Your Mileage May Vary
A recent campaign for the new Chevy Volt is a great example of how deeply ingrained borderline dishonesty is in advertising practice. The Volt stands on its own merits, but they're still bullsh*tting us.
Almost a year ago now, I advanced the argument that when your brand-reality dissonance is totally obvious, it puts people on the defensive, and ends up hurting your product. Nick and Design Observer recently introduced me to an interesting new test case for this idea, the Chevy Volt.
As the Observer points out, the 230 MPGGE (miles per gasoline gallon equivalent) figure comes from an experimental scenario devised by the EPA. They also point out that “all MPG tests are to some extent arbitrary…but this method is especially random.” In other words, your mileage may vary — a lot.
It’s also interesting to note that GM didn’t actually seem to need the 230 scheme to make the Volt attractive. It is attractive, running for your first 40 driving miles on electricity and then getting 50 MPG on gasoline. This strikes me as yet another case where a little bit of advertising restraint could have staved off a smattering of negative publicity, publicity you don’t want when you’re out there making an ethical appeal to consumers.
| Tagged with: | Advertising, Lies, Promises, Shenanigan Watch |
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