Hurry in while the deals last

Many of you will recognize this screen grab from a GMC truck commercial about their "Holiday" Sales Event.

I had posted this on my Facebook page last week, along with the innocuous observation that: I am inordinately bothered by the woman whose husband buys two GMC truck for Christmas and then immediately snags the black one. BTW, I beat Bill Maher to the punch who also wrote a lengthy post about this horsey piece of crap ad.

Anyway, it unleashed a torrent of comments. Mostly to the effect of, "Who buys a car (much less two) as a Xmas gift?"

It also brought up the perennial outcry about the never ending December to Remember spots with their infamous red bow.

A convenient jumping off point to bring up the glory of the past when I was the GCD on the Jaguar account and we effectively spoofed the red bow phenomena. This is one of my favorite spots from that era. It was initially rejected, so I convinced the director to shoot this during a lunch break, unbeknownst to the client. (excuse the poor resolution)



When we showed the client the work on film they loved it. But made us change "son of a bitch" to the softer and less pungent, "jerk."

All of which demonstrates the sheer ridiculousness of the contrived automotive "sales event." Pro tip: the deal you can get during the sales event will still be available the day after the sales event.

Which brings me to a little war story.

Last week, on one of my all too frequent trips to Palm Springs, my daughter tagged along. As we made our way through Ontario, just by the I-15 overpass, I told her about a road trip I had made nearly 30 years ago, in a car full of dealers and sales managers.

We were scouting a location for their upcoming Spring Tent Sale. Until this point I mistakenly thought I knew what advertising was about: breakthrough ideas, creativity, fame and fortune. I was as far from the truth as the Inland Empire is as far from Fiji.

If there's one thing dealer's love more than a year end sales event, it's a Tent Sale.

"Holy shit, we're gonna move some metal."

"We'll get a red and white tent that's 5 stories tall."

"The suckers will come in one end and drive out the other side."

They were literally drooling. Outside of a strip club in Atlanta, I've never seen grown men in clothes so excited.

This, for all the bloviation and pretentiousness and self importance, is what advertising is really about.

Or, as my friend and former copywriter Tom Parker so succinctly put it, "Sales rise when you merchandise."