Doug DavidoffI used to be a huge John Mellencamp fan even when he was John Cougar and John Cougar Mellencamp. I’ve seen three of his concerts from the first four rows (twice, front row center). I remember him making fun of ‘old’ rock stars who ‘sold out’ by allowing corporations to take their music and use it in commercials. I remember him saying that he would know that he’d been around too long if he ever ‘woke up to hear one of his songs on a commercial.’
Well, I guess it’s time for Mellencamp to retire. Every sports fan knows what I’m talking about. If I hear ‘This is our country’ one more time, I think I’m going to burn my Mellencamp CDs (I don’t mean download them to my iPod).
It seems Mellencamp has been looking for a way to make more people aware of his new CD, and GM is trying to find any reason they can to convince people that they should care about their cars. It is said that politics makes strange bedfellows; the same can be said for advertising.
The point of this rant is more than just to express my frustration with seeing this commercial 20 times every football game (though I admit, that’s what prompted me to write this post). The point is that I think the ad is completely ineffective. Even if I like the song, which I don’t, it does absolutely nothing to support why I should buy a GM car or truck. If GM, or virtually any other image advertiser, would take the time and money they pump into meaningless, empty, faux-patriotic commercials and put it into creating a superior promise, maniacally delivering that promise, and providing a superior experience for the people that actually bought their products or services, then those companies would not be in the mess they find themselves in these days. That’s how Toyota built both of their brands – and that’s how any company that wants to grow intelligently will do it in the Wisdom Age.