, by eliminating 1/4 of the parts currently required for assembly”
The problem is that 2020 is here. Reducing parts count *per unit* by 25% is a wholesale redesign. The only quick route to reduce parts count by 25% is to build 25% fewer vehicles. Now that might be within their grasp.
“The “Real people” ads… delivered instant brand recognition among viewers.”
If Americans are not aware about their own brands like Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, Pontiac then America is in serious trouble. But truth is that Americans have very short memory. Of course it does not apply to B&B.
…According to a company spokesperson who spoke to AN, Edwards left GM today to pursue other opportunities…
F-I-R-E-D
Thank God. GM, especially Chevy has had one of, if not the worst and lamest Ad campaigns out of all automakers today besides for say Subaru.
Hopefully the marketing direction will finally change from the stupid “Real People” commercial, to something that will inspire you to own a Chevy. They really need to show off their vehicles in an exciting way instead of trying to prove to the public how many dumb ass JD power awards their lineup has received or how reliable they are compared to its competition.
That crap just doesn’t work. And I get so annoyed just watching a Chevy commercial. I miss the old Chevy truck “Like a Rock” TV commercial from back in the days. Now as corny as they were, they at least showed off their truck in a cool way.
Like “ Built Ford Tough”. “Like a Rock” is really a memorable line, that most old school Chevy trucks were built like tanks and worthy of the name.
Can’t say they are built like a rock today, however they honestly were in the 50’s all the way up into the 80’s. A friend of mine owns a 69 Chevy C10 pickup with the straight 6 in it, and the engine has close to 300,000 miles on it with no problems. The sheet metal on that thing is unbelievably thick. Everything is sturdy on it. It’s a cool looking truck too, one that I would like own someday. Working on it is a breeze too.
It’s just crazy knowing how great GM vehicles used to be back then, and how horribly styled they are today.
Oldschool,
Very good points. I shudder to think how much the agency was paid that came up with this campaign.
OK. We all (mostly) hate the real people ads.
They were bad. Annoying.
But, the real crime? GM kept them going for years and years.
It s one thing to make a mistake. But, not recognizing it and not fixing it is a huge sign of BAD MANAGEMENT!!!
Maybe that new top dog of marketing booted him. (saw a problem and fixed it.)
“The “Real people” ads…..delivered instant brand recognition among viewers.”
Ha! This is called “delusion.” The ability for humans to delude themselves never ceases to amaze me.
In referencing GM ads, I also find the Buick ads to be nauseating: One para-sailer mentions to another “Oh, I forgot to lock my BUICK”, NO ONE talks about their car that way!
How about “Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet?”
While I’m logged in, if you want to hear BAD fake Boston accents check out the Hyundai Sonata “Big Game” commercial. The Floridian “Mahk” in the Chevy ads got it pretty close.
Are GM still monopolizing the adspace in theatres, where one can see the same ad three times in the 20 minutes preceding the previews? That was a big reason I stopped going to theatres, even as infrequently as I had done.
These ads are idiotic, like only people with half a brain would believe them. Best result of these ads, is Mark channel on YT who makes endless fun of them. Check it out.
Mahk is funny, and again, he’s NOT from Boston but he does the best fake accent I’ve ever heard! The Hyundai Super Bowl ad on the other hand, apparently created with the assumption that the Patriots would be in the game, features typical Hollywood-style Boston accents. Not even close. Cliff Clavin’s was better.