GM tries to pitch Camaro to gay men
Posted
Jul 08 2009, 12:04 PM
by
Catherine Holahan
Rating:
The models lean seductively over the hood of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, wearing only tiny yellow underwear emblazoned with the car's logo. Grasping a wash cloth, they rub down the car until it sparkles as an unseen cameraman asks about the car.
The videos, broadcast on YouTube, use sex appeal to sell Camaros to guys. Only the models aren't women, they're men.
The racy commercials are part of a new advertising campaign targeting gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.
In addition to highlighting the Camaro, the online videos illuminate a new challenge for General Motors and rival Chrysler: marketing the same car model to different audiences.
Before the current restructuring, the car companies had enough models to make "a car for every purse and purpose," as long-time GM-president Alfred P. Sloan famously said. But not anymore. GM once had 11 brands, including international ones. It plans to shed or spin-off at least four. That means instead of having several cars for soccer moms in various income brackets and several other cars aimed at, say, young, childless men, the car companies must market the same car to both groups.
"We are trying to broaden the appeal," said John Fitzpatrick, marketing manager for the Camaro.
The Camaro, for example, is a model that GM hopes to market as an affordable muscle car for the masses. GM is using the new Transformers movie - a film about machines that turn into robots based on a popular comic book - to market the sports car to young people and hip parents. The company is also marketing the car in the Middle East with a message focused on performance and power, says Fitzpatrick. The car will eventually need to be sold in Europe as well, a very different market that tends to prize features such as fuel-efficiency.
In the U.S., GM has tacitly supported online campaigns by homosexual Camaro fans. The YouTube videos were created by a Camaro enthusiast to promote "Gay Day at the Movies," a Los Angeles event featuring a screening of the new Transformers movie. Chevrolet supplied the vehicle used in the video, said company spokesman Adam Denison.
Fitzpatrick acknowledges that appealing to so many different groups with the same car is challenging. The Internet has enabled folks in different countries to see advertising campaigns intended for different audiences.
"It is a lot more difficult to do in today's day and age because of what the Internet can do," said Fitzpatrick, adding that focusing on the technology has helped broaden the Camaro's appeal.
So far, GM is pleased with how the Camaro campaigns are going. The 2010 model, which hit dealerships in April, has sold the most vehicles in its class, said Fitzpatrick. More than 9,000 Camaros were sold in June and GM is working to fill orders for another 25,000 vehicles.
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