Autoblog: Chevrolet targets gay demographic with new Camaro marketing effort

[Spectre]

From the "Our Dear Leader Obama Motors' Diversity Division" and AutoBlog:

VIDEO: Chevrolet targets gay demographic with new Camaro marketing effort

by John Neff on Jul 8th 2009 at 4:57PM

Click above to view video after the jump

Wasn't it just a couple of years ago that the American Family Association was boycotting Ford for marketing in gay-centric publications? Fast forward to today and see just how much things have changed. Last month, Chevrolet sponsored an event in Los Angeles called Gay Day at the Movies to promote the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Michael Bay's latest opus, of course, features a bunch of General Motors vehicles, not the least of which is the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro that plays the leading role of Bumblebee.

A video was produced to promote Gay Day at the Movies featuring a pair of "Bumblebee Boys" in Camaro-branded briefs washing the Bowtie brand's pony car revival. The cheeky (pardon the pun) video is clearly targeted at the gay community and uses beefcake car washers to that effect in a not-so-subtle way.

Will Chevy or GM see a backlash from being associated with this video? Who knows, but the video isn't exactly being shown in primetime on NBC. For the moment, it lives solely on YouTube with a gajillion other vids – and one would have to actively search to find it.

Follow the jump to watch the video for yourself, and please remember to be respectful in the comments.

UPDATE: The video has been removed from YouTube by the user. We're searching to find it again on the interwebs.

The original YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aCHaL7vb9o

So... all of you who wanted a Camaro? Yeah, sorry, you're gay now. And the car? Yeah, it's the Gaymaro.

Your tax dollars at work.

Additional commentary confirming that Government Motors approved this to begin with, from Carscoop:

GM Pulls Out Camaro Youtube Videos Starring the Bumblebee Boys in Briefs
Thursday, July 09, 2009



We're feeling kind of lame for missing out on the videos, but here's the story in brief - no pun intended. The USA Today reported that General Motors ordered Youtube to remove a string of videos starring the so-called "Bumblebee Boys in Briefs". The footage, which was created in conjunction with GM's recent "Chevrolet Gay Day at the Movies" Los Angeles gig for the latest Transformers film, featured a couple of boys that like boys in yellow underwear bathing a new Camaro.

General Motors spokesman Dave Barthmuss told the USA Today that "the video was not appropriate and not in good taste" adding that the firm's executives decided that the "batch of vignettes was not the way we wanted to represent the brand to the general public".

Strangely enough, and even though the videos were up on Youtube well before the June 28 event in LA, Barthmuss said that he hadn't seen the footage up until now.

Understandably, since we haven't seen the videos with the "go-go boys" and the Camaro, we can't possibly comment on the story - at least not in a serious way.

Via: USA Today

[BlaRo]

Well, uh, gay people pay taxes too. Yeah.

[Spectre]

If you like the Camaro, you must be gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But I bet you also liked the X-Type.

[Evel]

Ok then.....

[BlaRo]

Originally Posted by Spectre

If you like the Camaro, you must be gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But I bet you also liked the X-Type.

I'm not Momentum57.

Oh wait, I forgot, you drive a Jaguar..."need a partner?"

[Spectre]

Originally Posted by BlaRo

I'm not Momentum57.

That wasn't directed at you specifically, just at all the people who wanted to buy a new Gaymaro.

Oh wait, I forgot, you drive a Jaguar..."need a partner?"

That's part of why I'm posting this - I didn't buy an X-Type (which was the model promoted for gay men) and I'm tired of the occasional "Faguar" comment that that campaign generated.

That ill-advised targeted campaign, by the way, helped kill sales by driving the mostly conservative and often religious core customers away from Jaguar. On top of which, the targeted audience, gay men, didn't like being patronized by Ford and were smart enough to not buy the clearly uncompetitive X-Type. Ooooops.

[klankymen]

lol@Americans making a big deal about fags

EDIT: lul, of course I got a negrep for this, I figured people wouldn't understand the irony of it.

[Spectre]

No, actually, I'm laughing at how inept the government run GM is.

See, the problem is that most V8 Camaro buyers, true to the stereotype, are generally rednecks. Straight, religious rednecks. Who don't like gays.

This is a huge marketing mistake. It would be as if Mercedes began marketing the AMG cars specifically to women and generating the image that AMGs were girls' cars.

Similar initial marketing in the US is why the Miata is still perceived as gay over here.

[MattD1zzl3]

Originally Posted by Spectre

See, the problem is that most V8 Camaro buyers, true to the stereotype, are generally rednecks. Straight, religious rednecks. Who don't like gays.

Sir, i really wish you would stray away from this, texas is not america, and i am not a redneck.

[Spectre]

Originally Posted by MattD1zzl3

Sir, i really wish you would stray away from this, texas is not america, and i am not a redneck.

You may not be - but GM's own demographics studies pre-Government Motors actually bore that out. Typical Camaro buyer is 25-34, male, white, lives in a rural area, has a high school education or less, and works a blue collar job. I'm not going to make any observations about trailer parks or such because GM didn't go into that depth. This wasn't directed at you specifically, just pointing out what GM themselves found.

I'm not the only one to notice.



That said, I don't fit the Jag stereotype either - but the median/typical buyer for a Jaguar is about 54, male, has a white collar job earning over $150K per year plus spouse and one child.

I'm not 54, I'm not married, I don't earn more than $150K, and I won't be having children any time soon. That's not the point - the point is that there is a certain core market for a car and going way off that core market is usually a receipe for disaster.


And our tax dollars paid for this diversity über alles idiocy.

[Evel]

I don't get why you'd want to target cars towards gays. Are there really that many out there that it's better to gain sales from them and lose a lot of sales from straight people?

[klankymen]

Originally Posted by Spectre

No, actually, I'm laughing at how inept the government run GM is.

Nah, I wasn't referring to you, more to the fact that this story is newsworty, because of the rampant homophobia in America.

[Sik02Stang]

Originally Posted by Spectre

No, actually, I'm laughing at how inept the government run GM is.

See, the problem is that most V8 Camaro buyers, true to the stereotype, are generally rednecks. Straight, religious rednecks. Who don't like gays.

This is a huge marketing mistake. It would be as if Mercedes began marketing the AMG cars specifically to women and generating the image that AMGs were girls' cars.

Similar initial marketing in the US is why the Miata is still perceived as gay over here.

Very good point. Marketing to the Gay community will deter alot of people from wanting the car. Trying to hard to be PC may actually have hurt more than they think.

by the way, im not knocking a lifestyle, just making a point.

[Spectre]

Originally Posted by Evel

I don't get why you'd want to target cars towards gays. Are there really that many out there that it's better to gain sales from them and lose a lot of sales from straight people?

Jaguar thought so.

And was proven wrong.

Thing is, targetted ads are (I am told by some gay friends) offensive to many gays, who see the ads as either 1) assuming that gay people are retarded and that they need "special" advertising to be induced to buy a product or 2) are stupid enough to buy a product 'just because we support your lifestyle'. They're going to avoid such crap like the plague.

In addition, especially in cases like the Camaro and the big Jag sedans. the typical core customer set is likely to be very offended at said targetted ads (as I mentioned earlier) and will shop elsewhere instead.

Now, if they'd just run the standard ads in gay-oriented media or whatever, nobody would care. Really - nobody would give a damn. The problem is that these targetted ads, despite what the Madison Avenue idiots would have you think, drive away both core customers and potential conquest customers from your targeted demographic.

Originally Posted by klankymen

Nah, I wasn't referring to you, more to the fact that this story is newsworty, because of the rampant homophobia in America.

It would also be newsworthy if they had suddenly targetted the car at women, honestly. Or corporate executives. Or accountants. It's a really stupid misstep.


And before someone neg reps me - please note - I don't care who or what you do in your bedroom. That's your business. Who and/or what I do in my bedroom is none of your business. I don't see why it should be anyone else's either. If you are gay, I am not poking fun at your lifestyle nor am I insulting you. I am insulting Government Motors because they have made a huge misstep in marketing this car and alienating the few customers they have left.

The only more idiotic marketing mistake I can think of someone making is if Ford takes the new Raptor offroad truck and tries to market it to women using a Barbie edition. Or if VW starts trying to market the VW New Beetle as a "manly men" vehicle.

[MattD1zzl3]

Edit: Nevermind, i dont have the energy to defend the camaro against spectre for the 100,000th time, im a broken (internet) man.

[MadCat360]

Originally Posted by MattD1zzl3

Edit: Nevermind, i dont have the energy to defend the camaro against spectre for the 100,000th time, im a broken (internet) man.

That's because there *is* no defense against this faggotry.



Oh no!

[FleeceLINER]

I've never been much of a Camar- Pardon me, "Gaymaro" guy.

Challengers before Mustangs before Gaymaro's for looks.

Mustangs for performance.

[GRtak]

Why don't they market it to guys that need viagra? (Got a limp dick? The Camaro will get it up for ya!)
Because that would be bad for product image as is the ads they just did. If they would just show the car's atributes, the people that are interested in that type of car would buy it.

[Dr_Grip]

Maybe this was a wise descision marketing-wise, most likely not, i'm with you on that, Spectre...

...what really bugs me is that you try to spin even this quite generic "ad guy FAIL" story into an anti-Obama hate-fest. Oof three lines "editorial content by Spectre" in your original post of the article, two are from your collection of classic anti-Obama soundbites.
Knowing how long it takes to concept, approve, and shoot an ad (and as well-informed as you usually are, that could be clear to you) this campaign might as well have been greenlit before the part-nationalization of GM, especially as it's a marketing tie-in with a movie that has been in production for the better part of the last year. For all we know, it might have originated at Paramount's ad agency, eventhough it has Chevrolet's name on it, as GM reportedly financed almost half of Paramount's campaign for Transformer's 2 as part of their product placement deal...

After all that happened, i am with you on the fact that Obama made several grave mistakes in the handling of the crisis (if he is as "green" as he claims, why did he dump more than the sum it would cost to reach the Kyoto goals for the U.S. into GM?), so why blame things on him that most likely are not his fault, and obviously are not even closely related to his administration? It does not help your credibility, really...

[prizrak]

What I want to know is why make a targeted ad for a product such as a car/truck? The ad should be made in a way that showcases the strengths of the product. I mean if I were to make an ad for a sports car I would show it running on a track/highway at high speeds. Look at the STi/Subaru ads, all they show is action shots of the car sliding and running rally. The ads are targeted at anyone looking for that type of car, gay, straight, men, women, furies, children, pets doesn't matter.