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dump

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,424
5,009
GM SUCKS. Luckily biking doesn't.

Funny thing about many college campuses - having a car there is a major pia, not to mention the expense and parking.
 
jonKranked

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
88,252
26,545
media blackout
yes GM, reality does suck. while you're racking up debt in college, whats an extra $20 grand in debt for a new car? because reality sucks.
 
dante

dante

Unabomber
Feb 13, 2004
8,807
9
looking for classic NE singletrack
I'm also chuckling at the types of cars they put in the ad: A $20k Cruze (not *that* bad) and a $30k GMC Sierra 1500 Pickemup Truck. I guess they're trying to appeal to just about every customer, from small urban Midwest college students to small rural Midwest college students...
 
Heidi

Heidi

Der hund ist laut und braun
Aug 22, 2001
10,184
797
Bend, Oregon
It should be illegal to drive a car if you're going less than 8 miles. Start pedaling, driving sucks!
 
mandown

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
21,376
8,808
Transylvania 90210
Awesome that they included that fancy square barcode thing, to encourage students to get smart phones and data plans to help with the college bills.
 
Sandwich

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,685
6,905
borcester rhymes
dante said:
their annoying-little-kid commercials from last year...
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oh, I just remembered that...the fruity hipster kid with the girl jeans.

Toyota has great advertising though. They have one "trend" campaign, then some god-awful jingle they play all the time, which you'll never get out of your head.
 
dante

dante

Unabomber
Feb 13, 2004
8,807
9
looking for classic NE singletrack
My take on it: They're not *actually* trying to appeal to the cyclist (or the pedestrian getting splashed with streetwater that's on their website). They're targeting people like the girl in the car, or the driver of the CUV that's splashing the pedestrian. Insulting prospective customers doesn't work. Insulting people *other* than your prospective customers, on the other hand, tries to build a community of people who think "thank god we're not like that dork over there". Think HS cliques.

The only problem is that with the interwebs *everyone* can see exactly what you're doing, not just those people who you're targeting. I'm sure that there are college students who already felt that way about cyclists, and who will find nothing wrong with this ad. The problem is that there's lots of OTHER people who can now see this ad, get turned off by GM's marketing dept, and ultimately not buy a GM product going forward.

edit: The funniest thing is on their FB page, they're apologizing, and apologizing, and apologizing to basically every poster on it with:

Hey Ride Above, we're sorry if the ad offended you and the biking community. We're listening to the feedback, and we're making changes to the campaign. Thank you very much for posting your concerns, and apologies again for the offense.
Click to expand...
(Actually, it appears they've stopped trying to keep up with the posts that are now appearing every minute or two...)
 
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stoney

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,976
7,834
Colorado
That's it. GM has now officially lost any hope or glimmer of me ever buying one of their products.
 
jonKranked

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
88,252
26,545
media blackout
my addition to their facebook page:

Wow, I'm really glad I heard about this. I'm currently in the market for a new vehicle. I test drove an Equinox the other night, and was going to go back this weekend to make an offer. Not anymore. That's 25,000 of my hard earned, college educated dollars that you just lost courtesy of your own poor judgement. Good job.
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