Superbowl/Debut TV Ad ideas:

[doobadoo]

Hey Lyle, you should talk to GM about GM-Volt.com doing a TV ad competition for the Volt. here is my submission:



GM Volt Super-Bowl/Debut TV Comerical Idea:

Scene: Helicopter view of rural Texas just before dusk, bobbing donkeys along horizon. An office complex in the center of the shot. Big red lighted sign on the building reading ?Big Oil HQ.? Screen text reads, ?Big Oil Headquarters, Texas?

Cut

Scene: Old fat men in high priced suits sitting around an oak executive board room table, attentively listening to a presentation at the front of the room being given my a short, stocky, balding underling.

Presenter: ?And as you can see in this graph, profits are up substantially again this year. American?s oil addiction is in full swing and has no signs of abating.?

Executives hoot and holler. One exec slaps another on the back. A man, apparently the boss (Big Oil CEO) at the head of the table lights a cigar.

Cut to long hallway with marble floors. Man running frantically down the hall with important news (similar to the scene in ?the right stuff? when a nasa employee is running down the hall to report the Russians launching sputnik.)

Big Oil CEO: There?s not stopping us now! (Stands up to address the table) Gentlemen, the good times are here, and this time they?re here to stay!

(Laughter, cheering, hooting)

Runner busts into the room?

Runner: ?Bob Lutz of GM just unveiled a new breakthrough automobile. Where gasoline?..is optional?

Gasp, sounds of disbelief. A mild panic sets in. CEO signals to the audience to quiet down.

CEO: What is this crazy talk outa GM, a car where gasoline is optional.

Runner: Its called the Chevy Volt, you charge it with electricity, then it drives the first 40 miles before it needs to burn a single drop of gasoline. Enough to cover most drivers commutes to work.

Executive: What about the fuel efficiency after the first 40 miles?

Runner: 50 MPG!

Executives Panic: ?We?re ruined!!?, ?it can?t be?, ?what?ll we do? Executive on cell phone ?Sell, Sell, Sell?

CEO: Hold on a minute people, calm down. We have ways of dealing with this. (Turns to Presenter): Get me the Wolf.

Cut to front of building. Text reads ?Nine minutes Forty Seven Seconds Later? just like Pulp Fiction. Corvette pulls up and comes to a screeching halt.

Cut to board room. Harvey Keitel walks in reprising his role as ?winston wolf.?

Wolf: I?m Winston Wolf, I solve problems.

CEO: Well we have a doozy for you. Bob Lutz of GM thinks he can sell a car that doesn?t burn any gasoline for the first 40 miles of the daily drive. This Chevy Volt must be stopped at all costs.

Wolf: I understand, Bob Lutz and this Chevy Volt will be dealt with.

CEO: You better, we cannot allow the American public to become independent of our oil.

Cut to the lab at Warren MI. Its late in the evening and Bob Lutz and the engineering team are working on the Volt.

Engineer: Its hard to believe it finally all came together.

Bob Lutz: Well son, we?ve always believed when you do bold things you win. And this car is just the kind of American Revolution that defines us. Its been a while, but we?re finally making history again.

Team pauses for a moment to ?take in? the historic moment.

Dark van pulls into the garage, men in black fan out rounding up the engineers. Bob Lutz puts up his dukes and starts to fight them. A cheesey fight scene ensues like a classic episode of batman only with out the ?pow? bubbles. The MIB finally subdo him and tie him up with the hose from a gasoline pump nearby.

Wolf: Did you really think we?d let you get away with it?
Lutz: You can?t win, you can?t stop an idea this powerful!
Wolf: We?ll see. Bag Him!

MIB throws a black head sack on Lutz and drags him into the van.

MIB: What should we do with him boss?
Wolf: (Grins) Giv?em a Texas funeral. (with Texas twang)
Cut to the desert, its just before dawn. Van stops where 2 men are diggin a grave., Bob lutz is dragged out. MIB are taunting him. They put him in a wooden coffin in the grave. Wolf takes out a can of ?motor oil?

Wolf: Here?s to you and your chevy volt, you crazy old man.

Laughing pours motor oil on Lutz.

Coffin is nailed. An buried. MIB get in van and drive away.

Inside coffin, Lutz turns on a flashlight. (scene from kill bill). Finds his key chain with a ?Chevy Volt? key on it which has a lightning bolt. Starts to punch the roof of the coffin with the key in his knuckle. Key penetrates the plywood. Lutz turns the Key, (sound of an automobile starting??)

Cut to the surface view of the grave. A Chevy Volt dramatically drives out of the sand grave with Lutz in it. Of course the volt has no sand on it and Lutz is clean and is wearing a pink tie.

Lutz: Time for some payback Big Oil.

Volt speeds away. Series of action shots of the volt driving. The volt is shown flying around curves along the highway (death valley, grand canyon?)

Volt catches up to the black van. Driver and passengers in disbelief.

Wolf: It lives! (looking in rear-view mirror)

Lutz: Its no mirage baby.

Volt pulls up next to it. Volt and Van fighting. Driving and showing off volt. At the end of ?fight scene.? Volt is speeding along next to the van until Lutz slams on the brakes. (End of road or tight corner) The van flies thru a road barrier and over a precipes. In the distance we can see the bobbling donkeys. The van flies down into the bobbing donkeys and there is an explosion. The dust clears and a green pasture is revealed with windmills.

Bob Lutz is standing next to the volt watching with the door open, affording the viewer a glance of the interior of the volt. Bob nods and gets back in the volt and drives away?

End of Ad.
________
WildRose

[MrBogey]

I think they should keep it simple and straightforward. Have Lutz or one of the other top guys at GM appear saying that they pledge before the end of the year 2010 to have a vehicle available in the US market that can get an average range of at least 40 miles for less than a dollar of electricity or go over 600 miles on only one tank of gas with a speed of over 100mph. A nice bold ad that gets people talking about the vehicle and how it fits their needs so well.

[mikeandmerle2@yahoo.com]

I agree GM needs to run an ad, but in the back of my mind I don't think they really want the volt to make it

[capn]

I think it would be a more effective commercial if it ended on:

"Executives Panic: “We’re ruined!!”, “it can’t be”, “what’ll we do” Executive on cell phone “Sell, Sell, Sell”"

then it would cut to the Chevy symbol with an American revolution.

Sweet and simple.

OR

You could make the ad like the "chick, bang, boom" of the Spike network where its all sound and fury and not much else. Just have sweaty women lusting over the electric car while draping over the car with their bodies.

And then in a smooth sensual voice:

Girl 1: "ohhh forty miles all electric"
Girl 2: "great lines"
Girl 3: "I love your car"

You know something kinda obscene that makes men want to buy stuff.

[GAtechVOLT]

What would work for me would be about 10 seconds.

Guy talking…maybe GM steals Mike Rowe

“Right now you are paying about 30 cents for every mile you drive(show some boring sedan in traffic, or at a gas station)….how’d you like to pay 2 cents(mike plugging cord into Volt)?

(full screen shot of the Volt) This is the 150 mpg Chevy Volt…40 miles all electric range, and 50 mpg after that…it just makes sense.”

If I hadn’t heard of it I would go look it up.

[MrBogey]

What would work for me would be about 10 seconds.

Guy talking…maybe GM steals Mike Rowe

“Right now you are paying about 30 cents for every mile you drive(show some boring sedan in traffic, or at a gas station)….how’d you like to pay 2 cents(mike plugging cord into Volt)?

(full screen shot of the Volt) This is the 150 mpg Chevy Volt…40 miles all electric range, and 50 mpg after that…it just makes sense.”

If I hadn’t heard of it I would go look it up.

Exactly. Grab people by their wallet. Make them at the very least call a GM dealership just to find out more info. Get them to frame it in their mind as THE vehicle for serious fuel efficiency. You don't need anything beyond that. No sales pitches. No fast cliches. If they make it just another car commercial where someone is zipping around over mountains it'll get mentally filed with every other car out there. We want this to stand out. Even if the day after people don't remember the commercial they'll remember the claims. That's all that matters.

A couple decades ago a soup company decided to get it's name out there by making the most expensive commercial ever. It was well received and people talked about it...but everyone forgot about the soup. That company folded up. Never let the salesman talk beyond the product.

Edit: Great American Soup Company- http://video.yahoo.com/watch/148992/947075

[MrBogey]

Bump...seems like the first ad has hit.

[Texas]

How about a contest? To get on the waiting list you need to create a YouTube ad for the Volt. The winner get a free Volt.

Think about that. Tens of thousands of people coming up with Volt ads (free for GM, say $40,000) and GM could hype up the contest and play selected favorites. It might become viral on the Internet. Hummm.

Anyway doobadoo, Nice ad!

[darthvader420]

GM is owned almost entirely by those big oil guys in their fancy suits buddy. If GM was serious about curing america's oil addiction we could have been driving electric cars already. All they're doing now is desperately trying to stay in business.

[DaV8or]

GM is owned almost entirely by those big oil guys in their fancy suits buddy. If GM was serious about curing america's oil addiction we could have been driving electric cars already. All they're doing now is desperately trying to stay in business.

If what you are saying was true, one would think that those "Big Oil Guys" would be doing all they could to help and promote GM. They're making billions every quarter, they could save GM all by themselves. Think about it, if GM tanks, the consumer would be forced to buy imported fuel efficient cars from companies that Big Oil has no hold on. Why would they want that to happen? Why would they want something they "own" and is so useful to them, wither and die on the vine?