Anyone think the Chevy Volt ads are weird?

[bennelson]

I'm just throwing this out there.....

But does anyone else think the Chevy Volt ads are weird?

I'm talking about the television commercials where a Volt owner is at the gas station, and the kid asks him if he has to use the bathroom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDyZu6zOC6Y

It seems like the point of the ads are that a Volt DOES use gasoline! Wouldn't a better ad be one where the guy is in his driveway, plugging in the car, and a neighbor going past asks him about it?

There are also some underwriting messages on the public radio station I listen to. On there, the message is "The Chevy Volt; it's more CAR than ELECTRIC".

Their other tag-line "Electric when you want it, gas when you need it." also seems to imply that electric just isn't good enough, or that it's some sort of tree-hugging luxury.

Again, it seems to say that somehow, something running on electricity CAN'T be a car. (And I am not knocking the car itself. I test drove it, and thought it was pretty nice. It's the advertising I have a beef with.)

In the film WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR, it shows some of the television commercials for the EV-1. Very weird, disturbing, advertisements for the EV-1.....

On the other hand. Nissan has some very nice commercials for the Leaf. I think that POLAR BEAR won several awards.

I don't know, maybe I'm just crazy, but it seems like GM could do a little better advertising here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNeEVkhTutY

[Angmaar]

I think the Nissan ads are a lot cooler than the ads for the Volt.
It seems like the ads for the Volt are trying to confuse you.

[Old Tele man]

...the Volt™-ad made me want to run to the bathroom (wink,wink)!

[6LitreEater]

I work for GM (4th generation) and its all i drive, but god damn they always hire the worst advertising agencies out of any manufacturer... The commercials and the dealers are the only thing holding the mighty General back I tell ya!

[tjts1]

Originally Posted by 6LitreEater

I work for GM (4th generation) and its all i drive, but god damn they always hire the worst advertising agencies out of any manufacturer... The commercials and the dealers are the only thing holding the mighty General back I tell ya!

Actually this is the mentality holding GM back.

[6LitreEater]

Well I guess I left out that GM brakes are holding them back too. I no of another manufacturer where that wasn't the case! Run away cars! Look out! LOL

[NeilBlanchard]

Ben,

Thanks for posting this query -- they (GM) do seem to be schizophrenic on all aspects of the Volt, and some of it certainly seems tied to the EV1. They can't admit that they have already designed the best (so far!) electric car, the EV1; and they can't admit that they did in fact "kill" it for various reasons. They can't therefore design another electric car (or just refresh the EV1) because that would raise the question of why isn't the EV1 still in production. So, the Volt *had* to be a hybrid since electrics are no good -- but they had to be able to call it an electric, so it ended up as a serial hybrid so they could call it an electric car with a "range extender". But then they added THREE clutches and the most complicated transmission they could think of, and used an off-the-shelf cast iron block 1.4L (oversized for the job) ICE and the ability to have the ICE mechanically connect to drive the wheels...

Sheesh.

So, it is much more complicated and heavier and much more expensive than it could have been as a "pure" electric -- especially if they had just kept the EV1 in production and kept updating it as they went along.

And now the ads just reflect this strangeness...

[6LitreEater]

Guess I over looked all of that... LOL. Good rant my friend!

[rmay635703]

I am hoping an ecomodder buys the volt and figures out a joystick method of controlling the gasser so we can force the motor to run at the proper RPM all the time and then an Engine kill switch for good measure.

[jakobnev]

GM advertising, it's got what the market understands, it's got toilet humor!