Here’s perfect Friday fodder: “Things Real People Don’t Say About Advertising,” a Tumblr that delivers exactly what it promises, via one-sentence jokes illustrated with stock photos.
The photo + caption combination seems to work particularly well on Tumblr (and Lolcats) but you can get a pretty good sense of what’s going on via a few samples below. But for my money the best stuff is also the stuff that makes good use of the f-bomb, so you’ll want to see those on the site itself.
What’s great about TRPDSAA, IMHO, is that while a lot of this stuff is inside baseball, you should still be able to appreciate it without knowing what, say, “call to action” is supposed to mean. It’s clearly the product of someone who loves advertising and hates it, too.
And that person works in advertising, of course. Here’s a brief email interview I conducted with 27-year-old E.B. Davis III, a copywriter at Washington, D.C.-based GMMB:
Peter Kafka: Looks like you just started the Tumblr now. Why?
E. B. Davis III: For fun. To take the piss out. Advertising can be a lot of fun, but we get caught up in minutiae and nitpicking and buzzwords. We tend to forget we’re talking to people who don’t really want to talk to us.
Kafka: What provoked it, and what are you trying to do?
Davis: I made some pictures, put them on a blog, and showed two or three people, hoping they would laugh. I expected that to be the end of it. Tumblr only allowed 15 posts on the front page, so I only made 13 pictures, because I didn’t expect people to want to even bother going to a second page. Quick, easy, in and out. Now there are 29 posts (the rest from other people), with 300 submissions I need to find the time to post.
Kafka: Given that you’re satirizing advertising but work in advertising, should we assume you want to be doing something else?
Davis: I am satirizing advertising, and I work in advertising, but I don’t think we should assume I want to be doing something else. Advertising got great potential to be an idea factory. I think we’ve got the potential to make short movies, full-length movies, music videos, and a lot of cool other shit. I work at a social-good marketing agency, and I think advertising has taken a huge step forward over the past couple of years in connecting buying things to doing good. Easy charity. I was already going to buy that Coca-Cola anyway, and now it’s helping to help someone else. Awesome. We get free radio and free television because of advertising. It’s not the worst industry in the world. I have great hope for what advertising can do. It’s just, you know, we mostly end up making a print ad.
At the same time, I’m learning that I don’t need advertising to do what I want. I can make stuff without them. Hence this blog, among other things.
Kafka: How much of the site is you, and how much of it comes from contributors? And do contributors send in art and text, or just text? How much traffic are you getting now?
Davis: [I made] 13 original posts, and now people are making the content (mostly unasked). I’m assuming they’re mostly advertising folk, and I worry that the thing’s too insider-y for anyone else to really care about it. Not that they should care about it. It is a Stupid Thing. My favorite contributors do the work of putting their words on a picture for me, but some just send headlines and I have to put them together.
I have no idea how much traffic I’m getting. I’ve got about 3,000 followers and a lot of tweets and shit.
Kafka: What happens now?
Davis: I have no plans for what’s next. Keep making posts until people run out of interest. I don’t think these types of sites really lead to anything. They’re fun for a minute and then you move on. I don’t want to make any more of it than that. I’m ready to start working on new ideas, but I don’t plan to use the blog to promote it. I don’t want this to become a ‘self-promotion’ thing. I didn’t really have my name attached to it in the beginning, but some people found out it was me, so my name’s out there, but it wasn’t my intention.
It’s just for fun.
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Here’s perfect Friday fodder: “Things Real People Don’t Say About Advertising,” a Tumblr that delivers exactly what it promises, via one-sentence jokes illustrated with stock photos.
The photo + caption combination seems to work particularly well on Tumblr (and Lolcats) but you can get a pretty good sense of what’s going on via a few samples below. But for my money the best stuff is also the stuff that makes good use of the f-bomb, so you’ll want to see those on the site itself.
What’s great about TRPDSAA, IMHO, is that while a lot of this stuff is inside baseball, you should still be able to appreciate it without knowing what, say, “call to action” is supposed to mean. It’s clearly the product of someone who loves advertising and hates it, too.
And that person works in advertising, of course. Here’s a brief email interview I conducted with 27-year-old E.B. Davis III, a copywriter at Washington, D.C.-based GMMB:
Peter Kafka: Looks like you just started the Tumblr now. Why?
E. B. Davis III: For fun. To take the piss out. Advertising can be a lot of fun, but we get caught up in minutiae and nitpicking and buzzwords. We tend to forget we’re talking to people who don’t really want to talk to us.
Kafka: What provoked it, and what are you trying to do?
Davis: I made some pictures, put them on a blog, and showed two or three people, hoping they would laugh. I expected that to be the end of it. Tumblr only allowed 15 posts on the front page, so I only made 13 pictures, because I didn’t expect people to want to even bother going to a second page. Quick, easy, in and out. Now there are 29 posts (the rest from other people), with 300 submissions I need to find the time to post.
Kafka: Given that you’re satirizing advertising but work in advertising, should we assume you want to be doing something else?
Davis: I am satirizing advertising, and I work in advertising, but I don’t think we should assume I want to be doing something else. Advertising got great potential to be an idea factory. I think we’ve got the potential to make short movies, full-length movies, music videos, and a lot of cool other shit. I work at a social-good marketing agency, and I think advertising has taken a huge step forward over the past couple of years in connecting buying things to doing good. Easy charity. I was already going to buy that Coca-Cola anyway, and now it’s helping to help someone else. Awesome. We get free radio and free television because of advertising. It’s not the worst industry in the world. I have great hope for what advertising can do. It’s just, you know, we mostly end up making a print ad.
At the same time, I’m learning that I don’t need advertising to do what I want. I can make stuff without them. Hence this blog, among other things.
Kafka: How much of the site is you, and how much of it comes from contributors? And do contributors send in art and text, or just text? How much traffic are you getting now?
Davis: [I made] 13 original posts, and now people are making the content (mostly unasked). I’m assuming they’re mostly advertising folk, and I worry that the thing’s too insider-y for anyone else to really care about it. Not that they should care about it. It is a Stupid Thing. My favorite contributors do the work of putting their words on a picture for me, but some just send headlines and I have to put them together.
I have no idea how much traffic I’m getting. I’ve got about 3,000 followers and a lot of tweets and shit.
Kafka: What happens now?
Davis: I have no plans for what’s next. Keep making posts until people run out of interest. I don’t think these types of sites really lead to anything. They’re fun for a minute and then you move on. I don’t want to make any more of it than that. I’m ready to start working on new ideas, but I don’t plan to use the blog to promote it. I don’t want this to become a ‘self-promotion’ thing. I didn’t really have my name attached to it in the beginning, but some people found out it was me, so my name’s out there, but it wasn’t my intention.
It’s just for fun.
45 Comments
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Urban Legend has it that the Bud ad was paid for by the board personally in 2002
Comment by EricPWJohnson — 2/7/2011 @ 6:41 am
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I thought the ad was a little strange in that it seemed about 85% an ad for the city of Detroit.
If Chrysler wanted a really good add, have the E-Trade toddler talk about buying shares of Chrysler stock, or looking forward to buying shares of Chrysler stock when they are openly traded again.
The careers of child actors are so brief, I liked him better as an infant… by the time he’s 3 he will need to be teaching his little sister or brother (intellectual property claim on the idea).
Comment by MD in Philly — 2/7/2011 @ 6:42 am
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MD
actually the brilliant thing about the e-trade baby thing is that since its all or mostly computer generated, you have to wonder if there is any concern about the baby growing up at all.
Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 6:54 am
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1. Was angry at the car companies for giving in to government cake and always found it interesting that Ford, the only big one who didn’t take Washington money, was also the only big one to keep posting a profit in the months after the bailouts. (Don’t know how they’re all doing now.)
2. How was GM not able to keep making Saturns? It was one of their most popular cars IIUC (really miss my two – a bad driver totalled my last one last fall).
Comment by no one you know — 2/7/2011 @ 6:57 am
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BTW: for some reason I really like Eminem — he’s got great rapping talent (unlike the actual Vanilla Ice) – but he used his talent badly, and, along w/ others, coarsened the culture.
Never bought his albums or movie, just because I didn’t want to support that coarsening. But he is a good musician IMO.
Comment by no one you know — 2/7/2011 @ 6:57 am
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Good Point, AW. I imagine there was an original child scanned for the basis of the image, right?
If the maker’s of the ad use a computer generated image (based on the original picture) for an older child, does the child (or his trust fund) still have a financial interest? I would think so, or anybody could do a slight edit of a photo of someone and claim “but it’s not so and so”.
Comment by MD in Philly — 2/7/2011 @ 6:59 am
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Good post. Patriotism has always been a big part of Super Bowl commercials (lets not forget the John Cougar Mellancamp “My Country” ads, for example). And Chrysler has a specific problem worth addressing, I think – it was bought by Fiat! To the extent that’s a stumbling block to sales, it ought to be addressed in the commercials.
Personally, I thought that it was the best ad of the Super Bowl. Much better than the overhyped Volkswagen-Darth Vader ad (an ad about the *key*? really?).
Not to mention that Chrysler had to advertise in the Super Bowl when (almost literally) every single other car company in the country advertised on the same program. Not advertising would mean losing ground.
Comment by A.S. — 2/7/2011 @ 7:00 am
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NOYK
well, the rumor about killing saturn is that it had everything to do with their lack of unionization. its really hard to understand it, otherwise.
And yeah, i have liked that company from the beginning. I got one in 1998, a leftover on the lot from last year, so a 1997 SL1. that lasted me until two summers ago when the car was totaled in the moving day from hell. i mean seriously if it didn’t get hit by an idiot driver i would be driving it today.
and now i drive a 1995 Vue (their smaller SUV). and its running great.
btw, my wife was in the car in that accident. she had some minor neck injuries, but she has pretty much recovered. if you saw what the car looked like, though, you would be very impressed she wasn’t seriously hurt.
Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 7:09 am
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Chryler should of been let to die the first time. Then( maybe ) Ford and GM would of been in better shape.
Chrysler can go now. We already have plenty of choice in the market place.
Frankly, I support foreign car makers now. They don’t get the government to assfist me to give them money. Let the Japanese, German and soon Chinese citizen get worked over, again and again, by their corporations government.
No domestic auto company means one less big, really big, corporate/union welfare teat sucker.
Comment by Paul — 2/7/2011 @ 7:13 am
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I’m not much persuaded by the opinion of musicians… or of almost-musicians like Eminem. But I did like the tag line, “Imported from Detroit.”
Comment by Gesundheit — 2/7/2011 @ 7:20 am
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Paul, also, Honda and Toyota PAY taxes to the US Government. They also pay their workers a very fair wage in places like Texas and Ohio.
Like Chrysler, they are not American owned, but they do have a lot of engineering and management in the USA.
I see them as better citizens than Chrysler. Unfortunately, Toyota and Honda don’t make a truck I really like, nor do they make cars like the Suburban or the Mustang.
Fortunately, Ford has me covered (the new Explorer is the only SUV that doesn’t look ridiculous to me, too). They are still union tainted, but they make a good product and I think their success relative to GM and Chrysler sends a message.
I really hope GM and Chrysler fail. Sure, that would mean all the bailout money was wasted, but if these companies succeed, those bailouts will be repeated over and over in other industries. Companies fail. We should let them, so new blood can succeed.
Anyway, I think the Chrysler commercial was ghastly and wonder about the mind of the person who thinks their cars are better because Eminem likes D-Town. At least GM, for all their many faults, sometimes shows some effort (like Volt or Camaro). Look at that Chrysler 200! It wouldn’t have turned heads ten years ago.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 7:22 am
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Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 7:09 am
Very glad your wife was OK. That driver last fall hit me in such a way, in the driver’s side, that I should have been injured but not a scratch. (Seat belts help too, but those cars are sturdy.)
Have always felt about cars “don’t need any bells and whistles, just start up every single time and get me where I want to go with no breakdowns.” That’s why I was so loyal to Saturn. Can count on one hand the problems I had with those two cars in almost 20 yrs.
What’s funny is, bought the second one when the first was about 10 yrs old and I’d just gotten a new good job. “It’s getting old so I’ll play it safe so I can get to the new job w/ a new car.” Sold that Saturn locally in a private sale, and still see the woman on occasion, almost nine years later, driving my old car around town. *weeps*
Comment by no one you know — 2/7/2011 @ 7:24 am
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Car companies that have taken bailout money can indeed advertise.
And I can complain about it. And will.
Comment by SPQR — 2/7/2011 @ 7:25 am
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Aaron, the mid 1990s Saturns were quite good, though noisy. Cheap, reliable American cars. I know one guy’s SL1 is over 300k miles.
the car company took a major turn for the worse when GM started rebadging Chevies with Saturn logos. The Saturn experiment worked, but the union bosses understood that meant their days were numbered if they didn’t kill it. GM kills a lot of their most interesting ideas (EV1).
There’s a lot of legacy and heritage in their company, and I had hoped some of their IP would be bought in bankruptcy. Some Aptera or Tesla style young company could take a stab at making Corvettes. It could have helped the economy quite a lot, I think.
Instead, GM won’t sell their Pontiac or Oldmobile IP because it’s obvious if someone began selling 442s and GTOs untainted by bailout and unions, GM would cease to be relevant to a lot of people.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 7:28 am
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While I understand the temptation to compare Vanilla Ice to Eminem in the way you did, you really shouldn’t.
For all his faults – and he has many – Eminem is a *top notch* rapper, easily one of the best, and he remains one of the few musicians to make a *good* movie when trying to make the jump into film.
Vanilla Ice, on the other hand, was just awful.
Comment by aphrael — 2/7/2011 @ 7:33 am
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aph
actually yeah, it was harsher than deserved. but i just felt cranky this morning.
Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 7:37 am
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aphrael, you don’t seem to be willing to credit Vanilla Ice’s creativity as expressed in his current reality show … as a general contractor.
Comment by SPQR — 2/7/2011 @ 7:39 am
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Yes, they can advertise, but I expect them to be a bit more frugal with their money. Chrysler paid for the longest Superbowl spot in history, and retained an expensive spoiled rap star to star in it. Only the rapper didn’t *rap*, you see, and he also starred in a silly cartoon soft drink commercial earlier in the game, so his gravitas is somewhat, um, questionable. You’ll have to excuse me if I see this as but an extension of their previous mismanagement.
Comment by mcg — 2/7/2011 @ 7:42 am
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Eminem is driving a minivan in his rap commercial.
Come on. Sellout. I thought the rules were that we can mock him a lot now.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 7:44 am
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well, the rumor about killing saturn is that it had everything to do with their lack of unionization. its really hard to understand it, otherwise.
It actually was unionized but the union boss at Saturn was really interested in new quality initiatives. This caused resentment in GM (not Chrysler) executives and the UAW president, Yokich, was not interested in cooperative ventures, He is remembered as the UAW president who built the country club for UAW executives.
The story is in “Crash Course.”
Comment by Mike K — 2/7/2011 @ 7:48 am
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fwiw, Eminem is having a resurgence and is up for 10 Grammy Awards this year. Drug issues had him down for a few years. I haven’t paid attention to him since his big 2001 year but apparently he is blacker music-wise than many black rappers and can actually rhyme. Also he starred in 8 Mile with Kim Basinger playing his mom. He admits to taking pills he had no idea what they were at times, along with vicodin.
Comment by Calypso Louie Farrakhan — 2/7/2011 @ 7:52 am
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Eminem and Vanilla Ice? That is like comparing Scalia to timmah, or Clapton to Yelverton, or a normal non-obsessive human to epwj.
Comment by JD — 2/7/2011 @ 7:59 am
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You know, I still remember how the Cutlass Supreme was a ridiculously obvious rip off of the Saturn SL1, even though Saturn wasn’t cooperating on design. GM simply ripped the hard work from Saturn and put the Olds out first. It wasn’t a rebadge, it was simply a lack of creativity.
And even though the Olds was bigger, had a more powerful motor, and a much more prestigious brand, the Saturn SL1 was a much bigger success because it was built better.
But that episode was a great example of how Saturn was constantly fighting uphill.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 8:10 am
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SPQR – I know nothing about Vanilla Ice’s current tv show. I’m mostly out of the tv loop.
Comment by aphrael — 2/7/2011 @ 8:18 am
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SPQR – I actually checked after I first saw an episode of The Vanilla Ice Project…
Seems that after we all thought he died (seriously, who here hadn’t thought he was dead?), he actually did end up flipping McMansions and the like in Miami.
My only problem is the fact that he apparently doesn’t use a lot of licensed trade-folks to do the work. I highly suspect the people doing the plumbing, for example, are actual plumbers.
Mike Holmes would have a heart attack.
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 2/7/2011 @ 8:25 am
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I found it quite appropriate that Diego Rivera’s “Detroit Industry” was featured in this commercial. Rvera was a an outspoken communist which he reflected in his art and specifically in this fresco. Not really the best imagry to use for a company trying to convince the American public that it’s a solvent, self reliant business. Do you think the director was being sly?
Comment by Jason Moss — 2/7/2011 @ 8:47 am
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Scott, Holmes has created a career out of having hissy fits.
Comment by SPQR — 2/7/2011 @ 8:50 am
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Yeah, but it would be hard to argue that his hissy-fits aren’t justified.
Have you seen some of the stuff he’s had to fix?
The fact that he frequently goes out-of-pocket personally when doing a job is impressive to me. I think the line was “It isn’t unusually for him to have put in $50,000 by the end of a season – if he thinks that the kitchen would be vastly improved by custom cabinets, he’ll pay for them himself.”
Yeah, he can be a slight drama-queen, but for what he does, I’m willing to let that slide.
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 2/7/2011 @ 9:01 am
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Who watches sports events in real-time anymore? What % of viewers run the feed thru a DVR, wait 30 min, then watch the game but skip the commercials & other mindless downtime? Do the Nielsens audit this? What’s happened to rate cards over the past 5 yrs? Or are the media geniuses (& the clueless board members who enable them) stuck on 1995?
Comment by Sporf — 2/7/2011 @ 9:48 am
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Jason Moss – interesting, I didn’t know who the artist was but I immediately thought “New Soviet Man art? Really?”
Comment by Phil Smith — 2/7/2011 @ 10:56 am
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What a completely liberal ad.
Run down into the ground by Democrats and now they are claiming the city is NOT what others who “have never even been here” have being saying for decades.
Yeesh. That place deserves to remain economically savaged.
Comment by RogerCfromSD — 2/7/2011 @ 12:52 pm
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I sink Eminem stink. Chrysla stink too. Whez Bobby? Themz wuz da daze. Eminem is a peanut dipped in chocolate. Vuzzz is loos?
All kidding aside, the ad was stillborn. Eminem is dated goods. The ad was as enticing as the lame Black Eyed Peas. Why can’t we just have the Negro College bands play at halftime? All those white suits reminded me of the sperm cells in that old doofus Woody Allen movie about “Sex”.
There were so many government made car ads. And then the MVP gets that red pile of junk called a “Camaro”. Hell, give him a full restored Camaro muscle car. It was made during the era when GM didn’t stand for Government Made.
$100,000 per second for that tripe on American cars. The Euro car ads were just as stupid. Puff Doody? Are you kidding me? Looking helpless and ripped off. The boy has zero shame. Like President Zero. So glad I didnt have to see his mug at all yesterday. His face is a nightmare.
How many ribs did Moo-Chelle eat yesterday? Any red soda to wash it down? I hope she has the trots today. Go walk the Presidential Pooch.
Comment by Lawrence Welk — 2/7/2011 @ 1:57 pm
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Hi, Kilgore Trout.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 2:01 pm
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Yahoo has a list of the 20 most miserable cities in the US. Eight are in California. Miami would have been #1 instead of 2 if not for sun and no state income tax. Corruption beyond rampant. Of course plenty of northern liberal heavily black cities on list too. My own area is #8 despite the wealth, mostly because of unemployment and housing market still crashing. Funny I don’t see Arizona in the toilet in the same way. Few states are not going bankrupt. Unemployment very low in the Dakotas but who wants to freeze their asps off there?
Seems the Koreans are making top-quality cars now. GM has bigger sales in China than do in USA. I was thinking how the ouster of Gov. Gray did not guarantee improvement in Ca. government. Is that because of liberal unions, legislature and catering to Latinos? Auhnuld tried to get along with liberals but I expect Collyfournya got what it wanted. But then we are told W was responsible for the Housing mess and Barney,Dodd and Obama blameless. I wonder if that tomato picker in Ca. who made $14k a year still has his $750k house?
Comment by Calypso Louie Farrakhan — 2/7/2011 @ 3:25 pm
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I no longer root for GM’s or Chrysler’s success. I will never again buy a product from either of them under any circumstances.
I realize that this may be contrary to my indirect financial self-interest. The Obama administration turned them into corporate zombies, undead companies that aren’t allowed to die even though they really, really deserve to and that would be the best result for the American economy in the long term. The Obama administration trampled on the rule of law to reach that end.
So no, I will no more buy a GM car or a Chrysler car than I would have bought a Lada from the Soviet Union.
Comment by Beldar — 2/7/2011 @ 8:05 pm
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Tagline should have been, by the way: “Imported from Detroit (but controlled from D.C.)”
Comment by Beldar — 2/7/2011 @ 8:10 pm
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Agreed, Beldar. Never a GM or a Chrysler.
Though I’d be willing to buy a Ford.
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 2/7/2011 @ 8:33 pm
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Whatever union and internal company politics may have had to do with the shutdown of Saturn, I think you’re overrating the brand. The extra safety of the early models was lost after the first few years, and from the Wikipedia page about the company, it seems the later models were really just Chevrolets or Opels with a different logo on the back. (Parts of that Wikipedia page seem frozen in amber.)
And I don’t think it was as popular as your anecdotes suggest. I can remember one neighbor on my whole street who ever bought a Saturn, and they eventually traded it in for a Honda Civic, which is parked next to a Toyota truck. They told me that Saturn was simply too pricey for their budget.
My parents, when I was a kid, stuck to Chevrolet–the ones I remember are my father’s Impala and my mother’s Nova. Eventually my mother switched to Mercury Cougars and then Toyota Camrys, and my father went for Buick because my stepmother worked for a dealership. I myself now drive a Corolla. It’s the fourth one in a row I’ve owned, and I’ll probably be trading it in sometime in the next twelve months for Corolla number five. The only complaint I have with the Corolla is that the brakes seem to wear out rather quickly. But that may be me. I drove it almost exclusively to work and on errands, and almost never more than an hour’s distance from the house–standard metropolitan traffic.
Comment by kishnevi — 2/7/2011 @ 8:43 pm
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Yeah, I’m driving a 2000 Taurus made in Atlanta. It’s not nearly as much fun as the BMWs I used to drive, but I’m a more sedate driver now than I was then, and it’s been a pleasant, safe, and reliable car. When I replace it I’ll surely give Ford’s lineup a close look.
Comment by Beldar — 2/7/2011 @ 8:43 pm
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I will always think of Nissan as my first love for cars.
My first car was an 1987 Nissan Sentra, and it only was gotten rid of because I treated it like crap. My fault, and a lesser car would have died way sooner than the 2+ years I owned it.
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 2/7/2011 @ 8:46 pm
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I think the new Taurus is one of the best cars America has ever produced. It’s also sharp. Ford really has caught up with the other great automakers.
A car like that should be low hassle. One of the reasons Chrysler and GM failed was that their cars were often quite a hassle to keep on the road. I’ve only owned one Ford (my present vehicle), but it’s on par with the two Hondas we’ve had.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 8:48 pm
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From my grandfather down my family owned Impalas/Caprices for 40 years until they stopped making them. My mom (the little lady who drove it 2 miles to work and back every day) still has her 1989 Caprice. Trading in my 199-something caprice wagon was a mistake.
Just bought a Ford Focus today. Having a brother-in-law with the company helps get a better deal, as well as “inside scouting reports”. Even without that, though, I would still not buy GM or Chrysler. (FYI, the 2012 model year Focus will be coming out soon, so if you want a good deal more than the latest style, big incentives on the 2011 Focus.)
Comment by MD in Philly — 2/7/2011 @ 8:57 pm
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Beldar
Well, i think that is a reasonable view, to say that you hope they fail so that this horrible experiment will not be repeated. i can respect that.
Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 9:04 pm
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Comment by MD in Philly — 2/7/2011 @ 8:57 pm
Best wishes on the car..may the wind be at your back and the traffic jams only on the other side of the highway….
I can’t say I intend to boycott GM because of the bailout. I boycott GM because of the lousy engineering they did. My first two cars were Chevy Cavaliers, and they had constant engine problems after the second year on each one. That was the main inducement to switch to Toyota. Much better in comparison (although the onboard computer in my current car seems to be getting finicky, but only after it hit the five year mark, past the time I usually trade in my cars (after five years I got a new one on the premise that engine problems were to be expected in a car that old. But not this year–combination of less income last year because of the recession and the recall hoo-has. Probably a new Corolla before the end of 2011, however.)
Comment by kishnevi — 2/8/2011 @ 8:01 pm
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Thank you, kishnevi.
Comment by MD in Philly — 2/8/2011 @ 8:05 pm
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Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 2/9 - Arrowhead Pride
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Here’s perfect Friday fodder: “Things Real People Don’t Say About Advertising,” a Tumblr that delivers exactly what it promises, via one-sentence jokes illustrated with stock photos.
The photo + caption combination seems to work particularly well on Tumblr (and Lolcats) but you can get a pretty good sense of what’s going on via a few samples below. But for my money the best stuff is also the stuff that makes good use of the f-bomb, so you’ll want to see those on the site itself.
What’s great about TRPDSAA, IMHO, is that while a lot of this stuff is inside baseball, you should still be able to appreciate it without knowing what, say, “call to action” is supposed to mean. It’s clearly the product of someone who loves advertising and hates it, too.
And that person works in advertising, of course. Here’s a brief email interview I conducted with 27-year-old E.B. Davis III, a copywriter at Washington, D.C.-based GMMB:
Peter Kafka: Looks like you just started the Tumblr now. Why?
E. B. Davis III: For fun. To take the piss out. Advertising can be a lot of fun, but we get caught up in minutiae and nitpicking and buzzwords. We tend to forget we’re talking to people who don’t really want to talk to us.
Kafka: What provoked it, and what are you trying to do?
Davis: I made some pictures, put them on a blog, and showed two or three people, hoping they would laugh. I expected that to be the end of it. Tumblr only allowed 15 posts on the front page, so I only made 13 pictures, because I didn’t expect people to want to even bother going to a second page. Quick, easy, in and out. Now there are 29 posts (the rest from other people), with 300 submissions I need to find the time to post.
Kafka: Given that you’re satirizing advertising but work in advertising, should we assume you want to be doing something else?
Davis: I am satirizing advertising, and I work in advertising, but I don’t think we should assume I want to be doing something else. Advertising got great potential to be an idea factory. I think we’ve got the potential to make short movies, full-length movies, music videos, and a lot of cool other shit. I work at a social-good marketing agency, and I think advertising has taken a huge step forward over the past couple of years in connecting buying things to doing good. Easy charity. I was already going to buy that Coca-Cola anyway, and now it’s helping to help someone else. Awesome. We get free radio and free television because of advertising. It’s not the worst industry in the world. I have great hope for what advertising can do. It’s just, you know, we mostly end up making a print ad.
At the same time, I’m learning that I don’t need advertising to do what I want. I can make stuff without them. Hence this blog, among other things.
Kafka: How much of the site is you, and how much of it comes from contributors? And do contributors send in art and text, or just text? How much traffic are you getting now?
Davis: [I made] 13 original posts, and now people are making the content (mostly unasked). I’m assuming they’re mostly advertising folk, and I worry that the thing’s too insider-y for anyone else to really care about it. Not that they should care about it. It is a Stupid Thing. My favorite contributors do the work of putting their words on a picture for me, but some just send headlines and I have to put them together.
I have no idea how much traffic I’m getting. I’ve got about 3,000 followers and a lot of tweets and shit.
Kafka: What happens now?
Davis: I have no plans for what’s next. Keep making posts until people run out of interest. I don’t think these types of sites really lead to anything. They’re fun for a minute and then you move on. I don’t want to make any more of it than that. I’m ready to start working on new ideas, but I don’t plan to use the blog to promote it. I don’t want this to become a ‘self-promotion’ thing. I didn’t really have my name attached to it in the beginning, but some people found out it was me, so my name’s out there, but it wasn’t my intention.
It’s just for fun.
45 Comments
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Urban Legend has it that the Bud ad was paid for by the board personally in 2002
Comment by EricPWJohnson — 2/7/2011 @ 6:41 am
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I thought the ad was a little strange in that it seemed about 85% an ad for the city of Detroit.
If Chrysler wanted a really good add, have the E-Trade toddler talk about buying shares of Chrysler stock, or looking forward to buying shares of Chrysler stock when they are openly traded again.
The careers of child actors are so brief, I liked him better as an infant… by the time he’s 3 he will need to be teaching his little sister or brother (intellectual property claim on the idea).
Comment by MD in Philly — 2/7/2011 @ 6:42 am
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MD
actually the brilliant thing about the e-trade baby thing is that since its all or mostly computer generated, you have to wonder if there is any concern about the baby growing up at all.
Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 6:54 am
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1. Was angry at the car companies for giving in to government cake and always found it interesting that Ford, the only big one who didn’t take Washington money, was also the only big one to keep posting a profit in the months after the bailouts. (Don’t know how they’re all doing now.)
2. How was GM not able to keep making Saturns? It was one of their most popular cars IIUC (really miss my two – a bad driver totalled my last one last fall).
Comment by no one you know — 2/7/2011 @ 6:57 am
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BTW: for some reason I really like Eminem — he’s got great rapping talent (unlike the actual Vanilla Ice) – but he used his talent badly, and, along w/ others, coarsened the culture.
Never bought his albums or movie, just because I didn’t want to support that coarsening. But he is a good musician IMO.
Comment by no one you know — 2/7/2011 @ 6:57 am
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Good Point, AW. I imagine there was an original child scanned for the basis of the image, right?
If the maker’s of the ad use a computer generated image (based on the original picture) for an older child, does the child (or his trust fund) still have a financial interest? I would think so, or anybody could do a slight edit of a photo of someone and claim “but it’s not so and so”.
Comment by MD in Philly — 2/7/2011 @ 6:59 am
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Good post. Patriotism has always been a big part of Super Bowl commercials (lets not forget the John Cougar Mellancamp “My Country” ads, for example). And Chrysler has a specific problem worth addressing, I think – it was bought by Fiat! To the extent that’s a stumbling block to sales, it ought to be addressed in the commercials.
Personally, I thought that it was the best ad of the Super Bowl. Much better than the overhyped Volkswagen-Darth Vader ad (an ad about the *key*? really?).
Not to mention that Chrysler had to advertise in the Super Bowl when (almost literally) every single other car company in the country advertised on the same program. Not advertising would mean losing ground.
Comment by A.S. — 2/7/2011 @ 7:00 am
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NOYK
well, the rumor about killing saturn is that it had everything to do with their lack of unionization. its really hard to understand it, otherwise.
And yeah, i have liked that company from the beginning. I got one in 1998, a leftover on the lot from last year, so a 1997 SL1. that lasted me until two summers ago when the car was totaled in the moving day from hell. i mean seriously if it didn’t get hit by an idiot driver i would be driving it today.
and now i drive a 1995 Vue (their smaller SUV). and its running great.
btw, my wife was in the car in that accident. she had some minor neck injuries, but she has pretty much recovered. if you saw what the car looked like, though, you would be very impressed she wasn’t seriously hurt.
Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 7:09 am
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Chryler should of been let to die the first time. Then( maybe ) Ford and GM would of been in better shape.
Chrysler can go now. We already have plenty of choice in the market place.
Frankly, I support foreign car makers now. They don’t get the government to assfist me to give them money. Let the Japanese, German and soon Chinese citizen get worked over, again and again, by their corporations government.
No domestic auto company means one less big, really big, corporate/union welfare teat sucker.
Comment by Paul — 2/7/2011 @ 7:13 am
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I’m not much persuaded by the opinion of musicians… or of almost-musicians like Eminem. But I did like the tag line, “Imported from Detroit.”
Comment by Gesundheit — 2/7/2011 @ 7:20 am
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Paul, also, Honda and Toyota PAY taxes to the US Government. They also pay their workers a very fair wage in places like Texas and Ohio.
Like Chrysler, they are not American owned, but they do have a lot of engineering and management in the USA.
I see them as better citizens than Chrysler. Unfortunately, Toyota and Honda don’t make a truck I really like, nor do they make cars like the Suburban or the Mustang.
Fortunately, Ford has me covered (the new Explorer is the only SUV that doesn’t look ridiculous to me, too). They are still union tainted, but they make a good product and I think their success relative to GM and Chrysler sends a message.
I really hope GM and Chrysler fail. Sure, that would mean all the bailout money was wasted, but if these companies succeed, those bailouts will be repeated over and over in other industries. Companies fail. We should let them, so new blood can succeed.
Anyway, I think the Chrysler commercial was ghastly and wonder about the mind of the person who thinks their cars are better because Eminem likes D-Town. At least GM, for all their many faults, sometimes shows some effort (like Volt or Camaro). Look at that Chrysler 200! It wouldn’t have turned heads ten years ago.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 7:22 am
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Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 7:09 am
Very glad your wife was OK. That driver last fall hit me in such a way, in the driver’s side, that I should have been injured but not a scratch. (Seat belts help too, but those cars are sturdy.)
Have always felt about cars “don’t need any bells and whistles, just start up every single time and get me where I want to go with no breakdowns.” That’s why I was so loyal to Saturn. Can count on one hand the problems I had with those two cars in almost 20 yrs.
What’s funny is, bought the second one when the first was about 10 yrs old and I’d just gotten a new good job. “It’s getting old so I’ll play it safe so I can get to the new job w/ a new car.” Sold that Saturn locally in a private sale, and still see the woman on occasion, almost nine years later, driving my old car around town. *weeps*
Comment by no one you know — 2/7/2011 @ 7:24 am
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Car companies that have taken bailout money can indeed advertise.
And I can complain about it. And will.
Comment by SPQR — 2/7/2011 @ 7:25 am
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Aaron, the mid 1990s Saturns were quite good, though noisy. Cheap, reliable American cars. I know one guy’s SL1 is over 300k miles.
the car company took a major turn for the worse when GM started rebadging Chevies with Saturn logos. The Saturn experiment worked, but the union bosses understood that meant their days were numbered if they didn’t kill it. GM kills a lot of their most interesting ideas (EV1).
There’s a lot of legacy and heritage in their company, and I had hoped some of their IP would be bought in bankruptcy. Some Aptera or Tesla style young company could take a stab at making Corvettes. It could have helped the economy quite a lot, I think.
Instead, GM won’t sell their Pontiac or Oldmobile IP because it’s obvious if someone began selling 442s and GTOs untainted by bailout and unions, GM would cease to be relevant to a lot of people.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 7:28 am
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While I understand the temptation to compare Vanilla Ice to Eminem in the way you did, you really shouldn’t.
For all his faults – and he has many – Eminem is a *top notch* rapper, easily one of the best, and he remains one of the few musicians to make a *good* movie when trying to make the jump into film.
Vanilla Ice, on the other hand, was just awful.
Comment by aphrael — 2/7/2011 @ 7:33 am
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aph
actually yeah, it was harsher than deserved. but i just felt cranky this morning.
Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 7:37 am
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aphrael, you don’t seem to be willing to credit Vanilla Ice’s creativity as expressed in his current reality show … as a general contractor.
Comment by SPQR — 2/7/2011 @ 7:39 am
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Yes, they can advertise, but I expect them to be a bit more frugal with their money. Chrysler paid for the longest Superbowl spot in history, and retained an expensive spoiled rap star to star in it. Only the rapper didn’t *rap*, you see, and he also starred in a silly cartoon soft drink commercial earlier in the game, so his gravitas is somewhat, um, questionable. You’ll have to excuse me if I see this as but an extension of their previous mismanagement.
Comment by mcg — 2/7/2011 @ 7:42 am
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Eminem is driving a minivan in his rap commercial.
Come on. Sellout. I thought the rules were that we can mock him a lot now.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 7:44 am
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well, the rumor about killing saturn is that it had everything to do with their lack of unionization. its really hard to understand it, otherwise.
It actually was unionized but the union boss at Saturn was really interested in new quality initiatives. This caused resentment in GM (not Chrysler) executives and the UAW president, Yokich, was not interested in cooperative ventures, He is remembered as the UAW president who built the country club for UAW executives.
The story is in “Crash Course.”
Comment by Mike K — 2/7/2011 @ 7:48 am
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fwiw, Eminem is having a resurgence and is up for 10 Grammy Awards this year. Drug issues had him down for a few years. I haven’t paid attention to him since his big 2001 year but apparently he is blacker music-wise than many black rappers and can actually rhyme. Also he starred in 8 Mile with Kim Basinger playing his mom. He admits to taking pills he had no idea what they were at times, along with vicodin.
Comment by Calypso Louie Farrakhan — 2/7/2011 @ 7:52 am
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Eminem and Vanilla Ice? That is like comparing Scalia to timmah, or Clapton to Yelverton, or a normal non-obsessive human to epwj.
Comment by JD — 2/7/2011 @ 7:59 am
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You know, I still remember how the Cutlass Supreme was a ridiculously obvious rip off of the Saturn SL1, even though Saturn wasn’t cooperating on design. GM simply ripped the hard work from Saturn and put the Olds out first. It wasn’t a rebadge, it was simply a lack of creativity.
And even though the Olds was bigger, had a more powerful motor, and a much more prestigious brand, the Saturn SL1 was a much bigger success because it was built better.
But that episode was a great example of how Saturn was constantly fighting uphill.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 8:10 am
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SPQR – I know nothing about Vanilla Ice’s current tv show. I’m mostly out of the tv loop.
Comment by aphrael — 2/7/2011 @ 8:18 am
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SPQR – I actually checked after I first saw an episode of The Vanilla Ice Project…
Seems that after we all thought he died (seriously, who here hadn’t thought he was dead?), he actually did end up flipping McMansions and the like in Miami.
My only problem is the fact that he apparently doesn’t use a lot of licensed trade-folks to do the work. I highly suspect the people doing the plumbing, for example, are actual plumbers.
Mike Holmes would have a heart attack.
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 2/7/2011 @ 8:25 am
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I found it quite appropriate that Diego Rivera’s “Detroit Industry” was featured in this commercial. Rvera was a an outspoken communist which he reflected in his art and specifically in this fresco. Not really the best imagry to use for a company trying to convince the American public that it’s a solvent, self reliant business. Do you think the director was being sly?
Comment by Jason Moss — 2/7/2011 @ 8:47 am
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Scott, Holmes has created a career out of having hissy fits.
Comment by SPQR — 2/7/2011 @ 8:50 am
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Yeah, but it would be hard to argue that his hissy-fits aren’t justified.
Have you seen some of the stuff he’s had to fix?
The fact that he frequently goes out-of-pocket personally when doing a job is impressive to me. I think the line was “It isn’t unusually for him to have put in $50,000 by the end of a season – if he thinks that the kitchen would be vastly improved by custom cabinets, he’ll pay for them himself.”
Yeah, he can be a slight drama-queen, but for what he does, I’m willing to let that slide.
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 2/7/2011 @ 9:01 am
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Who watches sports events in real-time anymore? What % of viewers run the feed thru a DVR, wait 30 min, then watch the game but skip the commercials & other mindless downtime? Do the Nielsens audit this? What’s happened to rate cards over the past 5 yrs? Or are the media geniuses (& the clueless board members who enable them) stuck on 1995?
Comment by Sporf — 2/7/2011 @ 9:48 am
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Jason Moss – interesting, I didn’t know who the artist was but I immediately thought “New Soviet Man art? Really?”
Comment by Phil Smith — 2/7/2011 @ 10:56 am
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What a completely liberal ad.
Run down into the ground by Democrats and now they are claiming the city is NOT what others who “have never even been here” have being saying for decades.
Yeesh. That place deserves to remain economically savaged.
Comment by RogerCfromSD — 2/7/2011 @ 12:52 pm
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I sink Eminem stink. Chrysla stink too. Whez Bobby? Themz wuz da daze. Eminem is a peanut dipped in chocolate. Vuzzz is loos?
All kidding aside, the ad was stillborn. Eminem is dated goods. The ad was as enticing as the lame Black Eyed Peas. Why can’t we just have the Negro College bands play at halftime? All those white suits reminded me of the sperm cells in that old doofus Woody Allen movie about “Sex”.
There were so many government made car ads. And then the MVP gets that red pile of junk called a “Camaro”. Hell, give him a full restored Camaro muscle car. It was made during the era when GM didn’t stand for Government Made.
$100,000 per second for that tripe on American cars. The Euro car ads were just as stupid. Puff Doody? Are you kidding me? Looking helpless and ripped off. The boy has zero shame. Like President Zero. So glad I didnt have to see his mug at all yesterday. His face is a nightmare.
How many ribs did Moo-Chelle eat yesterday? Any red soda to wash it down? I hope she has the trots today. Go walk the Presidential Pooch.
Comment by Lawrence Welk — 2/7/2011 @ 1:57 pm
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Hi, Kilgore Trout.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 2:01 pm
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Yahoo has a list of the 20 most miserable cities in the US. Eight are in California. Miami would have been #1 instead of 2 if not for sun and no state income tax. Corruption beyond rampant. Of course plenty of northern liberal heavily black cities on list too. My own area is #8 despite the wealth, mostly because of unemployment and housing market still crashing. Funny I don’t see Arizona in the toilet in the same way. Few states are not going bankrupt. Unemployment very low in the Dakotas but who wants to freeze their asps off there?
Seems the Koreans are making top-quality cars now. GM has bigger sales in China than do in USA. I was thinking how the ouster of Gov. Gray did not guarantee improvement in Ca. government. Is that because of liberal unions, legislature and catering to Latinos? Auhnuld tried to get along with liberals but I expect Collyfournya got what it wanted. But then we are told W was responsible for the Housing mess and Barney,Dodd and Obama blameless. I wonder if that tomato picker in Ca. who made $14k a year still has his $750k house?
Comment by Calypso Louie Farrakhan — 2/7/2011 @ 3:25 pm
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I no longer root for GM’s or Chrysler’s success. I will never again buy a product from either of them under any circumstances.
I realize that this may be contrary to my indirect financial self-interest. The Obama administration turned them into corporate zombies, undead companies that aren’t allowed to die even though they really, really deserve to and that would be the best result for the American economy in the long term. The Obama administration trampled on the rule of law to reach that end.
So no, I will no more buy a GM car or a Chrysler car than I would have bought a Lada from the Soviet Union.
Comment by Beldar — 2/7/2011 @ 8:05 pm
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Tagline should have been, by the way: “Imported from Detroit (but controlled from D.C.)”
Comment by Beldar — 2/7/2011 @ 8:10 pm
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Agreed, Beldar. Never a GM or a Chrysler.
Though I’d be willing to buy a Ford.
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 2/7/2011 @ 8:33 pm
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Whatever union and internal company politics may have had to do with the shutdown of Saturn, I think you’re overrating the brand. The extra safety of the early models was lost after the first few years, and from the Wikipedia page about the company, it seems the later models were really just Chevrolets or Opels with a different logo on the back. (Parts of that Wikipedia page seem frozen in amber.)
And I don’t think it was as popular as your anecdotes suggest. I can remember one neighbor on my whole street who ever bought a Saturn, and they eventually traded it in for a Honda Civic, which is parked next to a Toyota truck. They told me that Saturn was simply too pricey for their budget.
My parents, when I was a kid, stuck to Chevrolet–the ones I remember are my father’s Impala and my mother’s Nova. Eventually my mother switched to Mercury Cougars and then Toyota Camrys, and my father went for Buick because my stepmother worked for a dealership. I myself now drive a Corolla. It’s the fourth one in a row I’ve owned, and I’ll probably be trading it in sometime in the next twelve months for Corolla number five. The only complaint I have with the Corolla is that the brakes seem to wear out rather quickly. But that may be me. I drove it almost exclusively to work and on errands, and almost never more than an hour’s distance from the house–standard metropolitan traffic.
Comment by kishnevi — 2/7/2011 @ 8:43 pm
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Yeah, I’m driving a 2000 Taurus made in Atlanta. It’s not nearly as much fun as the BMWs I used to drive, but I’m a more sedate driver now than I was then, and it’s been a pleasant, safe, and reliable car. When I replace it I’ll surely give Ford’s lineup a close look.
Comment by Beldar — 2/7/2011 @ 8:43 pm
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I will always think of Nissan as my first love for cars.
My first car was an 1987 Nissan Sentra, and it only was gotten rid of because I treated it like crap. My fault, and a lesser car would have died way sooner than the 2+ years I owned it.
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 2/7/2011 @ 8:46 pm
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I think the new Taurus is one of the best cars America has ever produced. It’s also sharp. Ford really has caught up with the other great automakers.
A car like that should be low hassle. One of the reasons Chrysler and GM failed was that their cars were often quite a hassle to keep on the road. I’ve only owned one Ford (my present vehicle), but it’s on par with the two Hondas we’ve had.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 8:48 pm
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From my grandfather down my family owned Impalas/Caprices for 40 years until they stopped making them. My mom (the little lady who drove it 2 miles to work and back every day) still has her 1989 Caprice. Trading in my 199-something caprice wagon was a mistake.
Just bought a Ford Focus today. Having a brother-in-law with the company helps get a better deal, as well as “inside scouting reports”. Even without that, though, I would still not buy GM or Chrysler. (FYI, the 2012 model year Focus will be coming out soon, so if you want a good deal more than the latest style, big incentives on the 2011 Focus.)
Comment by MD in Philly — 2/7/2011 @ 8:57 pm
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Beldar
Well, i think that is a reasonable view, to say that you hope they fail so that this horrible experiment will not be repeated. i can respect that.
Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 9:04 pm
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Comment by MD in Philly — 2/7/2011 @ 8:57 pm
Best wishes on the car..may the wind be at your back and the traffic jams only on the other side of the highway….
I can’t say I intend to boycott GM because of the bailout. I boycott GM because of the lousy engineering they did. My first two cars were Chevy Cavaliers, and they had constant engine problems after the second year on each one. That was the main inducement to switch to Toyota. Much better in comparison (although the onboard computer in my current car seems to be getting finicky, but only after it hit the five year mark, past the time I usually trade in my cars (after five years I got a new one on the premise that engine problems were to be expected in a car that old. But not this year–combination of less income last year because of the recession and the recall hoo-has. Probably a new Corolla before the end of 2011, however.)
Comment by kishnevi — 2/8/2011 @ 8:01 pm
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Thank you, kishnevi.
Comment by MD in Philly — 2/8/2011 @ 8:05 pm
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WiiWare MDK 2 revival in certification Wii <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>
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Read our Wii news of WiiWare MDK 2 revival in certification.
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Read our Xbox 360 news of GAME selling XBLA games and DLC.
Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 2/9 - Arrowhead Pride
Good morning Chiefs fans! A thank you to Joel and Chris for covering for me. Technology seems to hate me lately. Today's Kansas City Chiefs news covers a lot of topics: the national anthem, racial bias, Super Bowl odds, and pork. Enjoy.
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WiiWare MDK 2 revival in certification Wii <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>
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GAME selling XBLA games and DLC Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our Xbox 360 news of GAME selling XBLA games and DLC.
Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 2/9 - Arrowhead Pride
Good morning Chiefs fans! A thank you to Joel and Chris for covering for me. Technology seems to hate me lately. Today's Kansas City Chiefs news covers a lot of topics: the national anthem, racial bias, Super Bowl odds, and pork. Enjoy.
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WiiWare MDK 2 revival in certification Wii <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>
Read our Wii news of WiiWare MDK 2 revival in certification.
GAME selling XBLA games and DLC Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our Xbox 360 news of GAME selling XBLA games and DLC.
Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 2/9 - Arrowhead Pride
Good morning Chiefs fans! A thank you to Joel and Chris for covering for me. Technology seems to hate me lately. Today's Kansas City Chiefs news covers a lot of topics: the national anthem, racial bias, Super Bowl odds, and pork. Enjoy.
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WiiWare MDK 2 revival in certification Wii <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>
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GAME selling XBLA games and DLC Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our Xbox 360 news of GAME selling XBLA games and DLC.
Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 2/9 - Arrowhead Pride
Good morning Chiefs fans! A thank you to Joel and Chris for covering for me. Technology seems to hate me lately. Today's Kansas City Chiefs news covers a lot of topics: the national anthem, racial bias, Super Bowl odds, and pork. Enjoy.
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Making money from the internet through affiliate marketing is straight forward, right? All you have to do is join an affiliate program, promote their stuff, generate sales and gain commissions. Well fact of the matter is it is much easier said than done. We've all heard the saying that if something is too good to be true, it probably is. Affiliate marketing is no exception. Every affiliate program you find always claims to be the best.
One thing affiliate programs might do is give you the thought that it is very straightforward and effortless to make money from them. They convince you that all you have to do is throw a banner or link on your site and start watching the money rake in. This is seldom the case. For those who have already established a profitable site and a name for themselves, it might be the case. They probably already have a steady, generous stream of traffic and customers. For the rest of us, affiliate marketing requires a bit of time and effort.
A common form of affiliate marketing is e-mail marketing. If used well, it can be extremely useful. However, you must be extremely cautious with e-mail marketing so that you are not accused of spam. Before you start with e-mail marketing you must learn the basics of it. Otherwise you will waste your time, effort, and money. If you choose to use e-mail for affiliate marketing, you must be sure that you make yourself available for any questions. You will be able to give better, more believable testimonies about what you're promoting if you have first hand experience. Your readers will have more trust in you if you give them free, useful information about what you are promoting. You can also give them unbiased testimonies about your product or service. In each article and e-mail you send, you should include a link to your site. You get to promote your business this way and your readers might find something they are willing to pay money for on your site.
If you even want a slight possibility to make money from affiliate marketing, then you must be clever and unique. In affiliate marketing, there are usually countless amounts of people promoting the exact same thing you are. You have to stand out from them to ensure that it is you that makes the sale and gains the commission, and not someone else. A lot of people promoting the exact same thing, the exact same way tends to drive potential buyers away from you. Dive deep into your creativity and originality so the potential buyer stays interested in you and what you have to say. Put it this way: if you don't make the effort to stand out from the herd, then someone who is smarter will, and that person will be the one making all the sales and commissions. It will take time and patience, but it will all be worth it in the end.
Whatever form of advertising you choose, be aware that you can not expect results overnight. Possible? Perhaps, but not likely. Again, this goes back to those who have already established a name for themselves and are more experienced at this than you are. It takes time for people to see your banner, link, or article and become interested. It will take even more time for people to be interested enough to click and buy what you are promoting. Test and retest to see what works and what does not work. Also be aware that some strategies that have worked for you before may not work for other promotions, and that some strategies that worked for others might not work for you.
Never be afraid to ask for help if you need it. Reputable affiliate programs will be willing to help people and offer support whenever anyone needs it. You can look on online forums and find a bunch of people who experience with that same affiliate program, and ask them for help. The best way to embark on a new journey is by asking help from somebody just coming back.
Affiliate marketing is always a challenge, no matter if you are just new or if you are a veteran. There are always new things coming out, new methods and techniques being discovered, and changes in the marketplace. What worked before may not work today, and what works today may not work tomorrow. A master affiliate marketer could very well be surpassed by an anxious newcomer. The ones who make the most money are always on the prowl, hoping to find the next big thing before anybody else does.
Urban Legend has it that the Bud ad was paid for by the board personally in 2002
Comment by EricPWJohnson — 2/7/2011 @ 6:41 am
I thought the ad was a little strange in that it seemed about 85% an ad for the city of Detroit.
If Chrysler wanted a really good add, have the E-Trade toddler talk about buying shares of Chrysler stock, or looking forward to buying shares of Chrysler stock when they are openly traded again.
The careers of child actors are so brief, I liked him better as an infant… by the time he’s 3 he will need to be teaching his little sister or brother (intellectual property claim on the idea).
Comment by MD in Philly — 2/7/2011 @ 6:42 am
MD
actually the brilliant thing about the e-trade baby thing is that since its all or mostly computer generated, you have to wonder if there is any concern about the baby growing up at all.
Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 6:54 am
1. Was angry at the car companies for giving in to government cake and always found it interesting that Ford, the only big one who didn’t take Washington money, was also the only big one to keep posting a profit in the months after the bailouts. (Don’t know how they’re all doing now.)
2. How was GM not able to keep making Saturns? It was one of their most popular cars IIUC (really miss my two – a bad driver totalled my last one last fall).
Comment by no one you know — 2/7/2011 @ 6:57 am
BTW: for some reason I really like Eminem — he’s got great rapping talent (unlike the actual Vanilla Ice) – but he used his talent badly, and, along w/ others, coarsened the culture.
Never bought his albums or movie, just because I didn’t want to support that coarsening. But he is a good musician IMO.
Comment by no one you know — 2/7/2011 @ 6:57 am
Good Point, AW. I imagine there was an original child scanned for the basis of the image, right?
If the maker’s of the ad use a computer generated image (based on the original picture) for an older child, does the child (or his trust fund) still have a financial interest? I would think so, or anybody could do a slight edit of a photo of someone and claim “but it’s not so and so”.
Comment by MD in Philly — 2/7/2011 @ 6:59 am
Good post. Patriotism has always been a big part of Super Bowl commercials (lets not forget the John Cougar Mellancamp “My Country” ads, for example). And Chrysler has a specific problem worth addressing, I think – it was bought by Fiat! To the extent that’s a stumbling block to sales, it ought to be addressed in the commercials.
Personally, I thought that it was the best ad of the Super Bowl. Much better than the overhyped Volkswagen-Darth Vader ad (an ad about the *key*? really?).
Not to mention that Chrysler had to advertise in the Super Bowl when (almost literally) every single other car company in the country advertised on the same program. Not advertising would mean losing ground.
Comment by A.S. — 2/7/2011 @ 7:00 am
NOYK
well, the rumor about killing saturn is that it had everything to do with their lack of unionization. its really hard to understand it, otherwise.
And yeah, i have liked that company from the beginning. I got one in 1998, a leftover on the lot from last year, so a 1997 SL1. that lasted me until two summers ago when the car was totaled in the moving day from hell. i mean seriously if it didn’t get hit by an idiot driver i would be driving it today.
and now i drive a 1995 Vue (their smaller SUV). and its running great.
btw, my wife was in the car in that accident. she had some minor neck injuries, but she has pretty much recovered. if you saw what the car looked like, though, you would be very impressed she wasn’t seriously hurt.
Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 7:09 am
Chryler should of been let to die the first time. Then( maybe ) Ford and GM would of been in better shape.
Chrysler can go now. We already have plenty of choice in the market place.
Frankly, I support foreign car makers now. They don’t get the government to assfist me to give them money. Let the Japanese, German and soon Chinese citizen get worked over, again and again, by their corporations government.
No domestic auto company means one less big, really big, corporate/union welfare teat sucker.
Comment by Paul — 2/7/2011 @ 7:13 am
I’m not much persuaded by the opinion of musicians… or of almost-musicians like Eminem. But I did like the tag line, “Imported from Detroit.”
Comment by Gesundheit — 2/7/2011 @ 7:20 am
Paul, also, Honda and Toyota PAY taxes to the US Government. They also pay their workers a very fair wage in places like Texas and Ohio.
Like Chrysler, they are not American owned, but they do have a lot of engineering and management in the USA.
I see them as better citizens than Chrysler. Unfortunately, Toyota and Honda don’t make a truck I really like, nor do they make cars like the Suburban or the Mustang.
Fortunately, Ford has me covered (the new Explorer is the only SUV that doesn’t look ridiculous to me, too). They are still union tainted, but they make a good product and I think their success relative to GM and Chrysler sends a message.
I really hope GM and Chrysler fail. Sure, that would mean all the bailout money was wasted, but if these companies succeed, those bailouts will be repeated over and over in other industries. Companies fail. We should let them, so new blood can succeed.
Anyway, I think the Chrysler commercial was ghastly and wonder about the mind of the person who thinks their cars are better because Eminem likes D-Town. At least GM, for all their many faults, sometimes shows some effort (like Volt or Camaro). Look at that Chrysler 200! It wouldn’t have turned heads ten years ago.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 7:22 am
Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 7:09 am
Very glad your wife was OK. That driver last fall hit me in such a way, in the driver’s side, that I should have been injured but not a scratch. (Seat belts help too, but those cars are sturdy.)
Have always felt about cars “don’t need any bells and whistles, just start up every single time and get me where I want to go with no breakdowns.” That’s why I was so loyal to Saturn. Can count on one hand the problems I had with those two cars in almost 20 yrs.
What’s funny is, bought the second one when the first was about 10 yrs old and I’d just gotten a new good job. “It’s getting old so I’ll play it safe so I can get to the new job w/ a new car.” Sold that Saturn locally in a private sale, and still see the woman on occasion, almost nine years later, driving my old car around town. *weeps*
Comment by no one you know — 2/7/2011 @ 7:24 am
Car companies that have taken bailout money can indeed advertise.
And I can complain about it. And will.
Comment by SPQR — 2/7/2011 @ 7:25 am
Aaron, the mid 1990s Saturns were quite good, though noisy. Cheap, reliable American cars. I know one guy’s SL1 is over 300k miles.
the car company took a major turn for the worse when GM started rebadging Chevies with Saturn logos. The Saturn experiment worked, but the union bosses understood that meant their days were numbered if they didn’t kill it. GM kills a lot of their most interesting ideas (EV1).
There’s a lot of legacy and heritage in their company, and I had hoped some of their IP would be bought in bankruptcy. Some Aptera or Tesla style young company could take a stab at making Corvettes. It could have helped the economy quite a lot, I think.
Instead, GM won’t sell their Pontiac or Oldmobile IP because it’s obvious if someone began selling 442s and GTOs untainted by bailout and unions, GM would cease to be relevant to a lot of people.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 7:28 am
While I understand the temptation to compare Vanilla Ice to Eminem in the way you did, you really shouldn’t.
For all his faults – and he has many – Eminem is a *top notch* rapper, easily one of the best, and he remains one of the few musicians to make a *good* movie when trying to make the jump into film.
Vanilla Ice, on the other hand, was just awful.
Comment by aphrael — 2/7/2011 @ 7:33 am
aph
actually yeah, it was harsher than deserved. but i just felt cranky this morning.
Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 7:37 am
aphrael, you don’t seem to be willing to credit Vanilla Ice’s creativity as expressed in his current reality show … as a general contractor.
Comment by SPQR — 2/7/2011 @ 7:39 am
Yes, they can advertise, but I expect them to be a bit more frugal with their money. Chrysler paid for the longest Superbowl spot in history, and retained an expensive spoiled rap star to star in it. Only the rapper didn’t *rap*, you see, and he also starred in a silly cartoon soft drink commercial earlier in the game, so his gravitas is somewhat, um, questionable. You’ll have to excuse me if I see this as but an extension of their previous mismanagement.
Comment by mcg — 2/7/2011 @ 7:42 am
Eminem is driving a minivan in his rap commercial.
Come on. Sellout. I thought the rules were that we can mock him a lot now.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 7:44 am
well, the rumor about killing saturn is that it had everything to do with their lack of unionization. its really hard to understand it, otherwise.
It actually was unionized but the union boss at Saturn was really interested in new quality initiatives. This caused resentment in GM (not Chrysler) executives and the UAW president, Yokich, was not interested in cooperative ventures, He is remembered as the UAW president who built the country club for UAW executives.
The story is in “Crash Course.”
Comment by Mike K — 2/7/2011 @ 7:48 am
fwiw, Eminem is having a resurgence and is up for 10 Grammy Awards this year. Drug issues had him down for a few years. I haven’t paid attention to him since his big 2001 year but apparently he is blacker music-wise than many black rappers and can actually rhyme. Also he starred in 8 Mile with Kim Basinger playing his mom. He admits to taking pills he had no idea what they were at times, along with vicodin.
Comment by Calypso Louie Farrakhan — 2/7/2011 @ 7:52 am
Eminem and Vanilla Ice? That is like comparing Scalia to timmah, or Clapton to Yelverton, or a normal non-obsessive human to epwj.
Comment by JD — 2/7/2011 @ 7:59 am
You know, I still remember how the Cutlass Supreme was a ridiculously obvious rip off of the Saturn SL1, even though Saturn wasn’t cooperating on design. GM simply ripped the hard work from Saturn and put the Olds out first. It wasn’t a rebadge, it was simply a lack of creativity.
And even though the Olds was bigger, had a more powerful motor, and a much more prestigious brand, the Saturn SL1 was a much bigger success because it was built better.
But that episode was a great example of how Saturn was constantly fighting uphill.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 8:10 am
SPQR – I know nothing about Vanilla Ice’s current tv show. I’m mostly out of the tv loop.
Comment by aphrael — 2/7/2011 @ 8:18 am
SPQR – I actually checked after I first saw an episode of The Vanilla Ice Project…
Seems that after we all thought he died (seriously, who here hadn’t thought he was dead?), he actually did end up flipping McMansions and the like in Miami.
My only problem is the fact that he apparently doesn’t use a lot of licensed trade-folks to do the work. I highly suspect the people doing the plumbing, for example, are actual plumbers.
Mike Holmes would have a heart attack.
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 2/7/2011 @ 8:25 am
I found it quite appropriate that Diego Rivera’s “Detroit Industry” was featured in this commercial. Rvera was a an outspoken communist which he reflected in his art and specifically in this fresco. Not really the best imagry to use for a company trying to convince the American public that it’s a solvent, self reliant business. Do you think the director was being sly?
Comment by Jason Moss — 2/7/2011 @ 8:47 am
Scott, Holmes has created a career out of having hissy fits.
Comment by SPQR — 2/7/2011 @ 8:50 am
Yeah, but it would be hard to argue that his hissy-fits aren’t justified.
Have you seen some of the stuff he’s had to fix?
The fact that he frequently goes out-of-pocket personally when doing a job is impressive to me. I think the line was “It isn’t unusually for him to have put in $50,000 by the end of a season – if he thinks that the kitchen would be vastly improved by custom cabinets, he’ll pay for them himself.”
Yeah, he can be a slight drama-queen, but for what he does, I’m willing to let that slide.
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 2/7/2011 @ 9:01 am
Who watches sports events in real-time anymore? What % of viewers run the feed thru a DVR, wait 30 min, then watch the game but skip the commercials & other mindless downtime? Do the Nielsens audit this? What’s happened to rate cards over the past 5 yrs? Or are the media geniuses (& the clueless board members who enable them) stuck on 1995?
Comment by Sporf — 2/7/2011 @ 9:48 am
Jason Moss – interesting, I didn’t know who the artist was but I immediately thought “New Soviet Man art? Really?”
Comment by Phil Smith — 2/7/2011 @ 10:56 am
What a completely liberal ad.
Run down into the ground by Democrats and now they are claiming the city is NOT what others who “have never even been here” have being saying for decades.
Yeesh. That place deserves to remain economically savaged.
Comment by RogerCfromSD — 2/7/2011 @ 12:52 pm
I sink Eminem stink. Chrysla stink too. Whez Bobby? Themz wuz da daze. Eminem is a peanut dipped in chocolate. Vuzzz is loos?
All kidding aside, the ad was stillborn. Eminem is dated goods. The ad was as enticing as the lame Black Eyed Peas. Why can’t we just have the Negro College bands play at halftime? All those white suits reminded me of the sperm cells in that old doofus Woody Allen movie about “Sex”.
There were so many government made car ads. And then the MVP gets that red pile of junk called a “Camaro”. Hell, give him a full restored Camaro muscle car. It was made during the era when GM didn’t stand for Government Made.
$100,000 per second for that tripe on American cars. The Euro car ads were just as stupid. Puff Doody? Are you kidding me? Looking helpless and ripped off. The boy has zero shame. Like President Zero. So glad I didnt have to see his mug at all yesterday. His face is a nightmare.
How many ribs did Moo-Chelle eat yesterday? Any red soda to wash it down? I hope she has the trots today. Go walk the Presidential Pooch.
Comment by Lawrence Welk — 2/7/2011 @ 1:57 pm
Hi, Kilgore Trout.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 2:01 pm
Yahoo has a list of the 20 most miserable cities in the US. Eight are in California. Miami would have been #1 instead of 2 if not for sun and no state income tax. Corruption beyond rampant. Of course plenty of northern liberal heavily black cities on list too. My own area is #8 despite the wealth, mostly because of unemployment and housing market still crashing. Funny I don’t see Arizona in the toilet in the same way. Few states are not going bankrupt. Unemployment very low in the Dakotas but who wants to freeze their asps off there?
Seems the Koreans are making top-quality cars now. GM has bigger sales in China than do in USA. I was thinking how the ouster of Gov. Gray did not guarantee improvement in Ca. government. Is that because of liberal unions, legislature and catering to Latinos? Auhnuld tried to get along with liberals but I expect Collyfournya got what it wanted. But then we are told W was responsible for the Housing mess and Barney,Dodd and Obama blameless. I wonder if that tomato picker in Ca. who made $14k a year still has his $750k house?
Comment by Calypso Louie Farrakhan — 2/7/2011 @ 3:25 pm
I no longer root for GM’s or Chrysler’s success. I will never again buy a product from either of them under any circumstances.
I realize that this may be contrary to my indirect financial self-interest. The Obama administration turned them into corporate zombies, undead companies that aren’t allowed to die even though they really, really deserve to and that would be the best result for the American economy in the long term. The Obama administration trampled on the rule of law to reach that end.
So no, I will no more buy a GM car or a Chrysler car than I would have bought a Lada from the Soviet Union.
Comment by Beldar — 2/7/2011 @ 8:05 pm
Tagline should have been, by the way: “Imported from Detroit (but controlled from D.C.)”
Comment by Beldar — 2/7/2011 @ 8:10 pm
Agreed, Beldar. Never a GM or a Chrysler.
Though I’d be willing to buy a Ford.
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 2/7/2011 @ 8:33 pm
Whatever union and internal company politics may have had to do with the shutdown of Saturn, I think you’re overrating the brand. The extra safety of the early models was lost after the first few years, and from the Wikipedia page about the company, it seems the later models were really just Chevrolets or Opels with a different logo on the back. (Parts of that Wikipedia page seem frozen in amber.)
And I don’t think it was as popular as your anecdotes suggest. I can remember one neighbor on my whole street who ever bought a Saturn, and they eventually traded it in for a Honda Civic, which is parked next to a Toyota truck. They told me that Saturn was simply too pricey for their budget.
My parents, when I was a kid, stuck to Chevrolet–the ones I remember are my father’s Impala and my mother’s Nova. Eventually my mother switched to Mercury Cougars and then Toyota Camrys, and my father went for Buick because my stepmother worked for a dealership. I myself now drive a Corolla. It’s the fourth one in a row I’ve owned, and I’ll probably be trading it in sometime in the next twelve months for Corolla number five. The only complaint I have with the Corolla is that the brakes seem to wear out rather quickly. But that may be me. I drove it almost exclusively to work and on errands, and almost never more than an hour’s distance from the house–standard metropolitan traffic.
Comment by kishnevi — 2/7/2011 @ 8:43 pm
Yeah, I’m driving a 2000 Taurus made in Atlanta. It’s not nearly as much fun as the BMWs I used to drive, but I’m a more sedate driver now than I was then, and it’s been a pleasant, safe, and reliable car. When I replace it I’ll surely give Ford’s lineup a close look.
Comment by Beldar — 2/7/2011 @ 8:43 pm
I will always think of Nissan as my first love for cars.
My first car was an 1987 Nissan Sentra, and it only was gotten rid of because I treated it like crap. My fault, and a lesser car would have died way sooner than the 2+ years I owned it.
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 2/7/2011 @ 8:46 pm
I think the new Taurus is one of the best cars America has ever produced. It’s also sharp. Ford really has caught up with the other great automakers.
A car like that should be low hassle. One of the reasons Chrysler and GM failed was that their cars were often quite a hassle to keep on the road. I’ve only owned one Ford (my present vehicle), but it’s on par with the two Hondas we’ve had.
Comment by Dustin — 2/7/2011 @ 8:48 pm
From my grandfather down my family owned Impalas/Caprices for 40 years until they stopped making them. My mom (the little lady who drove it 2 miles to work and back every day) still has her 1989 Caprice. Trading in my 199-something caprice wagon was a mistake.
Just bought a Ford Focus today. Having a brother-in-law with the company helps get a better deal, as well as “inside scouting reports”. Even without that, though, I would still not buy GM or Chrysler. (FYI, the 2012 model year Focus will be coming out soon, so if you want a good deal more than the latest style, big incentives on the 2011 Focus.)
Comment by MD in Philly — 2/7/2011 @ 8:57 pm
Beldar
Well, i think that is a reasonable view, to say that you hope they fail so that this horrible experiment will not be repeated. i can respect that.
Comment by Aaron Worthing — 2/7/2011 @ 9:04 pm
Comment by MD in Philly — 2/7/2011 @ 8:57 pm
Best wishes on the car..may the wind be at your back and the traffic jams only on the other side of the highway….
I can’t say I intend to boycott GM because of the bailout. I boycott GM because of the lousy engineering they did. My first two cars were Chevy Cavaliers, and they had constant engine problems after the second year on each one. That was the main inducement to switch to Toyota. Much better in comparison (although the onboard computer in my current car seems to be getting finicky, but only after it hit the five year mark, past the time I usually trade in my cars (after five years I got a new one on the premise that engine problems were to be expected in a car that old. But not this year–combination of less income last year because of the recession and the recall hoo-has. Probably a new Corolla before the end of 2011, however.)
Comment by kishnevi — 2/8/2011 @ 8:01 pm
Thank you, kishnevi.
Comment by MD in Philly — 2/8/2011 @ 8:05 pm