GM's Super Bowl robot ad draws criticism from suicide prevent group
 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070209/...m_ad&printer=1

GM's Super Bowl robot ad draws criticism By DAVID RUNK, Associated Press Writer

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."

I was totally weirded out by that commercial.

It wasn't even a good ad. Totally pointless.

That commercial made me sad but it didn't make me think 'OH GOD I HAVE TO GO KILL MYSELF I MESSED UP SO BAD AND GOT FIRED FROM MY JOB WHAT WILL I DO!?!'

I have yet to see the Snickers commercial and the Federline commercial is just plain funny. Goes to show the kid has a sense of humour.

If you're offended by seeing an inanimate object pretend to kill itself, you have bigger problems than I'm even going to discuss right now.

I completely agree.

I hate that you can't say or do anything in public without some group getting pissed off.

It's a f'ing commercial.

Get over it. :)

That commercial was funny as hell. :D

WTF you guys. People are all pissed over the stupidest stuff. Waaa two dudes pretended to kiss. Waaa Fed-Ex was a fast-food worker. Waaa some 2-cent robot killed himself for screwing up. People need to grow a pair.

It didn't make me think of suicide, and that's saying a lot.

It didn't make me think of suicide either. It just made me think of layoffs. Then it made me think that this probably wasn't a very well-thought out ad. I love unintentional irony. :o

Was the restaurant trade group insulted by the fact that the commercial depicted a wannabe rapper falling down on his luck and having to work in the fast food industry, or were they insulted just because it was Kevin Federline?

I thought the Robot commercial was hilarious.

It was a TERRIBLE ad, but not because of the suicidal robot. GM should NOT be making light of the tens of thousands of its workers that are getting laid off. PEOPLE are getting laid off, and they have the nerve to run a "funny" ad about a nightmare a machine has about getting the boot from his factory job? It was really poorly thought out, and I can't imagine it passing any focus groups. It was flat-out insulting, and in no way made me think more favorably of GM.

Really? I thought the robot ad was WAAAAAYYY better than the Federline ad. I thought that was probably the stupidest commercial out of the bunch.

I did too!

I get where people are coming from with the layoffs and all. And THAT is a reason to be offended by this. I was a little shocked they actually showed the robot hit water (what I'd think of as "death" for it) but other than that, it was a good commercial.

Another sign this country is way too PC and overly sensitive. Also, reminding people of lay offs may be a poorly thought out advertising idea, but its not insulting. People get laid off. Its business.

Hopefully in the future the government will just give everyone a specific job and provide for all their needs.

Thank you.

I have a feeling that if any of you lived in Detroit and have watched your friends almost go homeless because of the layoffs... to lose their job without notice... you'd feel differently. It may be a fantasy robot, but it's a reality in our area. Really sad that GM came up with this, since they just let a large amount of their factory workers go, my friend being one of them.

The whole ad focused on layoffs. That's the problem.

I know what I'm talking about...I work in advertising and PR. There were way better ways for GM to talk about quality, which is what the spokesperson says they were trying to do with that ad (?)

ETA: furthermore, it is a business reality that when companies make poor decisions they have to lay their workers off, but it is not "business" to turn that into a funny ad campaign. If they were even going to mention the people at GM (which is probably a topic they should avoid altogether), they should've done a Thank You ad or something that honors and focuses on their loyal workers. Not an ad that makes fun of the nightmare that is being laid off from your job of, say, 40 years. GM's products are what got them into the mess they're in right now, but it's their reputation that will be the death of them. And until they start understanding and getting a hold on their reputation, they'll just continue to go down the crapper...this ad is just another example of how out-of-touch GM is with what American people are looking for.

I don't even see why people buy GM anymore.

Yeah, why would anyone want to by Chevy/GMC Trucks and Tahoes/Yukons.

I thought it was an ad where he got fired because he screwed up on the line. I was drunk and only saw it once, so maybe I missed the point. If it was entirely about layoffs, I think your point is valid. I was under the impression it wasn't, but it might remind viewers of lay offs. I'll have to look it up and watch it again.

Technically you're right...the robot lost his job because he dropped a screw. But does GM really expect people to remember WHY he lost his job? I actually missed the first few seconds of the ad, so i missed the dropping of the screw. The bulk of the ad focused on how crappy his life was after he lost his GM job, and of course it's ridiculous to suggest that anyone would lose his/her job at GM for dropping a screw anyway, so it seems weird they'd want to suggest that. In the end what people are left with is the general impression and feeling after seeing an ad, and layoffs were the first thing everyone in my house thought of when they saw the ad. All I felt was sadness for this ROBOT who had lost his job...and the song they used really added to the sadness...i'm sure there are a lot of people who have lost their GM jobs who feel alone and lost.

If you go on to YouTube now, not only have a lot of people commented on the ad, they've started to add their replies, too...like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvQWsvkKEgY

On the other hand, I thought Chevy's two ads during the Superbowl were great, for a change!

Yeah I mean I can agree with you that the ad was probably poorly thought out. My only frustration is when people try to make such things into some argument against big business.

Yeah, I'm not even an incredibly PC person, and the response I had, and my family had, to this ad wasn't "PC." My boyfriend, who's from Michigan, knows several people that have been laid off from GM and Ford and have had to leave the state to find a new line of work. He was furious when he saw that ad.

Ads can say whatever they want to, but that doesn't mean the people watching it will listen to what is literally said. People interpret ads in so many different ways, and when you're putting an ad on the Superbowl, which reaches practically every demographic in this country, companies better make sure the message is singular and clear. This one wasn't, because obviously it's had different responses. Some people think it's funny, some think the robot is cute, some people just feel it's a bummer, some don't like the suicide bit, and some don't like the You're Fired angle. I have a hard time believing that the major ad agency that produced the ad didn't hear all of these responses in their focus groups (which I guarantee you they used for this spot), so I also find it just an idiotic decision to air this ad as it is.

It's also weird that the bit about the warranty at the end isn't even brought up in the ad...Oh, a great warranty, tell me all about it! Oh, you're not going to? OK.

You do understand that there are parts of the country where families define themselves as either being GMC or Ford owners don’t you?

Up-date on the status of the ad:
GM to cut robot's jump from TV ad
Automaker heeds outcry from advocacy groups to remove suicidal scene from Super Bowl commercial.
Eric Morath / The Detroit News
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...368/1148/rss25

i'm not a PC person either....iLove iMac :)