HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

The original - and still our favorite - Autoextremist logo. 

The AE Quote of the Century: Everybody loves The High-Octane Truth. Until they don't. -WG 

(Bentley images)

(VW images)

Editors' Note: THE GM MARKETING MESS. As I have said repeatedly over the nearly two-and-one-half decades of writing for this website, the automakers that have a brand image and don’t have the first clue as to what to do with it, or worse – have squandered a great brand legacy because of cluelessness, ineptitude, or both – draw zero sympathy from me. We have a living, breathing example of this playing out right now at General Motors, which has completed the ad agency "review" that began in January and announced a major overhaul of its agency roster this past week. According to a report in Automotive News, incumbents Commonwealth/McCann and Leo Burnett Detroit are losing large chunks of business, as GM brings a new group of agencies on board to oversee creative content and customer relations management. Agency additions include Stagwell’s Anomaly and 72andSunny, along with independents Mother and Preacher. (Anomaly will have lead duties on Chevy, Mother will lead Buick, 72andSunny has Cadillac and Preacher gets GMC.) They will be supported by S4-owned Media.Monks, which will “bring a modern approach to real-time, efficient content development,” GM said in a statement. (Cough, hack, right.) This latest brilliance is courtesy of CMO Norm de Greve and his much-loathed henchman, Tony Weisman, a guy who painted himself in the "un-hirable" category before de Greve resurrected his stagnant career. Together with longtime GM Executive Molly Peck, now GM's Chief Transformation Officer, this stumblebum trio (brain trust?) is hell-bent on shaking things up and is convinced that this is the way to go. Clearly, they think they've got it goin' on, but this just in: They don't. This is such a giant, steaming bowl of Not Good that it makes me physically ill. Explaining the shakeup, Peck explained that GM brand leaders will "hold the strategy," (there's mistake number 1), while the creative agencies will “lead the creative vision — the brand, the look, the tone, the feel, the major campaigns. And then Media.Monks will take those assets and leverage them to reach consumers in a very fast, efficient and prolific way.” (Talk about quintessential Marketing Hack speak!) We're feeling that this is a recipe for disaster. The on-boarding of these agencies alone will take a full twelve months at least, in an environment that doesn't even remotely have that kind of time. The most telling bit in the announcement? "Peck suggested GM’s new creative shops could move some people to Detroit. GM is also beefing up its hiring of internal marketing staff in the region. “We sought out the very best agencies possible, no matter where they were located, geographically speaking,” Peck said. “That doesn't mean that we’re moving away from a Detroit-based presence, though.” Guess what? Every single one of these agencies will be expected to have offices here, and then the cycle will start all over again. Are these shops good? Yes, of course, but once they get sucked into the swirling maelstrom that has defined GM marketing for decades, they will become deballed in a matter of months and lose their collective soul. You can count on it. Why did this even happen in the first place? As I've pointed out previously, CEO Mary Barra continues to listen to the ex-Silicon Valley hacks on GM's board, which is akin to GM's True Believers consulting New York Ballet operatives for advice on how to build the next Corvette. The High-Octane Truth is that Barra has never had even a shred of a feel for marketing. She - and GM - continue to flail in the marketing arena, and this latest agency upheaval just kicks the can down the road. The current roster of GM marketing operatives is inept and incapable, and sadly, we predict this won't move the brand image needle one bit for GM, or its divisions. Pathetic. -PMD & WG