GM Needs You To Watch EVs On Netflix, However It’s A lot Cooler to Watch Netflix In An EV
GM just revealed a Super Bowl ad that includes Will Ferrell and Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski in addition to references to Netflix exhibits equivalent to Squid Recreation, Stranger Issues, Bridgerton, and Military of the Lifeless. The message of the principle advert is that GM goes electrical, and Netflix might be together with EVs in its exhibits, however, as a GM-sponsored Ferrell says, solely “the place it is smart.”
It’s nothing new — EVs in motion pictures and TV has already made sense. Tesla has been making cameos in motion pictures and TV for nearly a decade with over 625 appearances in motion pictures, TV, and music movies world wide. Some recognizable for US readers may be Teslas referenced prominently in exhibits equivalent to The Simpsons, South Park, Rick and Morty, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Deadpool 2, The Good Physician, Silicon Valley, Handmaid’s Story, Lifeless to Me, Shameless, Succession, American Dad, Star Trek: Picard, or King of Stonks. The popular culture obsession doesn’t finish there, as there are a whole bunch of songs mentioning Teslas (beep beep, is that my Bessie in a Tessie?), together with some making it the central idea of the track. Yung Gravy asks the riveting query “hey Alexa, how many bitches can we fit in the Tesla?” in his track Whip A Tesla, Rina Sawayama sings concerning the excess of Model Xs in Calabasas in her track XS (oh me oh my), and Damage Reserve raps about eager to “Jailbreak the Tesla.”
Tesla has already put EVs within the popular culture highlight, however the GM Tremendous Bowl advert says it needs to “give EVs the stage they deserve.” GM, it appears, isn’t any stranger to making an attempt to steal the stage. In 2016, for example, GM eagerly rushed the Chevrolet Bolt to market to attempt to beat Tesla’s Mannequin three to be the primary inexpensive really mass-market EV. Because of this, GM needed to shut down Chevrolet Bolt manufacturing for an prolonged time and concern an enormous recall as battery hearth points plagued the automaker. The Chevrolet Bolt now sells in low volumes for under $25ok and loses cash. It barely cracks the highest 5 fashions regardless of discount costs.
Shortly after the Bolt manufacturing shutdown, GM tried to steal the stage once more by inviting President Joe Biden to tour its manufacturing unit and converse in a televised speech throughout which he mentioned GM “electrified the whole automotive trade,” and the now notorious quote that “[Mary] led.” In actual fact, GM has offered cumulatively, and in the newest 12 months, solely a low single-digit proportion of EVs within the US, and just one.7% of automobiles it offered had been electrical in 2022.
This time, GM’s stage-stealing price it $7 million only for the 30-second advert spot, and sure fairly a bit extra for Will and Antoni’s cameos. It comes off as making an attempt too exhausting to be cool to compensate for GM’s lack of compelling EVs. GM’s Tremendous Bowl advert buys are more likely to drive Tesla’s gross sales greater than its personal, as may be seen from Tesla’s order circulate after the Tremendous Bowl final 12 months when there have been tons of advertisements taking swipes at it, and no advertisements from Tesla.
In all seriousness and with a real want to see higher, I might urge GM to chop the surplus in advertising and marketing itself as an EV chief. Particularly after its deliberate crushing (figuratively and actually) of electrical automobiles within the 2000s after which the Chevrolet Bolt debacle in 2021. Maybe GM ought to spend a few of its billion-dollar advert funds to easily do higher and create compelling, dependable, and secure EVs that individuals love. As Tesla has proven, the cool issue, popular culture acclaim, and income circulate from there. In spite of everything, it’s a lot cooler to observe Netflix in your EV than to observe EVs on Netflix.
