Automotive News reports that GM’s new Silverado ad has struck some nerves. The ads use John Mellencamp?s ?Our Country? and images from the Rosa Parks through Richard Nixon. They also show the #3 car of Dale Earnhardt, Sr., forest fires, hurricanes (including post-Katrina New Orleans), and the Towers of Light.
With Toyota preparing to launch its own updated full-size pickup built in San Antonio, much of the criticism has focused on the undertone of racism in the ads, which originally ended with a mushroom cloud. (Subtle, no?)
My criticism is generational. The creative geniuses at Campbell-Ewald seem to forget that a lot of things happened in the thirty years between the moon landing and 9/11. I trust they know their target market, but it seems that ignoring younger buyers will do much to stop Toyota’s ascent.
