Is GM Marketing Trying To Kill Two Brands?

First, AgencySpy had someone share a Weather.com ad placement sponsored by Hummer promoting "Green Is Universal" on Thursday's homepage. Green + Hummer? Okay, that has to be just about the worst sponsorship buy decision, couldn't the GM Total Confidence team bring Chevy Volt into the sponsorship? Or is this a way to further kill Hummer as GM sheds its brands under restructuring? Who knew online media was part of the plan to bury the Hummer brand.

Then tonight I received an email marketing message from Pontiac with the subject line "Pontiac: Drive with Total Confidence", this on the day every automotive news outlet is reporting GM to "Kill Pontiac", not exactly the most confidence inspiring action to lure new drivers.

Maybe GM marketing is not very happy about the announcement of 20% of GM's marketing department to be laid off?

It's a sad time for General Motors and I really do wish them all the best, especially Pontiac as I love the new G8 and feel the brand has a lot of equity in the performance space, when given the right products. Unfortunately, GM doesn't do the brand much justice with products like The Vibe or G3 and the marketing team isn't doing GM justice by associating Hummer with Green and Pontiac with Total Confidence (at least this week.)

Get Your Rally Cap On

GM's new spot for the Total Confidence incentive plan is all American - baseball, diners, and rally caps. Rally caps? Sure why not... Why not make the rally cap the symbol for beating this recession or a way to aggressively recoup from an impending bankruptcy?

It's an ironic symbol that is associated more with bicycle enthusiasts, not cars. You start to wonder if we don't buy cars the economy will further plummet and we may go backwards as a society and have to start riding bicycles. The horror! Maybe this is a fear campaign with upbeat music, like The Smiths "Girlfriend in a Coma"?

Seriously, it's a decent spot and reminds me a lot of GM's Keep America Rolling ads they ran after 9/11. Of course, at that time, President Bush was telling all of us it was our patriotic duty to go in debt.

It's still a tough sale in a down market and with layoffs hitting over 700,000 in March it's even tougher, but that's not the point. The point is to get people to the dealerships to consider a big purchase and communicate that spending is a way to keep the country going. If we all sit back and save, well guess what... no more GM. So please get your rally caps on and save an American car company.