Who Controls the Message?

Chevy claims their recent Chevy Apprentice campaign is a huge success – 21,000 ads were created and the commercials were emailed over 40,000 times – not bad for a “viral marketing” campaign.

Chevy asked people to create TV commercials for their new Tahoe SUV. Chevy provided video, music and places to add text. The results were interesting, to say the least. Spots blamed Chevy for global warming, complained about the war in Iraq, and some were sexually explicit. What was Chevy thinking?

While the company claims that over 80% of the ads were positive, the remaining 20% could have a very negative impact. We spend hours, days, sometimes weeks coming up with concepts for our clients. Some say “there’s no such thing as bad publicity, “ but these ads associate Chevy with issues I’m sure they’d much rather avoid.