GM Super Bowl robot TV spot getting lots of criticism

Yeah, it was an exceptionally funny and well done commercial.
 
Holy PC Sensitivity, Batman! Anti-suicide groups don't like it? Get a sense of humor!
 
Next thing they'll be calling for a boycott of Its a Wonderful Life. And Romeo and Juliet. And on and on and on.....
 
Did someone tell 'em it's a robot, and it's a dreaming robot at that?

I found it pretty clever.

I didn't much care for the commercial. It reminded me of what happened to Tony Dungy's kid a couple of months before last year's Super Bowl. Some parents have actually called (and reached) Dungy this past year when their own kids have threatened to kill themselves.

Steve, are you serious?? a ROBOT jumping off a bridge reminded you of a teenager hanging himself?? I'm sorry, maybe I'm a desensitized, inhumane, heartless & soul-less jerk, but ARE YOU KIDDING?? GM, please, don't worry about these idiotic, headline-chasing, opportunistic lobby groups - stand firm and don't give them the free PR they don't deserve.

sddoc- I agree 100%. I think that American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and steve are being way to sensitive. It was an excellent commercial.

here we go again remember the corvette commercial with the kid driving the corvette through town this is just another example of a company tring to be creative and in the process getting censored. The sucicide prvention society should lighten up and le this go because for starters its a robot not a person and second of all he was only dreaming

The commercial was very clever and my wife gave out an "awww" when it jumped because the robot actually grabbed our attention and we wanted a happy ending. Guess what, it ended happily. The critics should consider the entire commercial before they start in. The general should hold firm and realize that if they can't take this kind of risk, they'll never make it in the auto business.... Great job on the commercial.

@sddoc07, no, I'm not kidding. But I may be more sensitive that some - I volunteered on a suicide hotline ~20 years ago. I haven't read the linked articles about the ad but I didn't find the spot funny and it didn't make me associate GM with quality, which I think was the point of the ad.

I didn't even think about Dungy's kid. Good point.
 
I must say though, if something offends you, don't watch it. I found the commercial entertaining, but I can certainly see how some would indeed be offended. I don't think a robot dreaming of suicide is going to push people over the edge all across America.
 
I, too, used to work for a couseling hotline. I helped some people in their hour of need (and I must say, there is nothing more rewarding than that). Typically people commit suicide because of sudden traumatic moments of their life, usually predicated by a series of unfortunate events. Suicide isn't a "monkey see, monkey do" type of act, though.
 
Back to your point though, yes, I definately would have reconsidered this ad out of respect for Tony.

I found the ad funny and it was my favorite of the Super Bowl.
 
Overly sensitive? It depends on your perspective I guess but the ad in no way, shape or form bothered me at all.
 
If you really want to be upset about television content just look at some of the crud on television that depicts violence and bodily harm for the sake of violence and bodily harm.

Well, I killed my TV (hmmm, poor word choice?) back in 1999. But I did see the commercial on CarSpace. :-)

Commercial was fine. GM needs to flip those yahoos the bird and tell them if they don't like it...go jump in the ocean.

I also didn't find myself getting the "quality" angle from this commercial. But I still think our society is way to sensitive to stuff now. Of course, I've felt that way ever since kids could get suspended even for carrying the little 1" long (or shorter) molded keychain guns in school.

Well, to go against the grain of most here, I don't like the commercial. I did at first for similar reasons to those posted above, until I thought to myself "What if that was a worker at the assembly plant?"
 
At which point, the commercial takes a very dark turn. Given how GM is currently downsizing, how far fetched is it that someone could lose their job of 30+ years and end up committing suicide?

At which point, the commercial takes a very dark turn. Given how GM is currently downsizing, how far fetched is it that someone could lose their job of 30+ years and end up committing suicide?
 
Shrug. That's life. Stockbrokers committed suicide in 89 when the market fell. People give up all the time. Doesn't mean a commercial can't have a dark twist to it. If people don't like it...change the channel!!!!!!!!

Steve give it up if the robot were a person I would feel the samw way you do but seeing it was a robot and a good commercial why don't you lighten up and relax

and steve if you hate the commercial that much then cahnge the channel or not watch it at all rather than waste precious time complaining about it

GM just said it would modify the commercial.

see... no balls, no glory... The new CTS model is offensive, GM better dial it back and make it look like the old one.

there happy now steve thanx to you and the anti sucicide groups once again another example of creativity is lost I hope your happy

When will companies stop giving in to these stupid pressure groups? I work in the mental health field, and I say that a good sense of humor overrides any so called "offesive image" anyday! BAh!

Let's see, GM pays 5 million to create an ad plus another million or two to run it. And it features a laid-off worker (albeit a robot). Did GM forget that they laid off 34,000 employees last year?
 
So the robot drops a nut and dreams of relief by suicide (not to mention touching on the lousy condo market and insulting that K-Fed Taco Bell guy in the process).
  
And what was the ad about? Who knows - it was one of those creative ads that their agency cooked up to try to win their version of an Academy Award (another self-congratulatory excess btw, but that's another rant).
 
Plus the agency probably paid a focus group thousands to vette the ad (the same group they used to gauge Aztek acceptance no doubt).
  
I can do better in an hour - and I did. :-)
  
My GM Commercial

In an earlier post Steve stated that in the past he had volunteered at a suicide hotline. So he's had firsthand experience with people "on the verge." Can anyone else here put that on their resume? I can't.
 
So I'd say (A) he knows what he's talking about, (B) he's more attuned and more sensitive to the issue of suicide than most, and (C) he probably has more of a "LIFE" than some here...
 
Finally, I've spent 30+ years in the "creative" industry, both as a graphic designer and a college educator of graphic design. So I'm very well aware with the concept of "creative freedom" in advertising. Along with that freedom comes responsibility; part of which is good taste, the other being how whatever you do might impact upon the public, be it good or bad. That last aspect is all too often lost among people whom I consider my peers.

Thanks for watching.
  
It would be interesting to hear Dungy's reaction to GM's commercial. Or Peyton's, since his grandfather took his life when Archie was beginning his sophomore year at Ole Miss.

Ok Steve and all other participants. Here is my pitch for a great car commercial that should have been shown during the Super Bowl.
 
Product: Toyota Prius
 
We open with a man standing in front of his bathroom mirror, crying while straightening his tie, nothing too BOO HOO, just some miserable sniffing.
 
Move to a scene of the same man in the kitchen, fixing some toast before leaving for work, he breaks down over the toaster, his body wracked by shudders of anguished weeping.
 
Cut to the guy in his garage. He starts his car. He sits there. Do some neat camera tricks to show time elapsing. Different quick shots of him moving around in the seat, crying, whimpering, pouting.....Finally looking at his watch. "What's taking so long?" our protagonist thinks.
 
Que up the announcer: "The Toyota Prius's Hybrid Synergy Drive propulsion system is so fuel efficient, and so clean, that it qualifies it as a near zero emissions vehicle. That means no air pollution, and no harmful fumes."
 
Now we show the guy sort of shrugging, and wiping his tears away. He opens the garage door to pull out. The sun is shining. He pulls away, the glorious Prius having spared him, and allowed him to rethink his earlier attempt on his life.
 
Announcer: "The Toyota Prius; you'll have to do better than that."
 
(Perfect Tagline, am I right? )
 
Fade to black, we hear the sound of the car smashing into something.
 
We come back, the Prius is wrapped around a tree, our protagonist is alive and well, though a bit dazed. Wearing his seatbelt, air bags deployed, he is shaking his head, then begins pounding the wheel in frustration. "Drats!" he thinks, "Foiled again!"
 
Announcer: "Oh, and did we mention that the Toyota Prius has garnered a Good rating for driver's side front impact collisions from the NHTSA?.....The Toyota Prius, keeping you alive inspite of yourself."
 
Whaddaya think guys? Much better than the GM commercial eh?

First of all its not better than the GM commercial. Second It'sa good idea, but volkswagen got plenty of complaints when they put car crashes in their commercials to show how safe their Jetta was in a crash. Third steve would probaly find something in this commercial to bash on and waste our time with factless and ultimately pointless complaining. I'm sorry if I sound like im bashing your Idea but on a positive note Toyota actually needs to make a commercial like this to show people how safe this car is because many people think the car is not very safe. and as you can tell by my screename im a big fan of domestic cars especially General motors but its not a bad idea crowb

Let's stay on topic of the blog post and move off of personal attacks. Such comments will be deleted.

I agree with you sylivia but i would just like to say to Steve the anti suicide groups and other "creativity police" out there that creativity in advertising is rare right now. i was not offended by the robot commercial at all neither was a majority of society. While it is true actions can speak louder than words i think that this commercial clarified two things that the "creativity police' might have missed.
 
1. It was a robot not a person for the hundreth time i will once again repeat myself and say that if it were a person jumping off of the bridge and not a robot I would be offended too but seeing it was a robot a machine that has no consciousness no mind of its own can't feel pain or emotion and in essence can't die It was not offensiveto most of society. the fact that people somehow refrenced this as making fun of suicide is absurd.
 
2. The "suicide attempt' in question is in a dream sequence and the robot was not physically present on the bridge it was only a dream and I think it emphazied the quality of Gm products. Thats all i have to say and in conclusion people need to lighten up remeber the corvette ad a few years back and the "creativity police" managed to find that offensive this is another example of creativity being censored by the "creativity police" because a tiny percent of society was "offended" by the emotion that was characterized in that particular commercial

Ummm...Just for the record, I was being sarcastic with my previous comment about the car commercial for the Toyota Prius (I forget that sarcasm doesn't work well in a printed medium). In my own way I think that idea is funny, but obviously I know its an unworkable one. I was just trying to illustrate that commercials could always be much worse and more offensive while still being plausible. I think everyone that's whining about this commercial being offensive should stop trying to be an advocate and just relax a bit. People are so hypersensitive today. If you get offended by a day dreaming robot in a commercial, imagine how you would have felt if a Mongolian army burned your city and slaughtered everything in it. Or imagine how offended you'd have been if you lived in Poland in 1939. Jeez. It could always be worse.