I love it.... Time to make more movies and ads. Please post your links. Lets see what folks can do.
Review a few...
Make your own...
Act... http://www.sunlightnetwork.com/punchclock_agreement
There once was a debate. Were the culture jammers being played by the PR firms? Did they predict our creativity, voice and passion? Did they expect 40,000 ads (mostly negative) viewed by five million people? Did they expect most of the mainstream press and viral networks would all hone in on the stupidity of SUVs? Or were they thinking we would boost sales?
For those who wondered about the ad campaign? Was it positive advertising? What is Spin and what is BS? Was the ad agency manipulating those of us pushing the campaign?
Nope. We are addicted to oil and Chevy is one of the pushers. No more questions. Learn your lessons GM. 46.2%
Light trucks, amid persistently high gas prices, took the biggest hit, down 37.1% to 236,019, with the Chevy Tahoe and Trailblazer falling 46.2% and 33.6%, respectively.
Let's play the clip.....
Some thoughts are slowly coming together on the power of distributed creation of content.
A few months ago, I suggested folks watch Epic 2015. It is an amazing look into the future . The movie presents the power of user generated content and the way technology and connectivity will change the media space forever.
While working on the Chevy Tahoe Ads, I came to understand the power of distributed content creation. The barriers to entry into being creative online were lowered to such a minimum threshold that anyone could participate.
The Chevy Ads campaign was to online content creation as Howard Dean was to online fundraising. Before Dean, we knew people donated online but are millions interested? The same dynamic just played out with Chevy Ads. (Sorryeverybody, FUh2.com, May's Field, Virtual Protest, Bushin30seconds) YouTube and Google video are taking this discussion and persuasion to a new level.
Our challenge to "see" the path where a connected culture begins to tell its own stories to each other without the middle man of media, organizaitons or political leaders. As advocacy groups, we need to create these pathways. Blogs have done that for those of us that like be wordy (yeah I am guilty) but for a huge segment of the population new tools open the use of video and voice to help them be more creative, honest and/or expressive with photos, video and voice.
Video from War Zone...
The tale from Iraq is starting to move from people to people. Across the network ties and tools of our time. Check out these links... http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=iraq
Sniper Fight in a Village - Can hear the Bullets Hitting the Tank
Private Contractor on a Job? Shooting at traffic and Anyone that comes close (very unsettling)
Cleaning out an ambush from a C130 gunship (killing Iraq's at a Distance)
What are you doing to open up the story telling ability of our grassroots? Look at what the ways the connect public are organizing without you. Hope - Put an End to Gang Violence slideshow, video and mix pulled together on Youtube. Or cyber-banging .
People are organizing on the web with little or no money. On myspace or the hundreds of other sites the connected culture are offering tools that are more powerful than sites that cost tens of thousands of dollars just a few years ago.
Organizing is no longer merely about "being the voice" of the membership. New tools and new connectivity make the new challenge to empower the voices of the grassroots. Synchronize their voices and aggregate voices to inspire and inform each other. We need netcentric approaches to our campaigns and to find new ways to scale these emerging trends to power the next generation of social movements and social leadership.
So.. I was a bit interested in how "big" the Chevy Tahoe (Tahoe-ilban) ads were going and how viral the thing was getting. I am also interested in the "SPIN" Chevy
Google reports 12,000 links to user generated ads. A quick review of the top 500 (set your Google preferences to 100 per page) shows that most of those ads are not moving Chevy image but have been co-opted to serve other campaigns.
Google Link Search (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=link%3A+chevyapprentice&btnG=Search)
The Chevy ads tool closed the gap of power between PR firms and mass marketing teams (good video editing, sound tracks, etc.) and the public. This viral reaction to the Chevy ads did not only work because SUV's are bad. It worked because people that make their own funny ad can blast them out to larger and larger audiences. The nobodies on the street can whack at the public relations geniuses (like the Bushin30Seconds) with not only great creativity but now with great reach to audiences and powerful video and multi-media hosting (YouTube, Google video). It was simple for loose creatives that had the same idea on the ChevyAds to swarm and connect. It was easy to aggregate the ads into a bigger and high impact collection. Culture jamming is not new.
However, seeing a loose network quickly connect, (via the blogs, Im, email, media and skype) sequence (specialize and create ads, create many web sites, wikis and tools for working on the campaign) synchronize (20,000+ people to create ads and millions to view) and then distribute the ads via web and other media was an impressive display of the growing potential for a connected culture to act.
To those int he online strategy world this should be to content and pushing power to the edges what last years disasters were to online fundraising.
The power of the network...
NPR and the fine art of media understatement. ....
Link: NPR : Chevy's Make-Your-Own SUV Ads Go Off Message.
April 3, 2006 ? Chevrolet has run into problems with its innovative Internet ad campaign for the Chevy Tahoe, which gives site visitors wide latitude in creating their own Tahoe ads. But the campaign, tied in with a contest for The Apprentice TV show, has created a somewhat of a backlash.
Eric did it! Here are the ads from the first night!
Remember make your own and post in the comments. We will continue to make movies!
Last night around 6:30 Eric called to tell me that our ads were going to be on Nightline. He said they had called him and were requesting an interview. He wanted to know if I would come. It was fun.
We were hoping for a debate with PR folks or Chevy but they had plugged the SUV resistance into "Sign of the Times".
It was the first time either of us had been in ABC or a big TV headquarters. Eric and I had some great point to talk about SUV's, bad oil policy and the voice of the people in the ads.
When we got up to the floor the folks were really nice (it must come from working in such tight quarters.These folks (3 people plus a ton of equipment were stuffed into a windowless 8 by 10 office) OSHA should check that thing out. They wired up Eric and ran a 20 min interview over the phone.
Here is the clip.
The interview was OK and a bit fun. However, Eric and I died laughing when we walked down to leave and saw the ABC fleet parked under the building.
Yep. 14 Chevys. LOL.
Keep making those ads for fun. We will record them as political speech and turn them into a video of the good ones posted in the comments section.
From the NY Times, April 4, 2006..Chevy Tries a Write-Your-Own Ad Approach, With Predictable Results (my comments added)
In theory, the company was hoping that visitors to its Web site would e-mail their own videos around the Web, generating interest for the Tahoe through what is known as viral marketing. By the measure of Chevrolet Tahoe videos circulating the blogosphere and the video-hosting Web sites like YouTube, that goal was achieved.But the videos that were circulated most widely like the commercial that attacked the S.U.V. for its gas mileage, may not be what Chevrolet had in mind. (understatement)
A spokeswoman for Chevrolet, Melisa Tezanos, said the company did not plan to shut down the anti-S.U.V. ads. "We anticipated that there would be critical submissions," Ms. Tezanos said. "You do turn over your brand to the public, and we knew that we were going to get some bad with the good. But it's part of playing in this space." (yeah..you have to love having your SUV associated with dead soldiers, terror, domestic spying, global warming, strong mixed sexual content, failure to be a good dad and stupid design.)
The campaign was created by Campbell-Ewald in Warren, Mich., part of the Interpublic Group of Companies....(Soon to be out of business with GM)
John Butler, creative director for Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, the agency in Sausalito, Calif., that created the Converse campaign, said user-generated content worked only if it fitted the product.(BINGO!)
Other companies that have experimented with user-generated content have had less tolerance for mockery.
"We think there are some voices inside G.M. that understand social media very well and knew this would happen," the post said. Mr. Neisser of Renegade said Chevrolet could have anticipated the way the Web site was manipulated. "Were they really expecting the consumer to make nice and create very pleasant movies?" he asked. "If they were, they haven't looked at anything on YouTube."
Oh. it is painful to watch. spin .spin, spin. (Remember submit your best ads in the comments.) So you really think they are not going to take it down?
Chevy... SUV's Getting Roasted...(Head in the Sand)
Step 1. Review the ads (some funny, some political).
Step 2. Make your Own (link is to the right bottom of any ad.)
Step 3. Post the link to the Ad in the comments. (from address bar)so we can save this.)
Step 4. Pick the date Chevy folds and takes down the site. (I give them 2 weeks)
My favorites:
Funny Chevy Ad - Oil
http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=8d4575c4-123f-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7
Funny Chevy Ad - Hot hot
http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=a211be06-122e-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7
Link: Daily Kos: State of the Nation.
Check Out This Fake Ad Before Chevy Takes it Off
This is a great example of real voice vs. fake PR. The last post generated 43 ads in 48 hours.
Step 1. Review the funny ads.
Step 2. Make your Own (link is to the right bottom of any ad)
Step 3. Post your link (so we can save this.)
Step 4. Pick the date Chevy folds and takes down the site.
My favorites:
Funny Chevy Ad - Hot hot
http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=a211be06-122e-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7
http://www.chevyapprentice.com/
This is a BLAST. (Thanks Noah.) Chevy and the Apprentice set up a tool to create commercials for SUVs. They want you to create ads for their crappy products. It is a good idea but I don't think folks should be saving Chevy ad money.
These machines are driving us all to the edge on global warming. We are more dependent on oil and we are less safe. The owners try to "be cool" but are really like sheep manipulated by advertising and GM. Ride your SUV in traffic...what a waste.
Please make a funny ad and put a link in the comments... or send me your link via email. The network can take down this ad. Help people connect the dots between SUVs and global warming. Go get them.
Chevy Ads can be fun.
Someone please record these too.
http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=26d957f4-10fc-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7
http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=8ed46414-111c-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7
http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=90039748-1120-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7
http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=952eb09a-110c-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7
http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=42019b68-10ac-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7
Rapture