SnV Forums

[Steveo]

It seems that Super Bowl ads this year are drawing protests. This time a suicide prevention group are bitching about GM's Robot commercial. As it was said many times before "Geeze, it's ony a commercial."

GM's Super Bowl robot ad draws criticism

DETROIT - A Super Bowl ad showing a quality-obsessed General Motors Corp. robot jumping off a bridge in a dream sequence after screwing up on the job is drawing criticism from a suicide prevention group.

But the world's largest automaker is defending the ad and says it has no plans to change the spot, which is making the rounds online and is featured on GM's Web site after making its broadcast debut during Sunday's big game.

The ad, called "Robot," opens with the machine in question dropping a screw while working on a GM assembly line. It's kicked out of the plant and finds work waving a "Condos for Sale" sign and holding up a speaker at a fast-food joint, all the while appearing saddened by watching shiny, new GM vehicles drive by.

As the Eric Carmen song "All By Myself" plays in the background, the despondent robot leaps off a bridge into the water below, only to wake up inside the darkened factory — waking up from its dream.

The New York-based American Foundation for Suicide Prevention says it started getting complaints the day after the ad aired and as of Thursday had fielded more than 250 e-mails or calls. It wants GM to pull the ad from its Web site, try to get it off video-sharing Web sites such as YouTube and apologize.

"It was inappropriate to use depression and suicide as a way to sell cars," said Robert Gebbia, the foundation's executive director.

The ad is the latest from the Super Bowl to come under fire. Earlier this week, a commercial for Snickers candy bars was benched after complaints that it was homophobic. And aspiring rapper Kevin Federline apologized after a restaurant trade group said it was insulted by an ad that starred him as a fast-food worker.

GM says the robot ad was designed to show the company's obsession with quality, highlighting its enhanced powertrain warranty of five years or 100,000 miles on all new light-duty vehicles starting with 2007 models.

Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president of sales, service and marketing, said the automaker had no plans to stop airing the ad. It had a relatively small number of runs scheduled after the Super Bowl, and those will continue, he said.

The ad was screened by focus groups for insensitivity, and all found it amusing and effective in conveying the message about GM's quality, LaNeve said.

"It's a dream sequence. It's not a person, and it's a robot that is a fantasy. I mean, that robot doesn't move around. C'mon," LaNeve said.

In a statement, GM said, "Advertising during the Super Bowl brings instant critiques, both positive and negative," GM said in a statement."

The ad has only aired once, but the online buzz has continued. The company didn't have details on how many times the ad had been watched on its Web site, but on YouTube alone it has drawn more than 350,000 views.

But Lisamarie Miller, 39, of Palatine, Ill., said she'll never buy a GM vehicle after seeing the ad online. The member of a the Chicago-area chapter of AFSP found out about it from the foundation — and has been sharing her disgust online as well as with friends, family and co-workers.

"I was completely outraged," said Miller, whose 21-year-old brother battled depression before killing himself in 1993. "GM is not being a responsible citizen by airing something that so closely imitates life."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wU0x3_t0Do - commercial
_________________
MY BARF is TASTIER than Yours!!!

[Hooooomsar]

[cyber95]

Ahahaha.


I liked the commercial.
_________________
‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‮
.daerps em pleh ot erutangis ruoy otni em ypoC .suriv erutangis a ma I

[Tacofiend]

Oh man... That was almost as bad as the Federline commercial where he's working at MickeyD's. I am thoroughly offended.
_________________

[Otogi-san]

Thank god Lisamarie doesn't watch late night tv, she'd have a fit.

[Its_The_Sneak!!!]

That robot had like the third-to-worst manipulator for installing screws. It was bound to screw up.
_________________
Come into my den let me hear you cluck
You can be my hen and we can f(Bu-GAWK)
A bite to the leg, it's time to play
Baby, let me be your egg that needs to get laid.
- CEO Nwabudike Morgan
"The Chicken of Lust"

[ZealousDemon]

[Hooooomsar]

That's retarded. If you work in a fast food restaurant for a living, you know you have a pathetic job. No trade group can save you from that.
_________________
I'M A TARD

[dodger]

Yeah, okay. The candyad, I can see certain people viewing it as offensive. This one... I guess if someone close to me had committed suicide, I wouldn't be into suicide humor... but since when does GM have to care about people's feelings?

McDonalds and other fast-food people were the ones complaining about the Federline ad, because it portrays employment at their restaurants as a crappy job. I think this is a case of them trying to protect their companies, so I understand their position. BUT they'd be better off keeping quiet so they didn't look like assholes who are oblivious to reality.

[Hooooomsar]

[dodger]

[Hooooomsar]

Then they shouldn't drop the screws.
_________________
I'M A TARD

[dodger]

GM doesn't fire people for dropping screws. They fire people for no reason at all.

I live in Flint, man.

[Hooooomsar]

"lets fire our workers because our car designs suck ass"

They don't fire people for no reason, the fire the wrong people for the right reason. They should be firing higher ups who make the cars noone bothers with.
_________________
I'M A TARD

[Needle Dog]

I actually found this ad pretty offensive when I saw it on Super Bowl Sunday. That is, I wasn't really offended- more shocked at the accidental slap-in-the face-of the- people-they-screwed-over-ness of it. It's hard to believe that the ad people that came up with this idea didn't notice that this may be interpreted that way. It is well known that many people did attempt to kill themselves as a result of being laid off by GM. I was with five people and there were at least three of us that noticed the connection.

Also, they didn't close down those plants because their design sucked or the workers didn't work hard enough, they closed them down so they could open cheap ones in other countries.
_________________