Corvette Advertisement Pulled From Television

[Rob]

It's interesting that this just appeared over Reuters recently. The other day, I received an email through the site here by a user who requested us to remove that advertisement from TV because of the poor influence it could have on people.

I would like to remind people that normally visit this site, although we work with GM from time to time to bring you articles such as Hib Halverson's C6 Naked and Exposed article, we are NOT an affiliate of General Motors or Chevrolet in any manner, shape or form. We are not employed by General Motors. We do not receive any financial support from General Motors.

If you have a complaint regarding Corvette or any General Motors product, please do not email us with your complaint. There is nothing we can do. You need to contact GM or Chevrolet Customer Service and register your complaint with them.

Last but not least, we do not, under ANY circumstances give out email addresses/contact information to anyone working at General Motors. Please do not contact us requesting to speak to David Hill, or anyone else at General Motors. If you wish to contact any GM employees, please call Chevrolet Customer Assitance.

-Rob Loszewski, Site Administrator
Corvette Action Center
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DETROIT (Reuters) - Protests from seven safety groups prompted General Motors Corp. to pull a television ad that shows a young boy driving a Corvette sports car so recklessly that it goes airborne, officials of the automaker said on Wednesday.

The ad, featuring the Rolling Stones song "Jumpin' Jack Flash," has aired repeatedly during the Olympics. The groups, including Consumers Union and the Center for Auto Safety, complained that it was "the most dangerous" spot they have seen in recent years.

Directed by singer Madonna (news - web sites)'s husband Guy Ritchie, the spot shows a boy's daydream of racing the Corvette through downtown streets and through a construction pipe. The safety groups said in a letter to GM released on Wednesday that the spot could encourage children to take their parents' cars for a drive.

"This ad is certainly among the most dangerous, anti-safety messages to be aired on national television in recent years," the safety groups said in a joint letter sent to GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner. "It is doubtful that General Motors would condone the beer industry showing a "dream sequence" of 10-year-old children having an after-school "kegger,"" the letter said.

The ad does include a warning that drivers should operate the vehicle safely and must have a license, but the automaker decided to stop airing the spot, GM spokesman Joe Jacuzzi said on Wednesday.

"We decided to pull it due to responses and feedback we received," Jacuzzi said. "It's a big ad, and it's been airing for a while, but we've got a whole campaign."

The Corvette ad is one of many spots GM prepared for the Summer Olympics (news - web sites). GM is the largest television advertiser during the Summer Games, spending 10 times more during the Aug. 13-29 Olympics than it typically spends during a comparable period.

The seven groups who signed the letter include Consumers Union, Public Citizen, Center for Auto Safety, Consumer Federation of America and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

Groups have also protested controversial ads or marketing campaigns from other automakers in recent years.

Ford Motor Co. was targeted when an ad showing a cat poking its head through the sunroof of the SportKa, only to be decapitated when the roof closes, found its way onto the Internet. But that spot, which Ford said it never authorized and never aired, is still shown on the Internet, where it has created a buzz.

Chrysler pulled its sponsorship of the "Lingerie Bowl," which featured models in scanty outfits playing football and aired during halftime of the Super Bowl in February.

 

[Ken]

From AdWeek:

Complaints Prompt GM to Pull Corvette Spot
August 25, 2004
By Karl Greenberg


NEW YORK Following a barrage of complaints from safety groups, General Motors said it is pulling a Corvette TV spot showing a child driving the car at high speeds through New York City.

Seven safety advocacy groups, including Consumers Union and the Center for Auto Safety, have contacted GM to express their displeasure with the spot, the automaker said.


The commercial, which launched during NBC's coverage of the Summer Olympics, actually depicts a schoolyard daydream, a fact revealed at the spot's conclusion when the boy is seen holding a skateboard, ogling a parked Corvette.

Director Guy Ritchie, husband of pop superstar Madonna, shot the ad. Interpublic Group's Campbell-Ewald in Warren, Mich., handles the account.

GM spent about $10 million on Corvette ads last year, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

 

[Gorgon]

Just saw this on CNN about two minutes ago. Frankly I would think that people would have something better to do. I saw some voice the same concern here and all I have to say is that some people need to get a life. I've seen much worse in television shows, in fact the entire Dukes of Hazzard series comes to mind. I wonder how many people affiliated with consumer "safety" groups have spotless driving records... ad

Grow up and take responsibility for your actions. Gotta go. Just finished watching Superman and I think I'm gonna jump off my roof and fly now...

Leon

 

[6 Shooter]

Kind of bad . . .

when a boy can't dream !

I'd hate for all of us to drive suv's.

 

[boomer]

I thought all the new Vette commericals were :cool :cool They're my dreams too...:L

 

[Fishman]

True of most things these days, everyone is afraid of a lawsuit. You know, some stupid kid (who was probably going to be eliminated from the gene pool eventually anyway) uses the Vette to fly through the air...

Make it idiot-proof and someone will make a better idiot.

 

[reubenmc]

I think that's pretty stupid pulling that commercial!! Has anyone seen the new Cobalt commercial where it's bumping a C6 in the rear. These people are going to be mad about it saying it's incoraging hitting people like that.

 

['63split]

Unfreakin Real, Wee-tall-did, Get a life, Ignorant, are just a few responses that come to mind and that I can also say without using language that wouldn't be appropriate.

Keep Dreaming.

See you all at Carlisle this weekend!

Best Regards,
Mike

 

[TWINRAY]

I don't watch the Olympics. I'm too busy working on my car for a September car event. I think GM should tell these critics to F off, but that's my opinion and from what my wife says, the world is lucky there aren't more like me.

 

[koolaid117]

What ever happened to having a sense of humor? I played cowboys and indians when I was a kid and I didn't grow up and ride a horse to a casino so I could get drunk and give my possessions away and live on a farm? (Uh oh, I don't think that was PC, I'm probably gonna get flamed.)

I'm just gonna sit here with my thumb stuck up my . . . . and vegitate.

 

[choochoo75]

I got so annoyed about this, I shot an e-mail off to GM (as did 2 or 3 others at work), though I'm sure they will send it right to the bit bucket. Flood their websites with criticism of being subserveant to a few groups that have no life. Here's what I sent them...

*****

I just read in USA Today that GM pulled the ad with the boy dreaming. I thought GM was a corporation that had back bone, and in this case was promoting a car with serious back bone. I took my girlfriend's 6 year old DAUGHTER for a ride in my 91 vette over a year ago, and to this day she still points out vette's she likes, and will buy one like it when she gets older.

What's next? Are you going to pull all the ad's where the vette's and other cars are doing 180's? Heaven forbid the 18 wheeler skidding all over the place. Maybe you should make a series of commercials with elderly grandmothers driving 20mph on the Auto-Bahn? I wonder if these "We know what's best" groups complained about the Nissan commercials with the cars driving off the bridges, freezing the video, and then having viewers go to a website to see what happens.... Or, what about all the "Professional driver, closed course" commercials.

These "We know what's best" groups should focus on real issues like abuse, homeless people, Iraq, shows like "Fear Factor" or "Who wants to sleep with my Dad?", or video games with lots of killing and violence. Your ad was not offensive, in bad taste, or untruthful. I guess you listen to the few who can't differentiate between reality and fantasy, but again they are probably not the ones that buy your vehicles. Besides, what's wrong with a kid having a dream and goal!

****

 

[Ken]

GM puts the brakes on TV ad

From NewYorkNewsday.com:

GM Puts the Brakes on TV Ad

BY TOM INCANTALUPO
STAFF WRITER

August 26, 2004


This Jumpin' Jack Flash was a gas, all right, but much too young to suit safety advocates.

General Motors has been running a TV commercial, set to the tune of the Rolling Stones song, showing a youngster at the wheel of a 2005 Corvette on a high-speed, tire-smoking, partly airborne drive through a big city. The ad prompted seven of the nation's leading safety and consumer groups to accuse the carmaker of encouraging illegal and unsafe driving by children.

They wrote to General Motors Tuesday and the company pulled the ad yesterday.

Running on network TV during the Olympics, the 60-second spot shows a child who appears to be about 10 years old, driving his "dream car" in a dream. The ad includes an on-screen disclaimer at the start saying, "This is a dream. Do not drive without a license. Obey all traffic laws."

The groups in the letter to GM chairman G. Richard Wagoner Jr. said, "Ads glorifying speed and high performance are common enough these days but this is one of the worst and most reprehensible examples produced by the auto industry."

Joe Jacuzzi, a spokesman in Detroit for Chevrolet, said the GM division also had gotten much positive reaction to the spot. "We've had a ton of people who've been writing us saying we like the ad," he said.

The groups who wrote, including Consumers Union and the Ralph Nader-related Center for Auto Safety, cited government statistics showing speed to be a factor in at least a third of all fatal crashes.

They also cited an incident Sunday, described in yesterday's St. Louis Post Dispatch, in which a 5-year-old boy from East St. Louis drove off in his uncle's Cadillac, crashing into a fence two blocks away as his mother pursued in another car. The three-foot tall youngster, who wasn't hurt, had buckled his seatbelt, switched on the radio, used his turn signals and stopped at stop signs during his brief ride, the article said. His uncle had left the key in the ignition.

 

[Ken]

Aw, C'mon, He's Not Ferris Bueller; Corvette Ad Flap is Silly

From Autoweek:

Aw, C'mon, He's Not Ferris Bueller; Corvette Ad Flap is Silly

EDWARD LAPHAM | Automotive News
Posted Date: 8/26/04
COMMENTARY

VIEW THE VIDEO AT: http://www.vette-net.com/

Things must be really slow in the safety biz this time of year if the most important thing safety advocates have to do is complain about a TV commercial for the new Chevy Corvette.

The spot shows an adolescent boy’s daydream in which he is out for a wild joy ride in a Corvette. He drives so recklessly that he ends up driving in space, where he meets and exchanges furtive glances with an adolescent girl who is up there driving another Corvette, apparently in her own daydream. All this while the Rolling Stones’ song “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” blares.

Anyone who thinks that a TV commercial will give adolescents an irresistible urge to steal the family car and go for a joy ride in outer space probably doesn’t realize that “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” is about drugs, not Whoopi Goldberg.

Several groups that ought to have more sense, including Consumers Union and the Center for Auto Safety, have made this a big deal. They put public pressure on General Motors. So GM yanked the spot, which had been playing during NBC-TV coverage of the Olympics.

Don’t those safety folks have kids? How did they raise them?

As the father of three sons, two of whom have matured into safe, responsible drivers and a third who is becoming one, I will gladly testify that the urge to drive fast cars can be powerful in the young. But so are a lot of other urges.

Adolescents make mistakes. Sometimes they even succumb to their urges.

But if they can survive video games and reruns of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off without doing something stupid, why would a surrealistic TV spot push them past the bounds of discipline and self-control?

Gimme a break.

Edward Lapham is the Executive Editor of Automotive News, a sister publication to AutoWeek

 

[Ken]

From Hollywood.com:

Corvette Ad Not a Gas for Guy Ritchie

Is director Guy Ritchie, aka Madonna's husband, encouraging devious behavior in children? Safety groups seem to think so--at least when it comes to Ritchie's latest endeavor: his innovative Corvette ad General Motors Corp. that has aired regularly over the course of the Summer Olympics.

The ad shows a boy in a classroom daydreaming of racing a candy-red Corvette through city streets, at times so heedlessly that it goes airborne, to the tune of the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

But GM is pulling the TV spot after seven safety groups protested the ad could encourage children to take their parents' cars for a joyride.

"This ad is certainly among the most dangerous, anti-safety messages to be aired on national television in recent years," the safety groups said in a letter to GM released Wednesday.

"It is doubtful that General Motors would condone the beer industry showing a 'dream sequence' of 10-year-old children having an after-school 'kegger.'"

A spokesman for the automaker said the ad does include a warning that drivers should operate the vehicle safely and must have a license, but GM decided to stop airing the spot anyway.

GM is one of the largest TV advertisers during the Summer Games, with the company spending 10 times more during the Aug. 13-29 Olympics than it typically spends during a similar period, The Associated Press reports.

 

[Ken]

Complaints Drive GM to Pull Corvette Ad

From The Washington Times:

Complaints Drive GM to Pull Corvette Ad

Detroit, MI, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Complaints about promoting underage and dangerous driving have prompted General Motors to pull its latest television ad for 2005 Corvettes.
"This is the first time I have seen an ad that glorified pre-teens driving a car," said Judith Stone, president of Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety, one of the groups that complained.

The ad was created by Interpublic Group of Cos.' Campbell-Ewald and began running at the start of the Summer Olympics, the Wall Street Journal said.

The ad campaign received extra attention because it was directed by filmmaker Guy Ritchie, husband of singer Madonna.

"We looked at all the feedback and reached the decision to pull the ad," said Noreen Pratscher, communications manager for Corvette.

On Sunday, a 5-year old boy in East St. Louis, Ill., drove his uncle's Cadillac for four blocks before pulling over and hitting a fence, the Detroit News said.

 

[Ken]

GM Pulls Corvette TV Ad Featuring Underage Driver

From sfGate.com:

GM Pulls Corvette TV Ad Featuring Underage Driver

Los Angeles Times

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Fast and sleek, the Chevy Corvette is the sports car of many a schoolboy's dreams.

And, for General Motors Corp., a PR nightmare.

The automaker late Tuesday yanked a prime-time television commercial for the 2005 Corvette after vehement protests from consumer and safety groups.

The spot, aired during Olympic broadcasts, depicted the dream of a boy clearly too young to have a driver's license taking the 350-horsepower car airborne -- after driving it wildly through city streets and spiraling it through a large drainpipe -- as the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash" played in the background.

"This ad is certainly among the most dangerous, anti-safety messages to be aired on national television in recent years," the groups wrote in a letter to GM.

"It is doubtful," they wrote, "that General Motors would condone the beer industry showing a 'dream sequence' of 10-year-old children having an after- school 'kegger.' "

The groups that signed the letter included Consumers Union, Public Citizen and the Consumer Federation of America.

The ad was directed by British filmmaker Guy Ritchie, husband of pop singer Madonna.

 

[Fishman]

That's it! I am never buying anything from any 'consumer and safety group' anymore.

 

[Ken]

From WAFF.com:

GM Pulls Corvette Commercial

Aug. 27 - A flashy TV ad for the Chevy Corvette won't air on TV anymore.

General Motors pulled the commercial under pressure from safety groups. Critics say the ad which shows a child behind the wheel sends a dangerous message.

A section of the commercial says "this is a dream." But that disclaimer isn't enough for some. They sent a complaint to GM's chairman.

A GM spokesman says the ad, titled "A Boy's Dream," was not intended to depict a real-life situation.

 

[Ken]

Ritchie's "Dangerous" Car Ad Axed

From BBC.com:

Ritchie's "Dangerous" Car Ad Axed

A US car advert directed by Guy Ritchie has been axed after complaints that it encouraged dangerous driving.

Ritchie directed the film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels​

The advert for a Corvette showed an under-age boy driving at high speed in the sky and through a large pipe.

Seven safety groups complained about the advert: "Promoting illegal and risky behaviour... is egregious corporate behaviour," said one.

General Motors spokesman Joe Jacuzzi said the advert was never intended to depict a real-life situation.

"The intention right off the bat was to capture a boy's aspiration of driving a Corvette in a very exaggerated way," he said.

Unrealistic

Noreen Pratscher of General Motors Chevrolet Communications said the advert had received positive as well as negative feedback.

"It was completely unrealistic," she told BBC News Online.

The advert, called 'A Boy's Dream', accompanied by Rolling Stones' song Jumpin' Jack Flash, was played during breaks in the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

"It is doubtful that General Motors would condone the beer industry showing a 'dream sequence' of 10-year-old children having an after-school 'kegger'," campaigners said.

A spokesman for Ritchie was not available.

Legal action

Ritchie and his wife Madonna are currently facing legal action over claims the couple stole the idea for their 2002 film Swept Away.

Actor Vincent D'Onofrio says he pitched the idea to the pair in 1997 - but they cut him out of the credits. The couple say he has no proof of a contract.

The legal action began in October 2002, but the case has been subject to delays. Swept Away, a remake of a 1975 Italian comedy, proved a flop at the US box office when it was released in 2002.

 

[MRANT212]

What a bunch of morons!!!!! My 7 and 5 year old boys loved that commercial and both said the first night that they were going to dream that they were the kid driving that C6 Vette. GM should fight back and put the damn thing back on TV!! Lets view this sensibly. My kids watch Rocketpower on Nickelodoen. Can I sue Nick since MY son fell off the skateboard trying to emulate the cartoon kids??? Lets not forget with Halloween around the corner my kids will be dressed as Spiderman so Ill have the opportunity to sue again when my kids attempt to swing between buildings with their web blaster!!!! Lets all just grow up!!! This was one hell of an awesome commercial!!!! GET IT BACK ON GM!!!!!

Anthony