GM SUV spoofed by environmentalists (CNET News.com)

[SaintLouisBlues]

http://news.com.com/GM+SUV+spoofed+by+environmentalists/2100-1024_3-6056692.html

An online contest to promote Chevy trucks and the TV show "The Apprentice" has instead been used by environmentalists to condemn General Motors for building vehicles they believe contribute to global warming.

Last month, General Motors launched a contest to see which member of the public could craft the best commercial for the Chevy Tahoe, a sports utility vehicle. At ChevyApprentice.com, visitors could choose from a range of soundtracks and video clips of the Tahoe traveling through different terrains. They also had the option of writing their own text to accompany the video and music.
Click here to Play

One of the videos circulating around the Web featured shots of the Tahoe zooming through snow, mountains and desert. Over the video appeared the words: "Global warming isn't a pretty SUV ad. It's a frightening reality."Another commercial entry read: "Temperatures are rising. The polar ice caps are melting. Global warming is happening now. What will you tell your kids that you drove?"

Calls to General Motors were not immediately returned on Friday.


Now who would engage in such mischievous-making? ;)

[merh]

1. Man, oh, man?

Who would do such a thing? ;)

[tanyev]

2. Fiddlesticks. Mine wasn't about global warming at all.

http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=99ea8176-10f4-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7

[Tommy_J]

12. Hey that was Great

Nice job

[XemaSab]

3. That's horrible!

Poor GM! They must feel so BAD about it!

[MADem]

4. Shit, now we're "environmentalists??"

Because we give a shit about the environment???? No one calls us "foodists" because we eat every day!!!

I'm just a Democrat who wants to preserve this poor blue marble for the next generation.

But I sure had fun making my little commercial!!!

http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=ad89cb32-1186-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7

[LaurenG]

9. and it was well worth the effort

made me laugh!:rofl:

[djeseru]

5. Environmentalists?

How would they even know?

I think the word "rue" was on-target personally.

[sweetheart]

25. eco-terrorists

Its just 2 inches away from "eco-terrorists hyjack GM website to
forward radical adgenda." The police are ready to sweep in on
eco-terrorists (citizens), and labelling them environmentalists
up front is just a warmup for the coming SUV terrorism wars.

Then teh next time a hummer is gracefully burning away in a flaming
ball at the parking lot, with lots of happy "eco-terrorists" thnking,
Gosh, that hummer really did make a very nice fire... :-)

[file83]

44. cyber- enviro- multi- media- eco-terrorists!!!

That's us! :thumbsup:

[nonconformist]

6. What kind of tree-hugging commies would do such a thing?!

Global warming is the bestest thing EVER!

:sarcasm:

[Cobalt Violet]

7. K & R.

:bounce:

[CottonBear]

8. Hmmm. No mention of the anti-Bush, anti-GOP, anti-Coulter ads?

:rofl: Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! :rofl: Freaking brilliant! DU strikes again! ;)

:rofl: "Calls to General Motors were not immediately returned on Friday." :rofl:

[SaintLouisBlues]

10. Another story : "I don't think this is what Chevy had planned for..."

http://www.adjab.com/2006/03/31/i-dont-think-this-is-what-chevy-had-planned-for/

A couple weeks ago Chevy launched a site as a promotional tie-in with The Apprentice looking for consumers to create commercials for the new Chevy Tahoe. Users were given some audio and video collateral to work with and given the opportunity to piece them together as they saw fit. Well I don't think they quite anticipated what might result from giving the kids the keys to the car, so to speak. At least three examples have been found of ads that use the Tahoe as background for rants against the war in Iraq, the dependence of the U.S. on foreign oil and more.

The problem Chevy now finds themselves with is that these ads were created on their site using their content. This isn't something that was edited together at home and uploaded to YouTube. This is part of the Chevy Apprentice promotion for good or for ill. So what's Chevy to do? Do they leave the ads there and continue to take their lumps on snarky blogs or do they take them down and then be accused of censorship? it's a tough spot and points to a problem some companies are having with citizen-generated content: it doesn't always play by the established marketing book.

[wordpix2]

28. hahahaha, I love this article!

[grace0418]

34. LOL! "At least three examples..."

DU alone had about 300 examples, and plenty of other sites joined in the fun. HA HA!

[file83]

45. ...not to mention GM has already "censored" several of the videos...

So, I guess that answers that question!

[rocktivity]

11. If you haven't seen the DU Chevy contest entries

They're here. And here's mine.

:headbang:
rocknation

[rocktivity]

31. Direct link to the DU Chevy contest entries

They're here. And here's mine.

:headbang:
rocknation

[joeunderdog]

37. Do you bookmark the entry after you finish?

Or is there another way of saving it? I can't find mine.

[Lars39]

13. Here's DU's Chevy Tahoe Entries:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x812060

[mdmc]

21. awesome lars

thanks

[rocktivity]

22. Ditto, Lars!

I've edited my post to include your link, and it's now in my journal!

:headbang:
rocknation

[grace0418]

35. You rock Lars!

Thanks for doing this!

[WolverineDG]

14. One of mine had zip to do with the environment either

It's a KOEB theme:

http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=5e0793fa-1280-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7

dg

[crispini]

32. Bwahahahahahaha!

I haven't been by the clubhouse lately, and I totally missed that! :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::thumbsup:

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. Itwuzzint'me

[file83]

46. The Department of Homeland Security is SO going to visit you...

You cyber-eco-terrorist! :rofl:

[CottonBear]

16. Your story link says "story not found." Can you fix the link? n/t

[SaintLouisBlues]

17. Done above and below:

http://news.com.com/GM+SUV+spoofed+by+environmentalists/2100-1024_3-6056692.html

[ms.smiler]

18. I'm a small business person and I would have been delighted

with this much exposure for my product. Their site rankings have increased tremendously since DU discovered their page.

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=3m&size=large&compare_sites=&y=r&url=http://www.chevyapprentice.com/apprentice.php?country=us

I view the entire matter as a positive marketing tool but I have no doubt that GM will mismanage this promotion.

[Lars39]

20. "Any publicity is good publicity."

I know I've had 'Chevy'on the brain for the last several days. :D

[eppur_se_muova]

19. IS NOTHING SACRED ?

:evilgrin:Well, no, not really.

[BiggJawn]

23. "This makes my Penis look HUGE, right?"

That was my effort...

[glitch]

24. Lol! Damn I missed it. Too perfect.

If guys realized how tiny they look in those big monster trucks and suvs, I don't think they'd be so anxious to drive them. And I am not even talking about their penises.
They really do look like kids driving their daddy's truck.

[BiggJawn]

26. And in the shot that was "all grill"...

I had it say "The LAST thing those bicycle FAGS ever see!"

We had a highway death locally last week. Woman clipped a car with her Blazer during a lane-change, flipped it, rolled 4 times, ejected her daughter out the window, an 18-wheeler took the ditch trying to avoid the corpse... What a mess. Didn't read if a cell-phone was involved.

Tell me again, why SUV's are "safer"?

[wordpix2]

27. Do ya think GM got the message from us environmentalists?

[melissinha]

51. OMG

Who would have thought that it would be a media campaign that would get an environmental message to GM!?!?!

I am so SURE that that it was DU that really helped create the block that really shocked them...... I didn't get mine back... but that means they are probably screening them now...ha ha ha hahaaaaaa!

[progressoid]

29. Environmental internet activism..sounds like a threat to national security

[file83]

47. No shit. The DHS is probably forming a special task force as we speak...

[BlueStorm]

30. Ha ha

I am laughing my ass off!!! The DU Strike Team scores again!!!

Blue

[grace0418]

33. Good thing I took screen shots of my ad because

surely they'll pull them all now, right? LOL! That made my day.

I wonder what percentage of the entries were actually legitimate attempts. I'm guessing around 10%.

Thanks for posting this!

[joeunderdog]

36. How do I find my submission? I can't get to a list of what has been

submitted and I don't know where the thing went.

How'd I screw that up?

[grace0418]

39. Well, the only way I know is when you create the ad.

There is a link to "send my ad to a friend" which you can click, then send it to yourself. You can then copy and paste that link wherever you like. If you didn't do that when you created the ad, I don't know how you would get to it. You could always remake the ad.

[MyNameGoesHere]

38. Well i tried

my hand at it.

http://gentleurl.net/NMIBG/

Include the / at the end

[pinniped]

40. I guess only environmental people believe this:

--building vehicles they believe contribute to global warming.--

[troubleinwinter]

41. Gosh! Wonder how they learned of it... is someone reading DU?

[BlueStorm]

42. I have only one that is environmental

though it is more political:

http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=478f4bfc-1331-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7


Dunno if anyone has done this one yet:

http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=8f998e5e-1330-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7


http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=ebaefc24-1303-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7

http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=7cf1b6ec-1302-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7

[file83]

48. lol - that "snakes on a plane" ad was HILARIOUS!!!

:rofl:

[BlueStorm]

50. I didn't know if anyone had done it yet.

So I decided to take the initiative.

Glad you liked it!!!

Blue

[file83]

43. Uh-Oh....are we in trouble?

:hide:

[UrbScotty]

49. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA (nt)