Did the Chevy Backfire?

Posted on February 15, 2012

In my opinion one of the better Super Bowl TV spots this year was the Chevy Silverado pick-up truck commercial.  You remember it, the Mayan Apocalypse has occurred the world is at an end, but a handful of survivors gather together and they all have one thing in common, a Chevrolet Silverado pick-up.  As they gather the question is asked, where is Dave?  The sad response is that he didn’t make it because, “Dave drove a Ford.”  It was a great spot, even with the Berry Manilow music bed, “Looks Like We Made It.” It was witty, funny, and graphically well done, just a well done good spot.

Chevrolet did however violate one cardinal rule with the commercial and according to Ad Age it might just have backfired on them.  The sin was that they mentioned a competitor, Ford, by name.  Ad Age reports that according to Kelley Blue Book (KBB), more visitors checked out the Ford truck area on KBB's website than visited the section devoted to Chevrolet. 

Ad Age reports that Akshay Anand, a marketing-intelligence web analyst at KBB, stated that consumer interest in the Silverado pick-up, on the KBB web site, increased after the Mayan Apocalypse commercial aired during the first half of the Super Bowl.  Interest then leveled off and ultimately declined after the game as interest in Ford's F-150 pick-up surged.  Post-game, Ford F-150 traffic rose 26% while Chevy Silverado dropped 25%.

What happened?  Anand told Ad Age that there is "data out there that shows truck owners tend to be more loyal than in other segments," and might have been reacting defensively to support Ford.  He also told Ad Age that since the word "Ford" was actually spoken by one of the actors, he thought some viewers might have mistaken the ad for a commercial for Ford.

The comments are interesting, but before we make too much out of it, realize this is a relatively small sampling of people looking at used car values on one single web site, KBB’s.  For all we know it might actually prove that the commercial did work, perhaps these were Ford owners looking up the value of their F-150 so they can trade them in on a new Silverado.

I am still a bit old school and I would avoid recommending that a client mention a competitor by name. Lots of studies show when you mention the competitor’s name the viewer or listener can easily get confused as to which brand is being pitched.  Regardless, this case study is food for thought.  For me the commercial did bring a smile to my face and at a minimum I give Chevrolet an A+ for creativity!

by John C. Perry