What is the marketing brain-trust at Government Motors thinking?

You’ve survived bankruptcy by taking in billions of taxpayers dollars and you are facing the lingering effects of one of the worst recessions in our lifetime – one that could potentially  hollow out a huge portion of this continent’s middle class (the folks that buy most of your cars). You’ve been building mediocre automobiles for years and there is little to show for your investments in innovation. You are now pinning a great deal of your credibility {insert sarcastic comment here}  on a (partly) electric car called the Volt. You need to hit this one waaaaaaay out of the park. What do you do?

Amongst other things you pen a feeble song, you stage a 1960′s style showroom dance promotion, you capture them both on cheaply produced video and throw them up on the YouTube channel you have specifically created to promote your new game-changing car to the masses.

Ouch.

(Kudos to GM for allowing comments on the Volt YouTube channel – that was rather brave)

“This is about getting down to business. Because the only chapter we’re focused on is Chapter One.”  What a load of crap! Do advertising writers really believe that cliches and slogans are the most effective way to communicate?

You missed ‘electric’, ‘efficient’, ‘quality’ and many other important ’trends’,  you’ve mismanaged one of the world’s largest and most important companies and now you are in bankruptcy protection… so what do you do?

You release a cliche riddled, generic video with predictable imagery that promises a ‘new beginning’, a’ fresh start’. The only thing missing is the waving flag and Bob Seger music. {Note, I watched the video again after posting and realized there is a waving flag, my bad.} 

This is a watershed moment for GM and its advertsing agency and yes, one day after bankruptcy filing is very early in the game, but if GM wants to signal that things have truly changed then the first signal to the market should be in it’s advertising/PR. This one minute ad could have been created five or fifty years ago, for any company. There is nothing genuine, informative or interesting in this video, nothing to signal to the world that things really are changing – it’s just more of the same.

GM will emerge from bankruptcy protection – it has to. It will be smaller and will have blown out many of the questionable lines it once supported. It will be leaner and perhaps meaner. It will also have to start communicating in a very different fashion. Informative may be a good place to start. Honest is good too. Inspiring would be ideal if that were possible.

Note: Blocking comments on YouTube is also a really bad start.