GM drops Super Bowl advertising in money saving effort
Michigan
Posts: 4,942 ✭
in Sports Talk
Couldn't this cut two ways? You want to save money to impress Congress that you are serious about getting the bailout but you still
need to advertise to sell cars as well....right?
NBC says 88% of Super Bowl advertising slots have been sold at this point but is having a hard time getting the remaining time
sold due to the bad economy.
need to advertise to sell cars as well....right?
NBC says 88% of Super Bowl advertising slots have been sold at this point but is having a hard time getting the remaining time
sold due to the bad economy.
0
Comments
<< <i>Couldn't this cut two ways? You want to save money to impress Congress that you are serious about getting the bailout but you still
need to advertise to sell cars as well....right?
NBC says 88% of Super Bowl advertising slots have been sold at this point but is having a hard time getting the remaining time
sold due to the bad economy. >>
The best advertising is referrals, and satisfied customers reordering, and they ain't been getting too many of those lately.
My last GM car I bought a new loaded 1997 Oldsmobile and that thing was a dog beyond belief. I had only ever bought GM cars before that...and frankly wasn't all that happy with some previous buys, but I stayed with GM anyway because I happen to believe in buying American first - I still do - but after buying that GM Olds POS, I switched to Ford and have been very satisfied - I doubt if I'll ever go back to a GM car.
<< <i>
<< <i>Couldn't this cut two ways? You want to save money to impress Congress that you are serious about getting the bailout but you still
need to advertise to sell cars as well....right?
NBC says 88% of Super Bowl advertising slots have been sold at this point but is having a hard time getting the remaining time
sold due to the bad economy. >>
The best advertising is referrals, and satisfied customers reordering, and they ain't been getting too many of those lately.
My last GM car I bought a new loaded 1997 Oldsmobile and that thing was a dog beyond belief. I had only ever bought GM cars before that...and frankly wasn't all that happy with some previous buys, but I stayed with GM anyway because I happen to believe in buying American first - I still do - but after buying that GM Olds POS, I switched to Ford and have been very satisfied - I doubt if I'll ever go back to a GM car. >>
My family has been a GM working family for a long time. My cousin is pretty far up in GM, but used to drive a Dodge - lol. They didn't think it looked good, so they give him a new GM every year just to get him to not drive another Dodge to work. My father was kinda pissed off at me when I bought a new '05 Mustang a few years ago. But he likes it now that he's gotten a chance to ride in it.
BTW, if you want to support American auto workers, buy foreign cars. They're making more of the parts and/or complete foreign cars here now than most of the so-called American companies.
I've always purchased American made cars and wouldn't think of buying a foreign car.
<< <i>The problem is when you buy a foreign vehicle the main profit goes back to the country of origin and doesn't stay in the U.S.
I've always purchased American made cars and wouldn't think of buying a foreign car. >>
where are Hondas and Toyotas made?
what about the Ford Fusion sedan, the GM HHR sport utility and Suburban, those must be American, right?
Chrysler, is that American?
its a blurry picture. Many foreign cars are made in the US, or the parts are made here and assembled here. Many American cars and parts are made in Mexico and overseas.
the PROFIT from american car companies seems to be fattening the wallets of CEO's and their private jets and funding bloated pension funds. The bottom line is simple American autoworkers will need to make less money, cars will have to be better on mileage and quality. Right now your best and safest cars are not truly American.
last week, here's what I would've said before Congress:
Good morning. First of all, before you ask, I flew commercial. Northwest Airlines. Had a bag of peanuts for breakfast. Of course, that's Northwest, which just merged with Delta, a merger you, our government, approved -- and one that, inevitably, will lead to big bonuses for their executives and higher costs for us. You seem to be OK with that kind of business.
Which makes me wonder why you're so against our kind of business? The kind we do in Detroit. The kind that gets your fingernails dirty. The kind where people use hammers and drills, not keystrokes. The kind where you get paid for making something, not moving money around a board and skimming a percentage.
You've already given hundreds of billions to banking and finance companies -- and hardly demanded anything. Yet you balk at the very idea of giving $25 billion to the Detroit Three. Heck, you shoveled that exact amount to Citigroup -- $25 billion -- just weeks ago, and that place is about to crumble anyhow.
Does the word "hypocrisy" ring a bell?
Protecting the home turf?
Sen. Richard Shelby. Yes. You. From Alabama. You've been awfully vocal. You called the Detroit Three's leaders "failures." You said loans to them would be "wasted money." You said they should go bankrupt and "let the market work."
Why weren't you equally vocal when your state handed out hundreds of millions in tax breaks to Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Honda and others to open plants there? Why not "let the market work"? Or is it better for Alabama if the Detroit Three fold so that the foreign companies -- in your state -- can produce more?
Way to think of the nation first, senator.
And you, Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona. You told reporters: "There's no reason to throw money at a problem that's not going to get solved."
That's funny, coming from such an avid supporter of the Iraq war. You've been gung ho on that for years. So how could you just sit there when, according to the New York Times, an Iraqi former chief investigator told Congress that $13 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds "had been lost to fraud, embezzlement, theft and waste" by the Iraqi government?
That's 13 billion, senator. More than half of what the auto industry is asking for. Thirteen billion? Gone? Wasted?
Where was your "throwing money at a problem that's not going to get solved" speech then?
Watching over the bankers?
And the rest of you lawmakers. The ones who insist the auto companies show you a plan before you help them. You've already handed over $150 billion of our tax money to AIG. How come you never demanded a plan from it? How come when AIG blew through its first $85 billion, you quickly gave it more? The car companies may be losing money, but they can explain it: They're paying workers too much and selling cars for too little.
AIG lost hundred of billions in credit default swaps -- which no one can explain and which make nothing, produce nothing, employ no one and are essentially bets on failure.
And you don't demand a paragraph from it?
Look. Nobody is saying the auto business is healthy. Its unions need to adjust more. Its models and dealerships need to shrink. Its top executives have to downsize their own importance.
But this is a business that has been around for more than a century. And some of its problems are because of that, because people get used to certain wages, manufacturers get used to certain business models. It's easy to point to foreign carmakers with tax breaks, no union costs and a cleaner slate -- not to mention help from their home countries -- and say "be more like them."
But if you let us die, you let our national spine collapse. America can't be a country of lawyers and financial analysts. We have to manufacture. We need that infrastructure. We need those jobs. We need that security. Have you forgotten who built equipment during the world wars?
Besides, let's be honest. When it comes to blowing budgets, being grossly inefficient and wallowing in debt, who's better than Congress?
So who are you to lecture anyone on how to run a business?
Ask fair questions. Demand accountability. But knock it off with the holier-than-thou crap, OK? You got us into this mess with greed, a bad Fed policy and too little regulation. Don't kick our tires to make yourselves look better.
Contact MITCH ALBOM at 313-223-4581 or malbom@freepress.com. Catch "The Mitch Albom Show" 5-7 p.m. weekdays on WJR-AM (760).