General Motors has launched what is probably an ill-advised marketing website. At chevyapprentice.com/ they have a contest in which you can make a commercial for the 2007 Chevy Tahoe. The best commercial wins something.
However, what's happening is a bunch of people making activist type commercials.
Rather than something extolling the SUV, they're instead talking about global warming, destroyed environment and, in one case, a memorial from one brother to another who was sent to Iraq to fight for oil.
The site is very easy to use, and creating an advertisement is very simple. They offer some typical video clips of the type you see in car commercials, and they offer some sound tracks. You simply drag the clips into the order you want, and enter text to overlay on the clips.
Their web site is an example of a new kind of marketing activity. The Internet is allowing for greater ease in building "community" of a sort, where web sites serve as a meeting place for people to share with one another. In this case they are hoping for people to go COOL, make commercials, and share them with their friends. This should build a word-of-mouth viral spread of awareness over the web site. The gain they'll have is from their brand and logo being put in front of more eyeballs.
We don't know how many of the people using this site to make activist commercials versus SUV-loving commercials.
Here's some pointers collecting the advertisements people have made.
GM SUV spoofed by environmentalists
Video: Oops! Chevy gets trashed in commercial contest
TreeHugger: Make Your Own SUV Ad
MOBJECTIVIST: Last gasp of a dying organization
Sustainablog: 'Chevy Apprentice' Becomes Activism Tool
Eco Blogger Call to Action: Make your own Chevy Advert
Network-Centric Advocacy: You MUST try This: Culture Jam Chevy and Global Warming: Sloganator II
Chevy Ads : Network Culture Jamming the Apprentice (whack at Trump, GM and SUVs)
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