can these advertising people really be so lame???

[jbwelda]

if you want it

here it is

come and get it

but you better hurry

because its going fast.

thats the paul mcartney produced badfinger song used as the theme for the movie the magic christian back in the early 70s (or maybe late 60s), and now GM is using it to shill their cars.

did they ever watch that movie?

its hilarious in its irony i tell you...the point of the movie was that people are driven by greed and would dive into a vat of s*it to get to money stirred into it. a perfect picture about greed and averice and the song says it all.

and now evidently GM thinks its appropriate to sell their cars.

actually they are quite right but thats where the irony comes in.

or maybe they think people who remember things like this are irrelevant.

or maybe they think we all got big benz's by now and wouldnt stoop to a mere GM product.

maybe they are right.

i wonder how much they pay smirking suits to come up with this stuff?

to me its a spoof on the order of selling a car called a "nova" in spanish speaking countries. "no va" in spanish means "no go" from what i understand.

come to think of it, that was truth in advertising too.

maybe they are on to something here.

but at least they left out the other lyrics:

did i hear you say that there must be a catch?

would you walk away from a fool and his money...

honey?

edit: feel free to move this to the rants section but im not ranting, im observing.

Edited September 28, 2007 by jbwelda

[Modelmartin]

I just saw that commercial last night and couldn't believe it either. I remember the movie. I think I saw it at a midnight double feature back in '74-75. As we get older we are going to see more and more of this. We need a new word because irony is dead! Maybe this is the post-ironic age!

[Rob Hall]

Interesting. Never heard of the movie (long before my time), will have to watch for the ad (I rarely see TV ads, skip them with the tiVo).

[Harry P.]

If we're talking silly automotive ad campaign slogans, the new Cadillac tag line really bugs me for some reason.

"Life, liberty and the pursuit".

The pursuit of what???

Obviously the original line is "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"...but the way Cadillac uses the line makes no sense at all...yet some big-time agency has been paid millions for that bit of "creativity"!

[Harry P.]

Or how about those inane Chevy ads with the snippet from "American Pie":

"Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry"...

What the h*** does that line have to do with selling cars? Just because the word "Chevy" is in it doesn't make it a good ad campaign! Sheesh...

Edited September 28, 2007 by harrypri

[Harry P.]

Oh, and as far as the "Magic Christian" song...

GM is undoubtedly aiming its campaign at people way too young to ever have heard of that song or movie. Most people today under 30 or so would have no idea...

[Rob Hall]

If we're talking silly automotive ad campaign slogans, the new Cadillac tag line really bugs me for some reason.

"Life, liberty and the pursuit".

The pursuit of what???

Obviously the original line is "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"...but the way Cadillac uses the line makes no sense at all...yet some big-time agency has been paid millions for that bit of "creativity"!

I rather like that slogan... it's in competition with Lexus' 'The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection' slogan... the line is left open ended so the viewer can put in their own 'pursuit target'... I interpret it as the pursuit of wealth and success...since Cadillac is an upmarket brand.

[FloridaBoy]

I think these advertisers could give a rat's patoot if the words to the music had anything remote to do with the car. They are appealing to a certain market, people who are of the age to enjoy that music because they were younger, more energetic, and more carefree to spend money on a car in those days.

Some of it is horrific, and some of it works. What worked for me were those Mercedes Benz commercials a few years ago, with Etta James singing, "At Last". To me it was majic that the music and the theme and surroundings matched the car so well, and the only thing that kept me from buying a MB was my wallet, or lack of it, so to speak.

We are a very mucical society, and advertisers and marketers will use it for time eternity, whether it works or not. They will keep trying, because I think way down deep they really do not know the key as to what is effective and what isn't.

Now my rant on box art. I have been a modeler for many many years, and seen both golden times of the hobby, as well as the depressions. The commonality is not only alternative activities available to people, but box art is woefully lacking. In times when the hobby is hurting, it seems like a suicidal tendency on menufacturers' part is to take any resemblance to creativity and attractiveness in box art and literally throw it out the window.

Even today, some box art is really effective. Some standouts were the Revell '32 Ford 3 Window Coupe and the '40 Ford Convertible and Standard Coupe. What really stunk up the place was the original "orange" 37 Ford sedan, with its ridiculous orange plastic color. How many coats of primer does it take to keep that orange plastic from bleeding?

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

[Dave Van]

Advertising folks can’t see the forest for the trees. My favorite advertising goof was back in the mid 1970's NCNB, now known as BoA, ran commercials with Slim Pickens playing the same character he had just played in ‘Blazing Saddles’. Did these folks SEE the movie? Slim played a idiot racist in the movie! I loved the commercials...partly because I loved the movie, partly because of the total lack of brains on the advertising folks!

[m408]

The main purpose of advertising is to draw attention to the product. If the ad becomes a subject of conversation, all the better. Seems to have worked. Lame? Maybe. Effective, you bet.

[Harry P.]

The main purpose of advertising is to draw attention to the product. If the ad becomes a subject of conversation, all the better. Seems to have worked. Lame? Maybe. Effective, you bet.

You're right about that, to an extent. As long as the person remembers WHO the ad was for!

But ads can also have the unintended effect of turning off potential customers. They get annoyed by particularly lame ads and remember NOT to buy that product. Personally, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit" is never going to get me into a Cadillac showroom.

[dub]

You're right about that, to an extent. As long as the person remembers WHO the ad was for!

But ads can also have the unintended effect of turning off potential customers. They get annoyed by particularly lame ads and remember NOT to buy that product.

Or gets annoyed by the frequency of the lame ads!

I can't STAND "saturation advertising"!

Examples: "Year-end auto manufacturers clearance sales"

Those Cialis ads(you know, the ones with the whistling and the dude with poop-eating grin the whole time!)

OK, I vented. This isn't the Rants n Raves section so i'll stop now.

[Rob Hall]

Ads are probably going to get more annoying and loud as the number of people that actually see them keeps dwindling.. I've been using a tiVo for 5 years now and hardly ever watch live TV anymore, always watch delayed or later and skip over the commercials...the use of PVRs/DVRs has been rising in recent years...

[Harry P.]

With the rise in Tivo, I wonder how the networks are going to fight the trend of viewers simply skipping the commercials? After all, paid advertising is the reason for their existence. Once most people stop watching the ads, how do the networks attract advertisers? I'm glad I'm not a network exec!

[jbwelda]

> The main purpose of advertising is to draw attention to the product.

thats not strictly true; the purpose of advertising is to SELL the product.

they sure arent going to sell me a chevy misusing a song like this badfinger one. if anything it makes them a laughing stock in my eyes and implies they know no more about their hoped for audience than they know about the music they are using to try to sell to that audience.

but im sure it goes right over the heads of 99% of that audience. just thought i would bring it up because more and more im struck by the irony of modern life.

by the way i didnt know that was groucho who said that joke about the dog/god. thats one of my all time favorites.

[lordairgtar]

Or how about those inane Chevy ads with the snippet from "American Pie":

"Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry"...

What the h*** does that line have to do with selling cars? Just because the word "Chevy" is in it doesn't make it a good ad campaign! Sheesh...

It's not so much about Chevy, but about Americana. Chevy sees itself as an American icon. The song waxes nostalgic for an earlier time in regards to rock and roll. The connection is obvious. American Pie, Chevrolet, Rock and Roll, all iconology.

[Modelmartin]

And then there are those Cadillac commercials with hard rock music!!?? OY!

Funny thing about GM - the remaining divisions are named for a pair of French brothers, a Scotsman, the chief of the Ottawa tribe, and the French founder of Detroit. I guess that is all-american in the sense that it is diverse.

[old-hermit]

... and Preparation H was going to use Johnny Cash's "Burning Ring of Fire" till the estate sued to make them stop.

Whatever sells a product, right.

Edited September 30, 2007 by old-hermit

[Jairus]

Any of you guys watch the AMC production "MADMEN"?

Advertising is a lot like that. Ad execs want to make the money that the company throws at them so they come up with an idea, ANY IDEA, which will keep the company checks flowing in. The art crew wants to get paid so they come up with a campaign that seems like a good one at the time… sometimes based simply on a phrase or line from a pop song someone suggested. The idea men have to be creative or someone else who will be creative will eventually replace them.

It is really all about pride in one's job regardless if it is writing copy, drawing pictures or directing a 30 second spot. You do a good job and you can take the bacon home at the end of each night!

The basics of advertising in the first place are to keep the product up front where the viewer can see it. So when he NEEDS the product, their product is the first thing he thinks of weather it is Viagra, Pepsi or Chevrolet. Chevrolet does it because Ford does it because Chrysler does it! I have not seen much Pepsi/Coke/RC cola advertising on the tube lately…

Car manufacturers that hire advertising companies generally give the ad execs an idea and the agency runs with it. The idea is generally something that pops into their mind while driving to work most likely, but that is just my opinion. Rarely do the executives think things through that clearly as they usually have a hundred other problems needing solutions like work strikes and such.

A line from a formerly popular song is actually just an attempt to attract a group or class of people who grew up when that song was a big hit. Thus the "Rock and Roll" songs used to sell Cadillac. In the '50s they used classical music, but the basic Caddy owner has changed over the years... yes?

[j_nigrelli]

... irony is dead! ..

perhaps, but 'pathos' lingers on!