GM Returns To The Super Bowl

GM better have that $40 billion IPO this year or early next. It is giving cars to baseball pitchers and putting people and dealers out of work at a torrid pace. It is doing everything that the Treasury and the public would prefer that it does not do, at least until the $50 billion it owes the government is repaid.

Now, according to several reports, GM will advertise on the Super Bowl this February. It joins a number of car companies that have made money for long periods and did not go through a government supported Chapter 11 filing. Last year, a 30-second spot on the Super Bowl cost nearly $3 million.

GM will argue that the Super Bowl, one of the most watched TV shows of the year, is an ideal place to promote its products and signal its comeback. But, there are so many TV commercials on the program that anything other than a remarkably eye-catching ad is bound to be lost in the shuffle.

And what will GM advertise? None of GM’s models, except its small line of GMAC trucks, carries that company’s name. So, does it spend the money on one of its brands? Who gets the time? Buick? Cadillac? The commitment is a large financial one for either division. And, there is no proof that Super Bowl ads will raise awareness of brands that everyone on the US has heard about. Hyundai, which advertises in the game broadcast, can at least argue that its brand is not known to millions of Americans.

GM’s Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre will get a good seat at the game. Advertising works that way. The top echelon of GM management will be there as well. Taxpayers, however, will not get seats.

Douglas A. McIntyre