Regardless of the game’s outcome, the question that weighs on my mind is the following:
“Will my tax dollars subsidize another stupendously expensive Chevy Volt ad? And if so…what. the. hell?!?!”
I’m not watching the Super Bowl but surely I’ll soon know the answer. In the meantime I’m willing to make a few guesses:
- Like global warming hysteria and disco, some stupid things take time to fade. The economic madness of 2008 will not go easily into it’s dark night. Thus I give Government Motors solid 3 in 5 odds that they’ll air a second consecutive ad for “the car which nobody is buying” (a.k.a. the Volt).
- Like disco and the Monkees, stupid things don’t last forever. Thus I predict the Volt will suffer the fate of another company that massively overestimated it’s market niche. I present the Pets.com sockpuppet. Yes, folks I’m referring to a time of historic madness; the 1990’s. People who had drank their own Kool aid thought pet food was a great fit for Internet marketing. This is called…a bubble. Or as I like to think of it “the complete absence of objective reality”. To me, the 2000 Pets.com Super Bowl ad, was the high water mark of the “if we put e- in front of it we’ll make money” dot com bubble. (I believe this was the same year they were pushing Internet enabled refrigerators.) I remember thinking “their business is mailing dogfood and this is supposed to support Super Bowl airtime?” Silly me, I had failed to get on the e-commerce bandwagon. (Note: after airing a Super Bowl ad in February, Pets.com was bankrupt by November.) Obviously a Federally subsidized program (the Volt) will resist market forces that pummeled Pets.com but it’s a done deal in the long run. Everything from dog food delivery to the Soviet Empire eventually must adapt to the market.
I'm an advertising gimmick that outlasted my parent company. I'm the most adaptive SOB you've ever met!
P.S. Allow me to ad one high note. The Pets.com sockpuppet has “found work” long after it’s strange beginning. All hail the adaptability of the cute puppet!