Not SUBETE or Why I’m Not Buying a Silverado
Say there’s no such thing as bad publicity? Hmmm. Well, I may not know publicity, but I know what I don’t like, and Chevy has pulled out a stomach-churning campaign the likes of which I can’t remember.
The first shot across the bow was the John Mellencamp “Our Country” ad. Ol’ Johnny Cougar is dolled up in his denim and boots, leaning up against a truck, beatin’ his box guitar next to some sort of agrarian open space. Now, Mellencamp is one of those sour-stomached midwest blue-stater in a red state malcontents, and like Springsteen, his patriotic overtures have been heavily laced with sarcasm(Born In The USA, Little Pink Houses), so to have him waving Old Glory a couple of months before the elections immediately rouses supsicion.
Anyway, Mellencamp launches into a "I see both sides of everything" song while the images run through the liberal history of America, the last 40 years. Rosa Parks, MLK, Viet Nam, Hippies, Nixon, Forest Fires, Katrina Flooding, the Beginning of Rebuilding. The cherry on the sundae was the doe-eyed 9-year-old boy looking out the door of the truck wearing a cowboy hat. This is Our Country? To whom are they trying to sell their trucks? Well, the short answer has to be Democrats.
Although it’s off-putting, I don’t really mind the blue-state appeal, as much as the “Let’s all get together and compromise and agree to see things our way” aspect of the commercial, so typical of the one-sided approach of the Dems. Did the marketing team really think that Republicans or conservatives would be seduced by a song that sounds sort of patriotic and a kid in a stetson? Uh....yeah. Why do you think they ran the ad?
The Our Country ad wasn’t enough in itself to get me writing: obnoxious, baffling, misguided, yes, but typical, par for the course. But last night, during the World Series, where the winners of the American and National league pennants play baseball(as in Mom, Baseball, & Apple Pie) Chevy ran Silverado commercials targeting Mexicans! If not Mexicans, then the very recently “immigrated”.
The Ads start with sepia-toned mini profiles of great Mexicans as children and the men they grew up to be. I remember Roberto Duran, the boxer, and another fellow who invented the Color TV. And these SUBETE men were SUBETE just like the SUBETE Chevy Silverado was SUBETE. What’s SUBETE? Damned if I know. I couldn’t make out the tag line either, I’ll assume it was in spanish.
So, the Chevy Silverado brings Mexicans a raft of shining heroes reflecting glory on all, and Americans get Mellencamp’s equivocation masquerading as hometown pride and the liberal litany of shame. Maybe it’s good business and maybe they have their reasons, but whatever Chevy’s sellin’, I ain’t buyin.
The first shot across the bow was the John Mellencamp “Our Country” ad. Ol’ Johnny Cougar is dolled up in his denim and boots, leaning up against a truck, beatin’ his box guitar next to some sort of agrarian open space. Now, Mellencamp is one of those sour-stomached midwest blue-stater in a red state malcontents, and like Springsteen, his patriotic overtures have been heavily laced with sarcasm(Born In The USA, Little Pink Houses), so to have him waving Old Glory a couple of months before the elections immediately rouses supsicion.
Anyway, Mellencamp launches into a "I see both sides of everything" song while the images run through the liberal history of America, the last 40 years. Rosa Parks, MLK, Viet Nam, Hippies, Nixon, Forest Fires, Katrina Flooding, the Beginning of Rebuilding. The cherry on the sundae was the doe-eyed 9-year-old boy looking out the door of the truck wearing a cowboy hat. This is Our Country? To whom are they trying to sell their trucks? Well, the short answer has to be Democrats.
Although it’s off-putting, I don’t really mind the blue-state appeal, as much as the “Let’s all get together and compromise and agree to see things our way” aspect of the commercial, so typical of the one-sided approach of the Dems. Did the marketing team really think that Republicans or conservatives would be seduced by a song that sounds sort of patriotic and a kid in a stetson? Uh....yeah. Why do you think they ran the ad?
The Our Country ad wasn’t enough in itself to get me writing: obnoxious, baffling, misguided, yes, but typical, par for the course. But last night, during the World Series, where the winners of the American and National league pennants play baseball(as in Mom, Baseball, & Apple Pie) Chevy ran Silverado commercials targeting Mexicans! If not Mexicans, then the very recently “immigrated”.
The Ads start with sepia-toned mini profiles of great Mexicans as children and the men they grew up to be. I remember Roberto Duran, the boxer, and another fellow who invented the Color TV. And these SUBETE men were SUBETE just like the SUBETE Chevy Silverado was SUBETE. What’s SUBETE? Damned if I know. I couldn’t make out the tag line either, I’ll assume it was in spanish.
So, the Chevy Silverado brings Mexicans a raft of shining heroes reflecting glory on all, and Americans get Mellencamp’s equivocation masquerading as hometown pride and the liberal litany of shame. Maybe it’s good business and maybe they have their reasons, but whatever Chevy’s sellin’, I ain’t buyin.
posted by Doug Utton at Wednesday, October 25, 2006
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