For 90 years, the ad agency Campbell-Ewald has been Chevrolet’s go-to source for all-American ad messages, including the “See the USA in your Chevrolet,” “Heartbeat of America,” “Like A Rock” and “American Revolution” campaigns. But despite a track record of household-name campaigns, trouble has been brewing between GM and C-E for months now. In December, GM announced that C-E would focus on developing Silverado pickup ads for the Winter Olympic Games, while car and crossover advertising would migrate over to the French agency Publicis. Today, AdWeek reports that Chevy is terminating its nearly century-old relationship with Campbell-Ewald, and will move its entire Chevrolet business to Publicis. So what does this mean for Chevy’s advertising?
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Category: PR
Yabe! (Oh shoot.) As the sun set over Toyota City and Tokyo, Toyota’s execs and Sararimen (salary men) alike were crying in their sake. Today was a sai aku (very bad) day. A day everybody at Toyota most likely would want to forget. No, no recall for a change. There isn’t much left to recall anyway, or so it seems.
The sai aku day started with Moody’s downgrading Toyota’s formerly stellar credit rating to “its lowest-ever level,” as The Nikkei [sub] laments. Moody’s came to the somewhat belated conclusion that “multi-million vehicle recalls and safety issues raise questions about its profitability and ability to stay ahead of rivals on pricing power until 2012 at the earliest.”
To make matters even more sai aku, Moody’s warned that its outlook for the rating remains negative. Why the pessimism? Read More >
A photo enforcement company and city officials are gearing up to fight members of the public who will soon vote on the issue of red light cameras in Baytown, Texas. Earlier this year, American Traffic Solutions (ATS) set up a front group entitled Safety Cameras for a Safer Baytown to serve as its political action committee in opposition to a ballot measure that would ban the use of cameras. The firm used the same tactic in its failed effort to save cameras from a public vote in College Station last year.
Taxpayers, your partial refund is in. Now quick, make with the pension bailout and EV subsidies. Oh, and be sure to pick up a new Chevy, Cadillac, Buick or GMC as a “thank you” present for this act of patriotic largess.
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Since GM has only recently come out with GAAP-approved financials, determining the company’s value isn’t easy. Still, The Detroit Free Press‘s Tom Walsh reckons The General is worth more than Ford, despite the fact that GM recently fell out of the Fortune 500’s top ten (and below Ford) for the first time in its 100+ years of history. What gives?
The latest Cruze-hyping video from GM shows the forthcoming compact ripping through a test track, as Vehicle Line Director Chuck Russell waxes eloquent about its engineering and reliability. His point is clear: this new Cruze is a truly global product, in contrast to the America-only Cavalier update that was the Cobalt it replaces. And comparing footage of the Cruze ripping through a slalom to that of a Civic negotiating the same obstacles, one is left with the impression that Russell isn’t just blowing smoke. But then, we knew that already. In his review of the European-spec Cruze, TTAC’s Martin Schwoerer notes:
In contrast to the engine, the Cruze’s ride and handling are perfectly acceptable in the grand scheme of things.
We’re right on the verge of having 12 million in vehicle sales
UAW boss Ron Gettelfinger waxes optimistic in a recent speech at Wayne State University [via The Freep]. “Not so fast,” says Automotive News [sub]’s delightfully cranky senior editor, John K. Teahen Jr., in a piece appropriately titled 12 million sales this year? Don’t hold your breath.
With weeks of recall coverage and with Lexus’s GX460 snagging a rare Consumer Reports “do not buy” warning, you’d think that at least one of CR’s recent “worst-made cars on the road” [via Forbes] would be made by Toyota. But you’d be wrong. Dodge Nitro, Jeep Wrangler, and Ford F-250 join four GM products (Cadillac Escalade, Chevy Aveo, Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon) as the seven worst cars CR could come up with. And though this hometown sweep for Detroit goes a long way from separating facts from fiction, it’s nowhere near as instructive as the responses from each of the Detroit automakers to the charge of making crap vehicles. Let’s take a look, shall we?
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According to the latest Rasmussen telephone polling [via The Financial], 48 percent of Americans believe that the government’s ownership stake in GM and Chrysler means it has a conflict of interest in regulating competing automakers. 25 percent disagree, saying that the government’s bailout doesn’t affect regulation, and another 26 percent aren’t sure. When it comes to recent criticism of Toyota by administration officials like Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, only 25 percent believe the criticism stems from a desire to help GM, while 38 percent disagree and 37 percent aren’t sure. But the polls most interesting results have nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with perception:
Despite Toyota’s major safety recalls, owners of its cars are still more loyal than those who drive cars made by the bailed-out GM. Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans who currently own a Toyota say they are at least somewhat likely to buy their next car from the troubled automaker, compared to 57% of GM drivers who say they are at least somewhat likely to buy their next car from GM.
GM’s newest board member, UCLA Psychology faculty member Cynthia Telles, and her husband, former California Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, addressing the 2000 Democratic convention. Telles has served on the boards of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (where she served with GM Chairman/CEO Ed Whitacre), as well as several banks. She has no Auto Industry experience, but at least she knows Ed Whitacre and has strong ties to the Democratic party. Or, as Ed Whitacre puts it in GM’s official release:
The addition of Dr. Telles to GM’s board of directors ensures that the company will continue to benefit from a diversity of perspectives and experience in our mission to provide consumers with the world’s best vehicles
Yes, really. And, according to Chrysler’s official blog post, the three year partnership is already going swimmingly.
The nation’s storied auto company and the nation’s storied space agency are joining forces again, by announcing a three-year alliance to exchange information on advanced technology across a broad spectrum of engineering and scientific areas that both organizations can benefit from. The alliance allows Chrysler Group and NASA to tap into existing and emerging space exploration and automotive technologies… Chrysler has already benefited from the alliance from shared research on reliable surface navigation sensors.
I know that they have to cut the car open to take the engine out. To make an engine in that configuration, you know, it doesn’t go around corners. When we did the race in Abu Dhabi, we beat it off the line so many times that the film crew was getting frustrated because the outcome was supposed to be for the Bugatti to win. So we had to do that whole thing about ten times before it managed to get off the line cleanly and catch us up. Because every time they dropped the clutch it bogged down and we were gone.
McLaren’s Ron Dennis lays into the Bugatti Veyron at the Middle East launch of his firm’s new MP4-12C [Arabian Business via Wired Autopia]. What Dennis leaves out is that the Bugatti has a (computerized, sequential-shift) automatic transmission, so it’s difficult to know what he means by “they dropped the clutch.” Besides, it sounds like the former Formula 1 boss is spewing bile, rather than objectively critiquing the Veyron… which there’s plenty of room for.
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Over a year now, the launch of Buick’s new LaCrosse gave us pause to consider the average age of Buick buyers, and the future of the brand’s demography. At the time, The Detroit New claimed the average age of Buick buyers was 63, a fact that gave the paper cause to celebrate Buick’s new lease on life. And considering that the brand once attracted buyers of an average age of 72, that wasn’t a bad trend at the time. Today’s DetN has a similar story, lauding Buick’s newfound youthful appeal with such quotes as this one from IHS Global Insight’s Aaron Bragman:
They are making definite improvements in the U.S. To kill Buick would have been crazy. It’s one of the most important brands in the Chinese market…. It’s still too soon to really come to a verdict on how Buick is doing in the U.S. But nobody can say those are old person’s cars anymore. Because they aren’t.
But this latest round of Buick-boosting is still based on the old reference point of a 72-year-old average buyer demographic. Compared to a year ago, Buick’s average buyer age appears to have crept back up again, as the Detroit News cites a current average demographic of 65.
Where to start with Saab-Spyker CEO Victor Muller’s plans for world domination? Why not with the craziest part? Despite declining sales, the boutique supercar arm of Saab-Spyker claims to be developing a “Super Sport Utility Vehicle” in the mold of the D12 Peking-To-Paris showcar. Autoinformatief.com caused quite a stir when it revealed images of both a clay model and a test mule for this allegedly production-bound (yes, again) piece of madness. Moreover, news that Spyker won’t be invited to use Audi engines in forthcoming models caused at least one popular car blog to run the headline “Spyker’s New Ferrari-Powered SUV.” Because apparently Spyker can’t decide if it wants to use an AMG engine or a “supercharged Ferrari V8.” Does this give you a taste of just how goofy things have become ’round Saab-Spyker way? Well, it gets worse.
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