Penny pinchers: Chevy Aveo billboard speaks to the frugal
We might have suspected it'd eventually come to this. Chevy has started paying people to pay attention to its Aveo. Well, not exactly. In a unique piece of advertisement, Chevrolet erected a billboard in London with an image of an Aveo hatchback decorated in real one-pence pieces. It was certainly a clever ploy to grab the attention of the public and illustrate the 769,500 pence price of the car, but it didn't stand a chance against the prying fingers of passersby. In a mere 30 minutes, human vultures had picked the billboard clean of currency. Perhaps it's some kind of sad commentary on the nature of society, though it's kind of amusing to think that you could dig around for pocket change, and with a little determination, go buy an Aveo.
[Source: Carscoop]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Johnny 2:03PM (7/09/2008)
After spending all the time and money to make such a creative billboard, could they not put plexi glass in front of it?
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Blair Bissonette 2:11PM (7/09/2008)
Or how about a couple of those stiffs in the tall fuzzy hats that guard the Queen... Pip pip, cheerio mum.
shadysi 2:13PM (7/09/2008)
I was kinda thinking they could of put something over it so it wouldn't come to that...
cool idea anyways, all 30 minutes of it
why not the LS2LS7? 2:33PM (7/09/2008)
By not putting plexiglass (well, perspex in this case) they got massive publicity for what, £400 worth of pennies?
Temple 5:41PM (7/09/2008)
Probably got more then their money's worth in attention and auxiliary advertisement by people picking those pence pieces off the billboard and getting themselves onto Autoblog and the internets.
Also, probably a plexiglass that big would be more expensive then the actually 1p pieces stuck to that billboard. Now if it was 20p or 50p then it might be worth it. But the advertisement was made with the full expectation people would pick them off; seems even a photographer was standing by to get photo ops.
Torrent 2:04PM (7/09/2008)
The main issue I have with the Aveo is the huge-esque Polar bear grille and the weak engine that lacks both power and fuel efficiency. Fix those and add reliability in the mix, and The Yaris/Fit may have some competition. I said 'MAY' have.
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J3-Colt 2:14PM (7/09/2008)
The Aveo is about as exciting as Abe Vigoda on sleeping pills...
Pence is the plural of penny...just for those keeping track.
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martin 2:15PM (7/09/2008)
when did it stop being the kalos here? they've carried over the daewoo name for years and i wasnt aware they'd changed it into line with the american one
hmm the website has both names on, how stupid
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Keith M 2:29PM (7/09/2008)
Chevy knew exactly what was going to happen, very clever marketing.
Wouldn't be surprised to find out the people pictured were models hired for the purpose of prying the coins, especially since the ground under the billboard is littered with coins that need not be pried.
Then again, perhaps Chevy actually plants a professional photographer with a Nikon D3 at every one of their billboards to capture images of the defacement.
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Pacman 2:30PM (7/09/2008)
Why would anyone waste the time to steal a penny?
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Disgruntled Goat 2:50PM (7/09/2008)
These days most people will steal anything not nailed down. Sad really....
BlackCanary 2:46PM (7/09/2008)
Who steals a penny? The Feds should not even make them anymore. It costs more to make a penny than it is worth. (in the the US not sure about the UK) Anyway, I hate the penny and would love to see it go.
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smartmlp 3:25PM (7/09/2008)
First of all, this is in england. A pence is worth nearly 2 cents in the USA. Second, the Fed makes dollars bills for literally cents each, and this more than makes up for their loss on the penny at this point in time.
BlackCanary 3:43PM (7/09/2008)
1st of all I know this is a picture from the UK and the article is about the UK. I just used this as an opportunity to mention my dislike for the penny.
2nd - two cents three cents whatever I still dont know why anyone steals a penny - UK, US, Canada, Australia or otherwise.
3rd - the goverment does not "make up" for the penny costing less than it is worth. Even if this were not the case, it is a silly argument. The treasury could always obtain an infinite "profit" by printing a trillion one hundred dollar bills. They do not do this because printing bills and minting coins increases the supply of money and causes inflation, thus decreasing the value of all the rest of the money in circulation. This "profit" is therefore really just a hidden tax.
The savings would be real if the penny was stopped. It serves no purpose. You cant buy anything with it and it's an annoyance.
The US mint produces about 7 billion pennies every year (roughly half of all coins made each year), at a cost of over $100 million dollars. About one-third of this money is used to pay for the zinc that pennies are made out of, which is why the zinc industry is lobbying to keep the penny in production.
BlackCanary 3:50PM (7/09/2008)
also ... Australia and New Zealand have retired their one-cent piece without any problems. Canada is considering and a Bill has been introduced to Congress.
imoore 8:58PM (7/09/2008)
Why steal a penny? Because a penny is still money. I always said that people who throw away pwnnies are rich anyway. I'm not ashamed to say that i pick up a penny everytime I one lying on the ground. And, act of Congress or no, the mint will continue to make them. Hey, if nobody wants their pennies, send them all to me. I'll be happy to lighten your load.
BlackCanary 11:25PM (7/09/2008)
imoore - I am all for saving all the pennies that I earned but stealing $.10 from an advertisement is not my thing. Even if I picked at it for a while and got 100 pennies I still could not buy a Coke from a vending machine. For 1 the most machine charge more than a buck and 2 no vending machines even accept pennies.
Steal away and justify it any way you want. Removing the pennies is theft and vandalism. But hey it's a penny...who cares? The glued em on there...they were asking for it!
BlackCanary 11:26PM (7/09/2008)
"act of Congress or no, the mint will continue to make them."
Do you even know how the government works?
MajorGeek 4:09PM (7/09/2008)
Kids, its not about the penny or protecting the ad. Since you heard about this billboard and most of you are not in London, even a child would tell you that this was a very successful ad. Smooth move Chevy!
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imoore 6:13PM (7/09/2008)
That's one way to draw attention to your product. But I'm not to sure about decorating it with real change.
30 minutes, huh? I know some guys who would have stripped that entire board clean in 5 minutes.
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