Now its GM's turn. Suicide-prevention group criticizes GM ad
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From: Evansville, Indiana
Now its GM's turn. Suicide-prevention group criticizes GM ad
http://www.usatoday.com/money/advert...ide-usat_x.htm
By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODA
Yet another Super Bowl marketer is swimming in hot water.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has sent a letter to General Motors (GM) criticizing an ad that shows a perfectionist assembly line robot dreaming about jumping off a bridge after dropping a bolt. The group said the spot may encourage people to consider suicide as a solution to their problems. The group demanded that GM apologize, not air the spot again and remove it from its website.
"We wouldn't see this ad around cancer or heart disease," says Robert Gebbia, executive director. "Why's it OK to make fun of mental illness or depression?"
The letter comes two days after Masterfoods, maker of Snickers, said it would not reair its Super Bowl ad and took it off its website. Some gay activists had objected, saying the response of two men in it to their accidental kiss was homophobic.
Despite these objections, controversy over this year's ads pales compared with what happened after Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during halftime of the 2004 Super Bowl. That sparked debate over broadcast decency that engulfed the ads and 540,000 consumer complaints to the Federal Communications Commission.
Several marketers took flak for the decency of their ads. Among them was Anheuser-Busch (BUD), the game's biggest advertiser. CEO August Busch IV apologized and said A-B would rethink the tone and content of its ads. Several companies' ads have not been seen again.
In the years since, Super Bowl marketers, who this year paid up to $2.6 million for 30 seconds of time, have faced closer examination of their ads. In the Internet age, Super Bowl ads are seen by millions more eyeballs, and criticism is instant.
"Super Bowl advertising is the ultimate stage," says Renee White Fraser, an advertising psychologist. "You get a higher level of scrutiny."
GM has "no plans" to drop the robot spot, spokeswoman Ryndee Carney says. The ad currently is scheduled to air next during the Feb. 25 Academy Awards broadcast on ABC, she says.
GM has received "more than a handful (of complaints) but not a tsunami," she says. She says GM "did not intend to offend anyone."
GM should drop the ad now, says former Energy secretary Donald Hodel, who also was Interior secretary in the Reagan administration. Hodel's teenage son committed suicide 23 years ago.
"They should never have run that commercial, and they shouldn't run it again," says Hodel, who says he and his wife were shocked when they saw it. "If I had a child who committed suicide some time after watching that ad, I'd seriously consider consulting a lawyer and suing GM."
By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODA
Yet another Super Bowl marketer is swimming in hot water.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has sent a letter to General Motors (GM) criticizing an ad that shows a perfectionist assembly line robot dreaming about jumping off a bridge after dropping a bolt. The group said the spot may encourage people to consider suicide as a solution to their problems. The group demanded that GM apologize, not air the spot again and remove it from its website.
"We wouldn't see this ad around cancer or heart disease," says Robert Gebbia, executive director. "Why's it OK to make fun of mental illness or depression?"
The letter comes two days after Masterfoods, maker of Snickers, said it would not reair its Super Bowl ad and took it off its website. Some gay activists had objected, saying the response of two men in it to their accidental kiss was homophobic.
Despite these objections, controversy over this year's ads pales compared with what happened after Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during halftime of the 2004 Super Bowl. That sparked debate over broadcast decency that engulfed the ads and 540,000 consumer complaints to the Federal Communications Commission.
Several marketers took flak for the decency of their ads. Among them was Anheuser-Busch (BUD), the game's biggest advertiser. CEO August Busch IV apologized and said A-B would rethink the tone and content of its ads. Several companies' ads have not been seen again.
In the years since, Super Bowl marketers, who this year paid up to $2.6 million for 30 seconds of time, have faced closer examination of their ads. In the Internet age, Super Bowl ads are seen by millions more eyeballs, and criticism is instant.
"Super Bowl advertising is the ultimate stage," says Renee White Fraser, an advertising psychologist. "You get a higher level of scrutiny."
GM has "no plans" to drop the robot spot, spokeswoman Ryndee Carney says. The ad currently is scheduled to air next during the Feb. 25 Academy Awards broadcast on ABC, she says.
GM has received "more than a handful (of complaints) but not a tsunami," she says. She says GM "did not intend to offend anyone."
GM should drop the ad now, says former Energy secretary Donald Hodel, who also was Interior secretary in the Reagan administration. Hodel's teenage son committed suicide 23 years ago.
"They should never have run that commercial, and they shouldn't run it again," says Hodel, who says he and his wife were shocked when they saw it. "If I had a child who committed suicide some time after watching that ad, I'd seriously consider consulting a lawyer and suing GM."
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 263
From: Illinois
As far as I'm concerned, the ad should be pulled for not making its point well. Will the $2million+ for TC time plus the untold 10's of thousands to create and develop the ad bring in any new customers or change thinking about GM quality? I'm highly skeptical.
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Joined: Sep 1998
Posts: 4,320
From: Memphis
The best commercials are ones that people can recall and recall the brand that was attached to it. I can recall that commercial much more easily than I can most of the other commercials I saw in the super bowl because it was so different.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 8,504
From: Ohio
I knew something like this would come up when I saw the commercial during the Super Bowl. 
x 1,000,000.
I'm sooooooooooooooooo incredibly sick of the way people reacts to thinmgs like this...... doesn't seem to matter what it is anymore.
x 1,000,000.I'm sooooooooooooooooo incredibly sick of the way people reacts to thinmgs like this...... doesn't seem to matter what it is anymore.
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 3,650
From: Indianapolis, IN
Registered User
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 3,650
From: Indianapolis, IN
Originally Posted by the article
"They should never have run that commercial, and they shouldn't run it again," says Hodel, who says he and his wife were shocked when they saw it. "If I had a child who committed suicide some time after watching that ad, I'd seriously consider consulting a lawyer and suing GM."
Truly sad. Perhaps that is clouding his judgment in this last comment. If I watch a movie that involves murder, then go shoot your wife, am I to blame, or is the movie to blame? For crying out loud.
