I'm still a little cynical, wondering if the corporate culture has changed, or if GM, stuck with a car that was expensive to develop and is not selling very well, is pandering to the gay community in hopes of selling a few more Volts.
Either way, the Ford dealers had better stock up on pickup trucks, as I suspect Chevy sales will decline dramatically in the bible belt. A brave and unusual move (whatever the reason) for GM.
51 comments:
All people buy cars, even - gasp - us gay people. And gay males have more disposable income on average than straight males, especially so male couples. As a group we are more environmentally aware than our straight brothers.
Car companies have had adds - and even - gasp - special marketing programs for our community so we don't have to face the ugly attitudes you two exemplify.
Thank you Chevy. The nearly 75% of Americans who know and care about someone gay, lesbian, transgendered or bisexual appreciate that you recognize they exist.
Yours in pride,
Zig Williams
Couldn't wait for someone to blame this on Obama.
I remember GM's conservatism well. My girlfriend of long ago did marketing research, and often ran the car stuff by me. My disgust in seeing the various uninspiring choices for what later became the interior of the 1974 Impala is still palpable. Unfortunately 'none of the above' was not an option.
General Motors' successes were built on always looking forward, and people were once excited for what the future would bring. Motorama, with its fantastically improbable cars gave people a glimpse of styling trends but also hope for a bright, new future.
Later, the fear of anything new dragged GM into an unimaginative swamp of mediocrity, with only trucks and fleet sales keeping it alive until it was almost too late.
Thee current crop of bloated two-ton-plus nostalgia cars- Camaro, Challenger et al, forget that the success of the originals was because they were indeed original, new and fresh. Much like their target market.
Cynicism is a copout an admission of defeat. It has never contributed to progress. You can't get to the future by going backwards. I applaud GM for acknowledging a modern America.
OK, I'll admit that I'm a bit cynical. I grew up hearing all about the GM corporate culture from my dad.
I'll also admit that was 30 - 40 years ago.
I was born and raised in NY and have spent the last 30 years of my life in Massachusetts. My politics typically lean left and my distrust of big corporations runs high. I guess it showed in this post. Maybe I need to be more open towards the "new GM."
I hope they are sincere, I hope they aren't pandering.
I'll stick to writing about old, weird cars from now on!
GM got smart and realized they better get with the party and make fuel effecient cars. When the Prius is Toyota's best selling model, it's only a fool that doesn't realize there's a huge market for those who realize it's fun to drive *past* gas stations instead of giving them $50-80 bucks at every stop. Who doesn't love that? In as much, who doesn't love spending a little marketing money on a demographic that might actually be interested in its product? It's gay pride month- there are film festivals, parade flyers tons of cheap ad-space in low debt-to-income, early-adopter market. These ads will likely be history in July and GM might have made some very wise spending decisions, which I guarantee, Obama had nothing to do with. It's just smart. Sell cars, make profit. Money is green no matter what colors of the rainbow you embrace. (PS- yes, I'm gay, and yes, I've 'built' a Volt not only because I want in the carpool lanes but because I'm thrilled to save every gallon from big oil I can). Good on GM for seeing opportunities.
As a 47 yr old Gay guy, I would never buy anything New and GM, I Do however own one GM vehicle, a 90 Cadillac Eldorado which I find, gasp, Amazing!! highly under rated, I DID however just recently buy a NEW car a Fiat 500!! As a single gay guy I didn't give a crap about how much room was inside nor did I care how many grocery bags would fit behind the seats, all I cared about was if was Awesome and it was A Fiat! There was no choice B, Oh and I Did trade a car in on the Fiat, don't laugh, a 1988 Bentley!!! No more F-ing $4,300 repair bills or 8 mpg Fuel economy for me! ;-)
If I were GM, I would not worry about losing sales in the Bible belt. Most of those folks won't 'get' the ad. ;-)
...................it is still a coal fueled car!
Sam, removing the tin foil hat will do wonders for seeing the situation for what it truly is. And Clint's Chrysler ad was a big sloppy kiss for Obama for those residing in bizzaroland.
Best to keep the political discussions at the political blogs. We are here because we love cars.
To paraphrase Sigmund Freud, "Sometimes an ad is just an ad."
Ford has had their own kerfuffles involving ads targeting LGBT audiences. (http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/group-ends-boycott-over-fords-pro-gay-ads-95204)
I don't recall this having had any actual impact on Ford truck sales in the bible belt.
The truth is, smart companies target audiences that are more likely to buy their products.
If you're a homophobe, perhaps you should stop drinking Coke (http://www.commercialcloset.org/common/news/reports/detail.cfm?Classification=news&QID=4554&ClientID=11064&BrowseFlag=1&Keyword=&StartRow=1&TopicID=405&subnav=adcolumn&subsection=) or any of the thousands of other brands that don't share your 1st century moral code.
Hey, it's just a clever and cute ad. Congrats to GM for having the _____ to run it, and to the ad agency for creating it.
Not gay.
Geez CarGeek, after sharing some of the coolest cars available, can you believe which article gets the most feedback?
Anyway, thanks for posting this. People I've sent it to have had a universally positive response so GM must finally be doing something right.
Now back to work on my old Alfas, which incidentally I never tire of seeing here.
that's it? thats how Justacargeek ends? A "controversial" ad adn then silence?
somebody post a pinto or a fiero - anything just to move that ad off the top of the page....
JaCG, I am proud of you. I do not know the secret of success, but I can tell you the sure road to failure: Try to please.everyone. People who do not produce controversy, generally don't produce anything else either. So get back in here and write about everything from early Alfas to the last Zil. Your blog has made us smile, it makes us laugh and it makes us think.
Alden
Uhhh, where'd you go dude?
I'm sure JACG is just on holiday. I am also sure I can't wait for his next post!
JACG- maybe give us a little 'gone fishing' header on the site if you're on vacation- otherwise the nerds in us might worry... thanks man!
Where'd you go man?! Your fans [I] need you! Also I must echo Brian's comments, these political inserts will only divide the audience, much like some other big car sites have alienated much of their audience with their persistent jabs. When these wonderful obscure cars bring us together, I don't think anyone's mind is on politics, if anything I'm trying to escape all that!!
In the spirit of the site I am submitting 2 Mk II Cortinas.
One is a race car and the other is a restored one - sort of. Non original paint and shiny wheels. I think of a "restomod" as having performance modifications and I dont really see anything here that fits that moniker. It is however likely a driveable Cortina which are getting pretty hard to find.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/cto/3101981330.html
racer: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/cto/3106450906.html
Not that my post is anwhere as good as JacG... Never owned a Cortina, always liked them. Racing heritage (Mk Is especially) and small european "sporting" sedans. Well at least those that had larger than the 1300cc motor. A british BMW 2002?
Maybe we could post finds here in the comments to "keep the site moving forward" till JaCG gets back....?
Thank you Anonymous! Neat find!
After having passed the last few months in solitary, the prison warden has finally allowed me the privilege of accessing the damn internet.
Re: Son Volt... As a lot of posters have already stated, Chevy sells cars to different segments of the population. I think what makes this stand out is that I've always associated Chevy with the Bob Seger "Like a Rock" pickup truck anthem, or the old "baseball, apple pie, and Chevrolet" meme.
In any case, Subaru was courting the gay market years before this.
Hope the Car Geek is ok....
Such that "more environmentally aware" == "more easily conned"
Interesting post about the GM Ad. However, I must say this about GM: the bailout has them running scared, because they know they need to pay it back in a timely manner before it gets too costly fro them. The same goes for Chrysler: if they don't sell enough Fiat 500s to keep Fiat happy and enough of their own brands, they know they're in for trouble ahead.
About GM being the most conservative...I don't think conservative is the right word for it. Stodgy is the more accurate description. The refusal to carefully move forward and modernize is not being conservative; conservative means in this case being careful and changing with caution, and embracing the change when proven it's good. Stodgy means not changing, even when it's proven that the change will be more beneficial. GM was stodgy like Volvo was with its boxy cars, before Volvo embraced a more aerodynamic design and changed its ways.
About pandering: probably not. GM realizes it has a big blunder, but must find a way to recover from their huge losses without humiliating itself. Maybe they should change the brand name on the Chevy Volt by dropping the Chevrolet name, and sell the Volt through all their GM dealers including Chevrolet. Perhaps a Cadillac Volt would be fun, or Buick?
Cool ad. The one thing that's off is that "mom" and "dad" are the same age/generation as the Volt...
RIP Car Geek. It was damn good knowing you.
Yuk.
I don't enjoy being pandered to and patronized. Many gay males may not see through this crap, but I always have.
Look: we recognize you exist. We could talk about the car's features like we would with any other audience, but we won't. We'll talk about your status as a minority: see these colors? Now give us your money.
I'd prefer to be ignored.
And I love GM-because of its cars-and this ad makes no difference. I still know that they're a large corporation and all that it implies. Everything is about profit in our system. It's no longer profitable to ignore gays. But it's still okay for cops to beat up darker skinned people; I guess they don't have enough of a disposable income.
Just because I'm gay and someone's trying to sell me a car doesn't mean I'm going to stop caring about everything else, nor does it mean I'm going to congratulate them.
This has nothing to do with GM having lost a bunch of money with the Volt. Lots of companies sell their garbage du jour to gay people.
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I can remember that time that people consider GM as the most conservative company. I can’t wait to see the improvements that they will be making because people like me always look for cars that are not too expensive.
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