GM [that genetically modified car company –ed.] has inflicted itself with a virus of massive proportions. Its “apprentice advertiser” campaign, which we wrote about here and here in the past couple days, has found press on the front page of the Toronto Star (with a pointer to Zerbisias’s column found here) and that Star wannabe, the New York Times (with a pointer to page one of the business section, where the story vies for attention with one about GM’s cutting off [shurely you mean “selling off” –ed.] its profitable car loan arm). Nightline, the U.S. TV news magazine, was also reported to have produced a segment about the rash of spoofs. Of course, no one scooped “The church of the Customer Blob,” which called the GM campaign “not consumer-generated marketing,” but a “viral game” as far back as March 17.
So, how soon are we to see the virus-riddled body of GM being dragged through the streets [if not bankruptcy court –ed.]?
Not soon at all, according to Zerbisias.
Fact is, she writes in her column yesterday, we were all taken in by the “evil marketing brains with their MBAs and metrics and buzzwords and cool-hunting ways” at GM.
In fact, contrary to what some have predicted, nobody at Chevy or its ad agencies is gonna hear “You’re fired!” for this.
Not sure if Zerbisias is talking to us with that one (although we did post the “you’re fired” line to her comments forum), but we still think it’s heads, not wheels, that will roll at GM after this freakish campaign.
In fact, we think Zerbisias, for all her intelligence, has been suckered by the pod-people at GM “spin central.” We think they’re doing, in the words of one of Zerbisias’s commentators, “counter-counter-spin” on this one.
Oh well. At least she can console herself that she’s not alone: look how Julie Bosman of the New York Times carries on, at the end of her article in yesterday’s paper:
“We think there are some voices inside G.M. that understand social media very well and knew this would happen”
(quoting “the industry blog Adrants”).
Okay, people. You’re right, GM’s smart after all. They knew this would happen. They suckered all of us and they’re laughing all the way to the dealership [can’t laugh all the way to the bank anymore, now that they’ve sold GMAC –ed.].
So why can’t we see Dana O. Still’s original spoof ad, the one that Zerbisias first posted on Friday, the one that got the ALLDERBLOB rolling with this theme? Try the link, and all you get is “dead air.” And there are a few others like that. But you can still view ours. You can still see the one Zerbisias made. Why? If you go by the spin passed along by Zerbisias and Bedows, you’d think the genetically modified car company [thank you –ed.] is pleased as punch to have these things floating around in cyberspace.
But consider what “MissAnneThrope’s diary” on daily Kos (link found above, at the word “Nightline”) has to say. It seems daily Kos was interviewed by a Nightline producer about the spoof ads created (and linked-to from that blob):
she wondered about the ads that are no longer there, so I told her that those submitted to the contest were silently deleted by Chevy, rather than received as the constructive criticism we intended. However, those that weren’t sent into the contest – just emailed and saved – are still viewable, along with those on YouTube.
Silently deleted.
We still think that’s exactly what’s going to happen to the contract of the Campbell-Ewald company, in Warren Michigan, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies [you said a mouthful –ed.]. They’re the gang responsible for the sickening mess [shurely you mean “the advertising campaign?” –ed.] that GM’s gotten itself into.
And try as they might, we refuse to be counter-counter-spun by the re-tread tire dealership that is GM.