"Make Your Own Tahoe Commercial" debacle makes it onto Nightline
We’ve already reported
on the fact that General Motors' “Make Your Own Tahoe Commercial” experiment has turned the General’s
lumbering SUV into a slow-moving target for every environmentalist with a keyboard and high-speed internet connection.
The news ran around the internet like wildfire with some of the best homebrew
commercials finding their way onto YouTube, as well as the rather long list
of comments associated with our own post. Autoblog devotee Mike G. tipped us off to a clip on YouTube showing a segment of ABC's Nightline in which the “hard hitting” late night news show has lifted the story straight from the blogosphere and put it into the homes of tens of hundreds of captive viewers. Where’s the link love, Nightline?
The only additional piece of news Nightline offers is that GM says it “welcomes the two-way interaction.” Of course, it probably likes the free airtime it got on national television even more.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ryan 3:52PM (4/07/2006)
I giggle inside everytime I see one of these homemade commercials. Can you guys make more w/a link our office loves when I play them to everyone!
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Erik 3:53PM (4/07/2006)
At first I thought this was a stupid mistake on the part of Chevy, but man, this is generating some good PR and great exposure - I wonder if they intended this? If so I'm impressed!
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Jay 4:01PM (4/07/2006)
They say there's no such thing as "bad" publicity. We'll soon see if that is the case...
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Garris 4:17PM (4/07/2006)
The "Chevy Tahoe SUV God" one is hilarious...
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doug 4:28PM (4/07/2006)
Is their marketing plan to get us to feel sorry for them by letting the public dump on them? It's almost working - muuuussssst fiiiiinnnnd a Tahoe........
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Garris 4:30PM (4/07/2006)
The "Chevy Tahoe SUV God" one is hilarious...
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Brian W 4:34PM (4/07/2006)
I like the South Park about smug Hybrid owners too!
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Bob Miller 4:41PM (4/07/2006)
They should see what happens if they do a make your own commercial for the Cobalt?
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T. 4:57PM (4/07/2006)
hahahaha, that's funny. Its actually pretty easy to do, did this one: http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=a51e4f40-17c6-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7
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Joshua 5:02PM (4/07/2006)
Hey, great blog! I'm definitely going to bookmark you!
I have a Mobile Car Detailing site. It pretty much covers car detailing and cleaning.
Come and check it out if you get time ;)
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JSK 5:06PM (4/07/2006)
Uh... Isn't "Nightline" an ABC news program? Did you mean "Dateline"?
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Bob Miller 5:13PM (4/07/2006)
What's funny is that we have plenty of oil actually according to some theories. SUVs aren't really the problem, they're just easy targets. We waste so much coal and oil in other ways that large SUVs shouldn't even really be an issue. But, unfortunately for GM, because they don't know what they're doing, they fall into these ridiculous traps and end up looking like ass holes. Honestly, the Tahoe is ridiculous and I'd probably never buy one, but it *IS* a nice vehicle (comfortable, nice interior, powerful, etc, etc...) and a lot better than the old one. If you absolutely need something that big and thirst for V8 power and a nice ride, I'd much rather have this than say, a Sequioa. But what I don't get is this: why isn't GM hot and heavy about advertising their Cobalt and letting people make their own commercials for something like that, or the Aveo. Those models get great mileage and would satisfy most of the intellectual green peace types that love to give their money to Toyota and Honda. I don't get it. Oh well, GM doesn't know whether they're afoot or on horseback sometimes, and this debacle is certainly proof of that.
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cowboy bob 5:47PM (4/07/2006)
I have been working on an SUV platform that burns human waste. The problem is with the power wiper on the rear of the SUV. The Charmin rolls seem to be getting stuck in the up position when raised above bum-per level. Oh well, this thing will sell well only to those who are "on the run."
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Ryan 5:49PM (4/07/2006)
#7
Keep it coming our office is now gathered around my computer!
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Corey W. 5:50PM (4/07/2006)
Hummm, I'm starting to agree with #2. Come'on, think about it, why would you not expect this to happen. GM can be slow, but not THIS slow!! Anyone with a pebble of advertising experience could have seen this coming. This is not really negative attention for the product, it's actual giving it more attention.
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sam 6:26PM (4/07/2006)
Her name is weener!
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Evan 6:30PM (4/07/2006)
My attempt
http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=3d90911c-17d5-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7
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T. 7:00PM (4/07/2006)
definitely want to do more, but there's a TON of them on YOUTUBE:
youtube.com and search for Tahoe and Ad
:)
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Neil 7:39PM (4/07/2006)
I don't necessarily think this will be a bad thing for GM. Yeah, it's negative publicity, but considering all the news stories being run about it, it's also a lot of free publicity! Whats that saying? Even bad publicity is good, or something to that effect.
#10: having enough oil is really not the only issue at hand. Digging up oil out of the ground, combusting it, and releasing the resulting CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is one of the major considerations. Another major concern is where that oil is located: the politically tumultuous and war-torn middle east. Having an economy that can be brought to it's knees and ground to a halt if the oil supply is interrupted and that supply coming from such an unstable region is definitely a major concern.
Personally I think GM has the right approach with Ethanol. Advancements in Ethanol production have made an increasingly more viable option. If all agricultural waste were converted to Ethanol, I understand it could replace 50 billion barrels of crude (or about 1/3 of our current usage) per year. Is that a total solution? Nope, but it's the best one yet, and any reduction in the use of oil will lower demand for it, and thus lower it's price!
Even though there aren't enough ethanol stations now to necessarily justify an flex fuel vehicle, it makes sense the automakers have to build the capability first, and THEN the demand will rise and THEN the gas stations will begin to supply it. It's tantamount to early adopters in any segment. Take SLI Graphics Cards in computers. THe self builders adopt it first even though you really can't benefit from it at first, then as more people have the capability more software developers and video game developers make their games able to take advantage of the new technology.
Hmm I just compared cars to computers and gasoline to software...it kind of works, obviously software isn't a comodity but I think the analogy works...
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Hammer time 7:39PM (4/07/2006)
Well good. Now everyone will realize that if you drive one of these YOU HAVE A SMALL PENIS!
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